“The Spell” by Koldo Barroso”

“The Spell” is the title of my latest illustration, which marks the beginning of a new series of works under a similar aesthetic. Although it may look simple, I believe this is one of the most complex works I have ever done. Not for the techniques, but for the aesthetic concept. I’ve been working on this concrete illustration for the last three weeks but to be honest I believe I’ve been working on this for most of my life. And I feel that it didn’t happen until now that everything seemed to come to life.

To me, this illustration is not just another illustration, but the result of long time experiments putting together an aesthetic concept of my own that I can apply to all my illustration work. I started working with some of the style ideas and concepts that you can see in “The Spell” when I was a teenager. During my engraving days in the late 90’s I tried to apply many of the style lines that I have used here, and you may also see things from different characteristics from all my former works. Before this, I never really felt they worked.

As an artist and amateur musician/composer, I always had the feeling that I had a problem because of the many influences and sources that I get inspiration from. I am one of these people who gets really passionate about hundreds of art styles and thousands of music styles. At home, you can listen to anything you can imagine, from the most experimental and minimalistic music to commercial pop music, from the most delicate pieces of classical music to punk rock and industrial music. There’s nothing wrong with that, but the trouble starts when you try to put all of these things together in the same cocktail, which is exactly what I tried to do in my 1997 solo album “Open”. The result was pretty crazy!

The same thing happens with my illustration and I’ve always had the feeling that I was trying to use different styles in every work and the result was always much too diverse. There’s nothing wrong with working in different styles, but I believe that every artist needs to find his own identity that always shines through every different work, regardless of the style, techniques, and concept. And this is what I’ve been trying to achieve for a long time. Because of my different and sometimes opposite influences, I have to admit it has been really hard.

During the last few months, I’ve concentrated on different experiments to achieve it and have done a lot of thinking, writing, putting ideas in order, and sketching. The making of this particular illustration has been a real struggle, but I really believe it’s been worthwhile because I feel I finally found the way to make all my ideas and concepts click together in the same image. The most important to me is that I believe I managed to come with a concept for the “style sheet” that I will apply to my forthcoming work, regardless of the style, techniques and concept I will be using.

This “style sheet” is not just about the aesthetics, it has a lot to do with the concept of how I want and need to portrait my own reality. It has to do with the way I see and think about life. And it also has to do with my personal way of interpreting the worlds of mental and spiritual energies. For this, I have been working in a series of patterns of characteristics that I will be applying to the different characters, landscapes, and atmospheres that I use in the future. I am also putting special attention on the composition and balance.

Original sketch of the cat

Talking a bit more about “The Spell” in particular, the origin of the illustration is in a sketch of the cat character that I tried to use in my former illustration “La Kuruta”. I finally decided not o use it because the character of the cat was so strong that was stealing the protagonism from the witch, so I dropped it from the picture and I decided to start a new work with it.

To come with this illustration has been for me just like doing a crossword, trying to get the right harmony in every detail. This is one of the influences of Eastern art, Feng Shui, the Golden Rule, and other aspects related with philosophy, spirituality and understanding of life. It has to do with the power of geometry and the power of the images to influence positively in our energies. I know all this may sound a little confusing, so I’d rather let you see how it develops in the future. In the next illustrations to come I will be working more with colors and techniques may vary a little, but I hope to find the way to keep the same aesthetic style. I feel blessed that life is giving me this opportunity to share a little bit of my own world with people like you. An I hope you get “enchanted” by “The Spell” because I guess this is pretty much what you’ll be seeing from me in the future.

Did your mom and grandma tell you stories about a witch when you were kids? La Kuruta is the witch my grandma used to tell us about when I was a kid. So she represents the stereotype of the old witch from my childhood. I’ve always wanted to portray her, so her she is.

As kids, my sister Susana and I used to listen to my grandmother Leo telling stories about this old witch who lived in the roofs of her home in downtown Madrid. She used to mention her whenever she wanted us to behave, menacing us with things like: “If you’re not good La Kuruta is coming to get you“. It was pretty scary, but not serious because whenever we were good kids my grandma used to give us easter eggs and then say La Kuruta brought them for us. So it was kind of cute to think of this old scary witch who was a sweetheart after all. That’s the way I wanted to portray her.

I can also remember going upstairs in my grandma’s flat and she would show me the window and tell me that La Kuruta lived in the roofs. The flat was in the top and, at night, whenever I heard sound from above I would think it was the witch walking on her tiptoes. Pretty scary!

