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After the Revolution

NOVEMBER 25, 2006
I was asked to illustrate an article about the future of Cuba after Fidel Castro's death.  I've done a lot of drawing around the island on my visits there.  I travel with my childhood friends, stop to draw and take pictures and so on.  You can see some of those drawings here
I thought I would create an imaginary sketchbook drawing for this assignment.  As if it were five years from now, I was riding around in the sidecar of my friend's motorcycle again, and came upon a weathered and broken down billboard that no one took care of or bothered to maintain anymore.  This is something you would never see there now.
I always have a hard time drawing Castro, just personally difficult.  This one was difficult for a different reason.  I was trying to paint it as if I were a social realist painter, slightly heroic, but not very well drawn.  Basically, trying something kind of awkward and different.  I did a perfectly smooth portrait, and then had a lot of fun sandpapering and scratching it with an a razor.
detail, pastel, paint, color pencil, ink, on paper.
© 2024 Edel Rodriguez