Rafa's Art

Women in Pipeline

2008-10-31T18:02:00.001-07:00

And here it is at last. It still needs some work to define better the pipeline structure, which I think its a bit messy. The light is not very coherent either, but I want to stress the power of her breasts.

Women on Tubes

2008-10-22T17:21:00.000-07:00

So now what?

2008-10-22T12:47:00.000-07:00

What is this little guy wondering?

More 3D fantasy

2008-10-18T15:46:00.000-07:00

Some more experiments from my 3D class. Developed on MAYA software using texture maps and lights.

Woman on pipeline

2008-10-16T12:28:00.000-07:00

One more step into this painting. The process of discovery is interesting as the painting its revealing itself. There was not much planning on this.

Claroscuro 2

2008-10-15T12:49:00.000-07:00

Another ¨claroscuro¨ sketch I drew a while ago.

A 3D experiment

2008-10-13T13:09:00.001-07:00

This is a 3D experiment done on MAYA Unlimitted. I used the bump map application to create the surface textures of what seems to be and organic watch.

Sketch of pregnant woman

2008-10-11T20:32:00.000-07:00

Did this some time ago on drawing classes. White chalk on on a black cupboard can create a very powerful and dramatic effect.

Woman on pipeline

2008-10-11T20:07:00.000-07:00

This is week three of this project, although I´m not painting every single day. The idea is progressing in an extrange organic way, sort of like a metalic tree. Again, I should create a very dark background and make the character clear and bright. The background should remain very complex and difficult to understand. I have HG Giger in my mind but the drawing is taking a life of its own. At this point, I´m a bit stressed about the probable ending. Colors used here: only the primaries hot and cold colors (blue, red, yellow, ocre, and dark ocre)

Woman in pieces lying on bed

2008-10-10T12:49:00.000-07:00

Found this drawing in an old book.

Woman on pipelines

2008-10-08T12:24:00.000-07:00

This is where the painting stands at this point. I will make the hole sorrounding darker and the center right of the painting clearer as the light cames from the egg. The egg is supposed to suggest the whole environment sorrounding the character. The painting is still on its initial stages and needs more work to create more contrasts and details. It remains flat, but will get there... Anyway, I believe Hitchcock said that every movie he made was a dissapointment, because the end product never looked as good as it did in his mind. Many artists experience this same frustration, although I believe their love for the process, and not the result, is what keeps them working.

Post-It Art.

2008-10-08T12:10:00.000-07:00

Little characters such as this ones usually appear when I´m on the phone and need to do something with my hands while talking. They are done on pen which is on of my favourite mediums for drawing. Two of them are the same girl lying down on her bed, but in different styles, kind of like more the simplest one. The eyes are more expressive, as in a japanesse manga. Its cool when you manage to say more with less.

Woman on tubes

2008-10-03T12:24:00.000-07:00

This is in working process. I´ll post the advances every week. Will explain it on another post.

My right foot.

2008-10-03T11:54:00.000-07:00

I found this old sketch in a book hidden under some other books. I thought it was kind of cool. I believe this is my foot. Its done in pencil.

Oscar Stagnaro and Paquito de Rivera in Lima.

