Many of us have heard of using a mirror as a drawing or painting tool to keep our working piece in check. A similar modern tool that I use frequently is my digital camera. It has become indeed an invaluable instrument in my studio. I strongly recommend to all artists out there, new and experienced, to take regular pictures of the drawing or painting they’re working on in order to spot flaws or possible areas to improve as the piece progresses. As you continue observing your canvas or paper eventually your eyes get use to errors in your work. Even if you do notice them, for some strange reason [...]

Today I had the honor of meeting one of Puerto Rico’s greatest artists: William R. Clegg. Mr. Clegg is an authentic 100% true commercial artist, illustrator and fine art painter. He handles traditional mediums with the same easiness that he does digital art. He had always been one of my Puerto Ricans favorites due to one thing: draftsmanship. Everybody knows how big I am on that. Rockwell, Da Vinci, Raphael, you name it, if it was a good artist, chances are he/she had good draftsmanship. Basically, that is the ability of drawing and drawing well. William R. Clegg has that and more. He had created one of the most amazing [...]

Hello there! I’ve just finished “The Long Goodbye”. You can go ahead and check the painting process in the “The Long Goodbye” photo album at Facebook. You can also email me for them if you don't have a Facebook account. The story behind the painting: One of the hardest things to go through in life is letting go of a beloved pet because of a terminal disease or a life threaten injury. This is the last day these two friends from childhood will spend together. It is indeed a long good bye. Technical aspects: I’ve chosen a low key palette to harmonize with the emotional setting. In [...]

Este es mi boceto del dia. Un poco loquillo pero ahi vamos. Estoy pensando en convertirlo en una pintura. Ultimamente he estado dedicando unos 20-40 minutos al dia a bocetar algo. Es divertido y siempre se aprende algo nuevo. En casa tenemos un gato gordo llamado Bo, creo que esa fue mi inspiracion para el gato del dibujo. Este dibujo fue echo con lapiz de color azul indigo. El lapiz de color es muy rico para dibujar pues es cremoso y se desliza facilmente sobre la hoja de papel. Da un sentido de continuidad que no logras con grafito. Igualmente puedes usar la version de Prismacolor Col-erase si necesitas [...]

Hello there! I hope this posting finds you in good spirit and ready to enjoy the cool fall weather. I’ve been asked one hundred quadrillion times why I don’t sell greeting cards with my images. And there was a very powerful and absolutely scientific reason for that: I’m lazy. Yes, it has been proven in labs (and empirically) that laziness is the root and cause of severe procrastination. Luckily there is a cure: a good kick in the rear end. Many hurdles in my artistic career have been overcome by this amazing wonder drug. Therefore, without further ado, I’m here to inform you that as of today there is [...]

Today I had the privilege of visiting Al Bigley, comic book artist and illustrator at his home studio. What a great experience it was! When I started nine years ago without the foggiest idea about what to do with my talents, I used to visit artists at their studios to learn and get inspired. It is an excellent way of getting a first hand education from those grinding the real stuff in the real world. As the saying goes sometimes you don’t have to reinvent the wheel, so if it worked for me years ago, why not now? It had proven to be once again an art touchstone. [...]

These are the news I received in my inbox this morning. “Trovando en Las Marías”, got sold during the group exhibition sponsored by Diversity In Art that kick started this past Saturday in the Art Not Terminal Gallery in Seattle, Washington State. This piece is the third component of a triad I painted back in 2004. The other two trovadores are “Trovador de mango bajito”, the first one, and “Trova de la pana”, the second one. The series embody the presentation of three jíbaros (the Puerto Rican country man of the early part of the last century) in their habitat: el campo (the rural area). [...]

I LOOOOVE painting with coffee. The smell… mmmm. You can add layers and layers, each one intensifying the natural sepia hue that oozes from the brush; you can leave puddles to stay still in a spot until they dry very dark or lightly glaze washes over parts of the paper hardly leaving a slight almost invisible tint. Coffee is the green version of watercolour. Environmentally safe art… yesssss. Well, who would’ve thought that this eco friendly medium were to become the object of attention for a teen project presented by the Union County Public Library of North Carolina ? I am thrill to be invited by Jill [...]

I’ve been involved with fitness and exercising since my teens. I took it seriously enough to become an IFBB national bodybuilding champion and a personal trainer. I even organized and produced a bodybuilding contest and judged a couple of other ones. Even though I’m no longer involved with the sport or certified as a personal trainer, I’m always researching, reading and investigating. Through the years I’ve contacted several fitness experts in search of answers. I must confessed that I’ve harassed a few of them to the extend of annihilating any possible further communication. I’ve had literally worked them up to failure. For all these reasons [...]

Back on 2001 or so when I started my love affair with art, like all newbie’s, my thing was drawing a lot in pencil… people, faces and such. Realism is and will always be my first love in art. But like the real “first loves” in our lives most of time they remain in a platonic state (yes, I know, I use the word platonic pretty often in most of my articles, soon I’ll find a synonym… or could it be that I have a platonic love affair with the word platonic…mmm, I don’t now. Whatever.) Where was I? Oh yeah, realism. Well, the thing is that, thinking [...]