For the location of this illustration I used a series of pictures of roofs of Madrid, including pictures that my sister sent me of her own flat in Madrid, which used to be our grandparents’. I have always found the views from the rooftops in Madrid very inspiring and I am keeping in mind doing other illustrations featuring the roofs of other cities, such as Paris and London.

Original pencil drawing of La Kuruta

I really don’t know where the character of La Kuruta came from, maybe my grandma made it up as many other things she used to say. I haven’t heard of anybody else talking about this character but is possible that she would also hear it from the local legends in her homeland, in the village of Lendoño in the Basque country. In my illustration, I have tried to portray the witch the way my grandmother would have though of her as a kid, with the mentality of a little girl from a poor family of farmers in a tiny village in the Basque country during the early century. Probably she wouldn’t think of her with the same cultural references that I had as a kid, meaning the classical witch with a hight top hat and a broom. I rather think of the witch as a character inspired by the local nature, so I decided that my grandma would probably portray her like some sort of scary crow or maybe like an old and ugly woman in the village.

Original sketches for La Kuruta

The Basque country is full of mythology and legendary characters similar to her, such as Mari (a witch), Jentilak (giants), and Prakagorri (brownies). I’ve always wanted to do an illustration book to compile all of these characters and is possible that I decide to go for it some day so this illustration will be there. Regarding witches, the Basque country is also a well-known place for witches and akelarres (sabbaths). The most famous legend is the one about the witches in Zugarramurdi, Navarra, related to the trial in 1610 and the burning of 12 women accused of witchcraft. In relation with the subject of witches, I’ve been also working in a very different illustration, not for children, inspired in two witches who actually lived in the area where I live now in north Madrid. I’ll be talking about this sometime soon.

Another book I would like to do sometime where this illustration may fit is a compilation of illustrations of Spanish popular scary characters, meaning those that the parents use to threaten the kids, such as The Man In The Moon and The Boogie Man. Some of the most famous “monsters” in the Spanish culture are El Coco, El Hombre del Saco, El Sacamantecas and El Destripaterrones. Most of these scary characters are not inventions but real killers who became famous in Spain for their horrible actions and got those nicknames. This is very interesting subject related to the popular culture in the villages in Spain, we call this “profound Spain”. I have the feeling that the collective memory in Spain and many of these stories are fading away and that makes me sad. I miss La Kuruta, I miss her chocolate eggs, and I miss my grandma the most!

“Bandoleros” by Koldo Barroso

“Bandoleros” is the title of my latest illustration, a pencil drawing that has been finished digitally with ink effects. This work has been inspired by the mountains where I live now, in a small village in the North of Madrid called Soto del Real. Naomi and I spend every weekend walking and hiking in the mountains and woods and sometimes we go to this area in the rocky mountains called La Pedriza. This is a very popular place where lots of people go from all over the country for hiking.

The reason why I picked the rocky mountains of La Pedriza is because of the local legends surrounding the place. These mountains were inhabited by famous bandits -bandoleros- in the 18th century who would escape from Madrid when in danger and have their hidden dens amongst the rocks. There are many the stories related to the bandits who lived in these mountains in those days. The most well-known ones were related to Luis Candelas, a famous bandit who ended his days in 1834 executed in the “garrote vil” -an Spanish invention to kill people-. The character of Luis Candelas is one of the most interesting ones I’ve read about because, apart from being a famous bandit, he managed to deal with people from the aristocracy in Madrid and he even had an affair with one of the lovers of the king Fernando VII and -just like the Mexican character El Zorro or Robin Hood- became a local hero.

Other popular bandits who lived in these mountains were Paco “El Sastre” and Mariano Balseiro. In the 70’s, a very popular Spanish TV show about bandits called “Curro Jimenez” was shot in La Pedriza. For a while, some friends of mine used to find wasted rolls of film from the movie in the mountains. Not a very clean thing to do from the production company!

This illustration is not related any specific character or event related to the bandits in La Pedriza. I have just put a lot of stories together and gotten my own profile of the bandits, putting up a scene where they are looking from the mountains for guards coming from Madrid. In the picture you can actually see Madrid in the background, as it would appear around 1840. Today this view is very different and what you can see is the three sky scrapers that have been built in these last few years.

During the process of doing this drawing, I’ve been scanning the different stages, each one related to the use of different pencils starting with B-8 for the lines and darker shades and ending up with HB pencil for the lighter parts. As I said before, I covered some background spots, including the sky, with digital ink painting to reinforce the contrast between the different parts of the illustration.