2008-10-02T13:05:00.000-07:00

Oscar Stagnaro es quizá uno de los músicos peruanos más reconocidos de este momento, pero paradójicamente no es tan conocido en Perú al menos por aquellos no inmersos en el mundo de la música. Stagnaro viene tocando desde hace más de 20 años como bajista en la banda de una de las eminencias de Latin Jazz en el mundo, el Cubano Paquito de Rivera. Además es profesor de la prestigiosa escuela de música de Berklee en Boston Massachusetts, en donde enseña también Latin Jazz a sus talentosos alumnos. Doy fé que es un músico incansable ya que estamos trabajando algunas videos de él para esta página. Por ello he tenido la suerte de asistir a varios ensayos en semana y fines de semana en donde he sentido la intensidad, foco y trabajo que Stagnaro y su grupo de músicos profesionales ponen en cada entrega. Los músicos hacen hablar a sus instrumentos como si fuera una voz paralela y mágica. A Oscar lo he escuchado más tocar que decir palabras. Creo que no lo conozco más que por sus canciones y por la dedicación que tiene a su trabajo. Lo he perseguido incansablemente para sacarla una entrevista que complemente las horas de video en la que lo tenemos haciendo música, pero a cada pedido siempre me ha dicho ¨ven que tengo ensayo a las 7.00pm¨ o algo por el estilo. Finalmente, nunca hablamos, sólo pude filmar los ensayos y presentaciones. A veces me pregunto si alguna vez se aburren de tocar, si no querrán mandar todo al tacho, si no pasarán un mes viendo tele u haciendo origami. Pero cada vez que los veo en el escenario, pareciera que tocaran por primera vez, divertídisimos, risueños, pasándola bomba, como niños grandes con juguete nuevo. En el concierto de ayer en el Jockey Club del Perú, Rivera le hizo un generoso homenaje como un querido amigo, gran músico y compositor que ha afectado profundamente su vida y sus melodías. La gente aplaudió a gritos. No es poca cosa tal reconocimiento.
Su hijo Paulo Stagnaro, también de Berklee y en sus 20s, es percusionistas en la misma orquesta, y tiene ya un premio Grammy a su corta edad, (junto con su padre que acumula muchos tantos) por el último disco que hiciera de De Rivera con distintos ritmos latinos. El día de ayer tanto padre como hijo tocaron la ¨Flor de Canela¨ en bajo y percusión, con Rivera al clarinete. El momento fue mágico e inolvidable para un testigo y observador como yo, que sabe poco o nada de música pero que si se precia de identificar la pasión más pura y genuina cuando la ve.

On a taxi in Lima

2008-10-02T12:34:00.000-07:00

This sketch from an taxi in Lima. It portraits the ¨Costa Verde¨, showing on a first plance the Rosa Nautica restaurante, and in the back the numerous buildings watching the ocean as comfortable espectators. My girlfriend secretly wishes she could own one of those condos, where she´ll the sea every single day of her life, while smoking a cigarette. She feels a deep connection with the sea. Maybe that´s why i sketched it today in the morning. Now that I see it, I should have colored the sea and not the sky. The empty white and the contrast with the colour blue takes your vision towards the mountain... to the land and not the ocean.

The woman in pen 2

2008-09-24T16:59:00.000-07:00

This is the second part of the pen illustration. Again the subject is the same, woman, dear and beatiful woman. The idea is to turn this sketches eventually into a painting, although I think they look pretty cool by themselves. I like the concept of fragmenting the different sections of the painting, and never show the complete picture so I let the viewer complete the drawing. I guess there are several artists that play with the concept of the unfinished painting... there is one in particular in like. His name... I have to check it out and I´ll be back with that.

Woman in Pen

2008-09-24T16:41:00.000-07:00

This is another excerice in pen, one of the tools I love most when drawing. There is something about the dry ink, the texture I guess and how it behaves on paper. It helps me get the kind of line I enjoy. In this picture the images are fragmented and show the different parts I enjoy seeing in a certain woman. The following piece expresses something similar

The Decalopodon

2008-03-12T15:37:00.000-07:00

The Window View

2008-03-02T08:24:00.000-08:00

Story.

2008-01-02T20:26:00.000-08:00

Story Page 1

2008-01-02T20:23:00.000-08:00

Story Page 2

2008-01-02T20:21:00.000-08:00

Story: Page 3

2008-01-02T20:17:00.000-08:00

2008-01-02T20:15:00.000-08:00

Un Lepracon

2007-12-24T21:47:00.001-08:00

The Ball in the Room

2007-12-24T21:44:00.001-08:00

The Large Woman

2007-11-25T20:05:00.001-08:00

The Masked Women 1

2007-11-25T20:01:00.001-08:00

The Boys in the Room

2007-10-05T09:09:00.000-07:00

There is a problem with proportions in this drawing which is not intentional. The girl is huge in comparison with the photographer, which I think was a mistake to have included. The drawing seems to forced. The gentleman with the martini is also out of place. Really the idea is all about this beatiful woman waiting for a man who apparently has more interest in his petty work. In the process of making the drawing, it occurred to me that the idea of a weird erotic studio could be more interesting, but it wasn't. The simpler the better.

