Jose Andrés Guijarro Ponce
Meat Store in Cairo
Meat Store in Cairo
BY JOSE ANDRÉS GUIJARRO PONCE
Obstetrician, Gynecologist, Medical researcher, Writer, Artist
Cuenca, Spain
Jose Andrés Guijarro Ponce, known in the iPhone/iPad art world as “La Legra Negra”, shares his precise steps to creating a mobile digital modern masterpiece.
When working with “Brushes”, using a lot of transparent colors, it is important to choose a background color before starting work. I choose a shade to bear a resemblance to a neon light inside the store, a cold and desaturated green.
Usually working with a quick pencil-like sketch, I start with some fine lines at a 50 percent opacity without worrying about whether the curves are angular or the strokes are overlapping. I complete the sketch with black opaque fine lines.
I apply color tones starting with the lightest and darkest colors at an 80 percent opacity and then with intermediate shades of color by applying layers of fairly transparent color (20 percent opacity) to the existing tones in each area for realism and shading.
I modify the base color slightly, with big strokes of very transparent (5 percent opacity) color, giving a little blue to the interior and yellow to the outside light. At this point, I start to shape the final strokes, starting with the background. Now my brush strokes are more precise and opaque, and I sample color from each area for more definitive strokes. It is time to incorporate fine lines for details of light, shadows, and some color hue using a brush with a high opacity.
I continue the same procedure for the foreground, focusing somewhat more on the details to finalize this piece.
It can be especially difficult when people’s faces are not portraits but a small part of an image, because small deviations in brush strokes can create a dramatic change in facial expression. You may need multiple touches to get the desired results.
It is very important to take the small details into account, in that the image you see on your iPhone/iPod is very different from the details you can see after exporting a large image file to the “Brushes” viewer on your Mac.