Making of “Bandoleros”

This drawing is part of a new series of illustration that I’m doing based in pencil drawing, trying to consolidate an alternative to the painting illustrations, which usually take so much longer to be finished. I am already working in a new one featuring a witch. Let´s see what comes of it…

“The Blue Cow’s Nightmare” by Koldo Barroso

Have you ever wondered what cows dream about? This is the way I portrayed the nightmare of a stuffed cow. A scene that has to do with global warming and the terrible consequences of men’s abuse of nature. I know it may look weird at first sight but I will try to explain how all this developed.

I originally drew this illustration back in 1991, though I never really finished it. I recently recovered it from an old folder and decided it was time to get it finished and shown, so I completed the drawing and did a few corrections on the computer. The original pencil drawing is 35 x 32 cm.

The story of this piece stars in September 1989, during my first trip to United Kingdom. I was spending a few days in Brighton and my partner at the time and I decided to have a walk along the beach in the night. We were walking by the infamous Brighton Pier and we saw one of these machines with paws to catch stuffed animals. I never gamble or play these things, I think is a stupid way to waste your money. But this time, I saw the cutest stuffed animal ever amongst a mountain of bears. It was a little blue cow and she was looking at me with innocent eyes telling me: “Take me home”.

Detail of the Little Blue Cow

So I had to save her from jail and take her with me. I started spending one coin after the other and trying to grab her with these mechanical paws that never seem to catch a damn thing. After three tries, she was released! It was a very exciting moment. But it didn’t end so easily. Just after taking the Little Blue Cow out of the cage we found out there was also a brown bull, it was her boyfriend and she beg me to free him too. It broke my heart, so I couldn’t just go like that and we ended up spending 10 pounds on two little stuffed animals!

I liked so much the design of Little Blue Cow that I decided to do this illustration about her. After all it’s not the first time that a stuffed animal becomes protagonist of a story, let’s not forget that A. A. Milne wrote Winnie the Pooh stories after his son’s teddy bear. I wondered what this Little Blue Cow would dream of and I thought she would have nightmares about how men abuse nature. So I came up with this idea of the big cloud of smoke swallowing the sun.

Detail of the smoke

For the character of the smoke cloud, I got inspired by Goya’s painting “Saturn Devouring One of His Sons”. I saw this painting hanging on the wall at my godfather’s place when I was four and I got completely impressed by it. There’s an older version of this scene painted by Rubens in 1636 which supposedly inspired Goya for his.

The landscape was inspired by my family’s homeland, Orduña, in the Basque Country. I used a few sketches of the mountains that I had drawn there many years before. The house is a typical building from the area called “caserio”. My grandparents and ancestors used to live in a place like this. Cows, hills and “caserios” are some of the most popular elements in Basque culture. If you want to know more about it I suggest you to watch a Spanish movie directed by Julio Médem in 1992 called “Vacas” (Cows).

Detail of the “caserio”

When I look at this illustration it makes me think about for how long we’ve known about the terrible consequences of man’s abuse of the Earth. I remember talking about this subject with friends in the early 80’s after Peter Gabriel’s song “Here Comes the Flood” and it looked like science fiction but these catastrophes are happening today. I also wrote a song called “1000 Seasons Haiku” by 1996, along with my good friend Juan Carlos Samper, which talked about seeing images of earthquakes, floods, fires and droughts all over the world in the news. It is very sad to check how this is exactly what is going on today and stuffed blue cows must probably have the same kind of nightmares. I dream of the day their nightmares turn into beautiful dreams.

“The Mesmerizer” by Koldo Barroso

This is my latest illustration, called “The Mesmerizer”. I’ve been working in this piece for the last two weeks and it will be featured in my new portfolio with a couple of new works that I’m currently working on.

The Mesmerizer has been inspired by different characters related to the world of mediums, mentalists and hypnotizers. I guess he could be a cross between Derren Brown and Max von Sydow in Bergman’s The Magician. I had this Gothic scene on my mind with this cold and unexpressive character that could look inside your soul and mesmerize you to control your will. Possibly it stayed in the back of my mind for a long time, since I read E.T.A. Hoffman’s short story “Der Magnetiseur”, many years ago.

In a forthcoming post I will talk more about images that influenced me to do this work and a little bit about it’s process and the changes it went through before becoming what you can see now.