A Cup of Coffee

2007-10-03T05:09:00.001-07:00

The Boys Again

2007-10-03T04:47:00.000-07:00

The Boys

2007-09-07T13:20:00.001-07:00

A Brief Step in the Comic Books World

2007-09-06T06:54:00.000-07:00

This is a sample of a brief step into the comic books world, a genera with a wide variety of creative expressions, and that has influenced the other arts, specially the film industry. With comics though I believe freedom is stronger. Stylistic freedom, narrative freedom, spiritual freedom. There are no limitations to the artists imagination. Constraints such as budgets, locations, people or the possibilities of technology are inexistent. Movies, the most popular form of art usually start in a comic book, which is in the pencil and paper of the storyboarder. Both, comics and film nurture reciprocally in a virtuous cycle.

The Wizard's Creation

2007-08-19T06:52:00.001-07:00

A Self Portrait From Sometime Ago

2007-08-16T20:31:00.000-07:00

This is pretty self explanatory. It took me a lot of time to finish this portrait. I was 24 or 25 years old probably. My teacher at the time was Carmet Letts, another Peruvian artist. What you see at my back is an sculpture on wood done by her. The self portrait was painted in her house, so the green background is actually her garden seen through the window. I think the work in the face is pretty good, although there is light or color in the right cheek that needs to be colder, and creates more contrast. It also resemble certain feature of the Lucien Freud style. The shirt is kind of messy, and requires more work though.
I really loved that t-shirt.

A Pleasant Surprise

2007-08-10T07:38:00.000-07:00

Found this picture completely by chance. I never intended to make it but apparently its a texture map from one my Maya animations. It was a pleasant surprise. I'll post the animation later, but this seems like an interesting introduction. The colors in the final product are very different though.

Organic Tree

2007-08-10T04:14:00.000-07:00

I know that all trees are organic. In this case the concept is a mixture of the rough surface of the tree, with the soft interior of a flesh and bone creature. The guts of the tree are like veins or stretched tissue, and its hard exterior resemble a reptilian skin blended with a wooden crust. It was done again, in dry ink pen. I sure love that medium.

2007-08-09T07:13:00.001-07:00

This is another one, and on of the last one of the paintings I did with this character.
Again, the door takes you to another door, shows more stairs, a path that seems both difficult and endless, but at the same time mysterious and captivating. I like how the colors of the night turned out. I'm not so exited about the door itself or the seeker. In comparison with the first character, it seems a bit more childish. There is a different feeling to it. I believe you can attribute that to the technique. In the first seeker, the atmosphere is blurrier, the strokes are softer, while in the latest, they are marked by different colors. It seems then that one is more grounded in the past, in a place lost in history, while the other one is more childish, more a theme of a children's book. The theme maybe has stronger references to fantasy (like the monolith in 2001 Space Oddisey) while the first seeker, the Little Martian, is blinded by light in an obscure room. Hence, there is more drama there. Light and darkness always favor drama.

The Seeker

2007-08-07T06:29:00.001-07:00

Here is another picture of my little Martian series. I will prefer to call him "the seeker". Its more of what I had in mind. Again, I'm playing with the idea of personal quest, the process of growing, maturing and knowing yourself, and maybe too, the struggle to keep the child in you, in spite of the wrinkles and growing sarcasm (which I believe comes with adulthood).
What is the seeker looking for? And when he finds it, if he finds something, will he choose it?
What is your quest? Which one is your path? Are you prepared to accept the rules of it?

Even more complicated

2007-08-03T10:33:00.000-07:00

Things that I love in arts. Complexity, detail, and a combination of organic and metallic. One of my favorite artists, H.G. Giger, creator of the alien creature in the Alien movies and Species movies. His work combines erotism with goth, and dark sci-fi. All the artwork in Ridley Scott's thriller is from him.

