posted: August 25, 2010

I recently moved to Providence, Rhode Island and sketching has been a great way to get used to a new place. Here's some simple stuff I've been doing in between jobs, trips to IKEA and unpacking boxes.

posted: August 23, 2010

The XIX century meant freedom for Latin America and today many of its countries are celebrating the Bicentennial of their liberation from Spain with cultural events and art festivals. I was recently asked by El Malpensante, my favorite literary magazine from Colombia, to do a piece for a show/publication titled Bicentennial Pop, in which 20 illustrators were commissioned to re-interpret portraits of famous patriot heroes.

Undoubtably the best part of the assignment was that I got the chance to recreate a miniature painting done by José María Espinosa, an ancestor of mine who besides documenting with his work many battles of the independent war, also fought with the patriots and became a national figure.

Pictured below, José María Espinosa's miniature painting over ivory of General Nariño and my interpretation of the same piece. Espinosa taught himself the miniature technique by studying the work of European artists from the XVI century and became a master at it.

I added little happy faces all over the General's uniforme as a tribute to Espinosa's cartoons he did of local characters. I have a decent collection of those and I'm in the process of scanning them and cleaning them up for a most deserved second post about the artist.
Thanks to Mario Jursich for the invitation. This one was a treat!