Never So Simple

2007-07-27T05:19:00.000-07:00

Nothing is never as simple. The ideas of complexity and ambiguity are interesting to me. I don't like clear images because they present a solved problem. Hence I am not curious anymore. There should alway be something attainable in things and people, something that can never be yours, subject to the infinite possibilities of our imagination. Like an elusive element that we can almost grasp, but escapes through our fingers like water, at the last second. Mysteries are in the essence of passion.

My Little Martian

2007-07-20T19:32:00.001-07:00

This is my Little Martian, as some of my friends have called him. This was done back in my years in Lima, with the help of a friend artist Alonso Costa. You will see this character moving along different portals in the video below. He is attracted to the light and the light allways seem to call him. He leaves his ball behind to walk through that empty door, open handed, amazed by what he is seeing on the other side... but what is he seeing may I wonder? Is he seeing love? Is it a new unamigined path to another dimension? Does he sees himself reflected as something new and exiting? Is it just a powerful tungsten light? What has he reached and why is he leaving the ball behind? What's in the other end of the room? What can you imagine is waiting for him, and for you?

Animation Fantasy

2007-07-18T09:59:00.001-07:00

This video used the "Vuelo del Querubin" picture as an inspiration, as well as other motifs I have in a painting I will include in the next post. It just deals with the idea of discovery of one self's place and mission in the world. Everything is original but the music, which comes from a Chilean theatre group called La Troppa.

Fantasy 2

2007-07-17T06:42:00.002-07:00

This is another organic illustration. It started with the boy and a ball. Then came a wall, and behind that, chaos unravelled. It was supposed to be half of its size. If you notice, in the middle, there is a line that seems like a folding line. The picture was in the middle of a book. This is my sketchbook, and I did the drawing during my T rides (public transportation). There is a recurrence in the buildings subject. I'm going to post some more pictures that have similar drawings of bending and chaotic buildings. Those are where the idea came from. I don't know what all this means. I would appreciate help with the explanations. It has so many things in it I could start talking about. What do you think?

Feto de Angel

2007-07-12T08:07:00.001-07:00

This little guy its like a fetus of angel, with very long hair. The drawing was previous to the "Vuelo del Querubin". You can see there the similarities between both characters. In fact, this I think, is the character below, before he started flying with his butterfly wings, throwing bubble cells around the place. As you can see, I like to play with the ideas of childhood, innocense, fantasy and magic. I see him floating around, at sleep, in total calmness, dreaming, in his own world. Jessi, could you write a poem for him?

Jessica wrote:

El cuerpecito caia en picada.
Siendo atraído por la gravedad.
El cabello se iba desenredando,
Producto de la insólita velocidad.
A su mente la envolvía
Una mezcla de suenios, princesas,
Gnomos, unicornios y demonios,
En colores amarillos y palidos turquesas.
Quería despertar y salir del sopor,
Luchar contra la ráfaga de torpezas cometidas.
Arrancarse un pellejo de dolores incrustados,
Sanar, por fin, un pasado cubierto de heridas.
Las gotas de sudor empapaban su frente,
Le anunciaron que lo peor habia pasado ya.
Abrio los ojos de un solo golpe,
Y vio que cruzaba el umbral que unen al aquí y el alla.

El Vuelo del Querubin

2007-07-11T09:42:00.001-07:00

I don't remember how this picture started. Probably I began with the little angel in the middle (El Querubin) which is throwing some bubble cells towards the snail. Then from the snail came the wire towards that kind of japanese, SuperMario bumblebee that is recieving the little clown on the bycicle. You can barely see it. That is a mistake of composition and contrast, which probably comes from the fact that the image was not pre-planned at all, but instead, grew organically. That sort of thing happens all the time. I just like the picture to talk to me, and tell me what she wants next. Usually it plays nicely. The ideas come as this flow of conciousness. The buildings on the background come probably from me being impressed by the locations of the Lord of the Ring movies, and by the fact that my mother is an architect, interior designer and construction enterprenuer. Both of my parents work in the construction business. It was all done with dry ink pen. Later on I tried to pull an animation on 3D done with Maya on this characters. Check it out here.