“Passions Unmask”, Koldo Barroso, 1987.

During my current removal I found a lot of really old stuff and I decided to post some of it. Some of the things I’ve found stored in a closet are several original zinc plates of the etching engravings and several test copies of the engravings. Don’t ask me why but I don’t keep any issue of the original series of any of the engravings that I produced between 1987 and 1990, I just keep non-numbered test copies of them, and some of them are not really clean ones.

I started learning etching engraving in 1987 at the workshop of artist Manolo Ayllón in Madrid, where I produced these set of eight engravings using different techniques. At the time, I was impressed by the engraving works of Albert Durero, Francisco de Goya, Henry Holiday, John Tenniel and Patrick Woodroffe, so I decided that learning this technique would be very interesting to expand my illustration skills.

The first engraving I did, “Passions Unmask”, was using the technique of etching, consisting of covering the plate with an acid-resistant material and then drawing on it with an etching needle in order to create an intaglio image so the exposed metal is eaten away in an acid bath.

I have a dear memory of the “engraving days”, waiting my turn in the workshop to put my plates on acid or to use the printer and learning from the chats with other artists. It was a pretty esoteric work where I was just trying to reproduce some of the line styles that I had seen in old engravings and illustrations.

“Shipwreck”, Koldo Barroso, 1987.

With my second work “Shipwreck”, I used just the same technique and I remember being very much influenced by Henry Holiday’s illustrations of Lewis Carroll’s “The Hunting of the Snark”. I remember everyone else in the workshop was looking at me weird because they mostly were into abstract art and I was there trying to imitate the wood engraving techniques from the 18th century. They were probably right because I was not really using the right technique for it.

“Ultramar”, Koldo Barroso, 1987.

For the engraving called “Ultramar”, I decided to start experimenting with new techniques. Whereas I was influenced by the baroque engravings and was still trying to imitate the wood engraving, I decided to use the technique of aquatint, which I knew from Goya’s works. This technique was very popular at the workshop because it gives you the freedom of painting directly on the plate with acid and the textures result is always beautiful and expressive.

This engraving was part of a series of works inspired by the music of the progressive rock band Ty-Jir, which I was involved with at the time. It was part of an exhibition of paintings, engravings and sculpture held during a concert of the band in Madrid’s IFEMA. The whole thing was pretty chaotic and that was when I started thinking art and live rock music shouldn’t go together… Two of my paintings dropped and the glasses broke and a mechanical sculpture which consisted of a painted wooden box with an eye that spun round was vandalized. It was a pretty fun evening though. My band was supporting the progressive rock band Galadriel, which were friends and shared rehearsal rooms with us. The whole thing was organized by our friend Angel Romero who ran the label Mind Child that had released our music. I was supposed to set a stage design with a huge curtain of mirror pieces and everything went wrong in the last minute because the mirrors were glued to nylon strings with silicon and as soon as we hung the whole thing the mirrors would slide down the strings like raindrops on a window. Pretty funny!

“Yo Recuerdo”, Koldo Barroso, 1987.

This other illustration entitled “Yo Recuerdo” -I Remember- was also part of the same exhibition, inspired in a song by Ty-Jir. Sadly, I don’t keep any engraving of it anymore. I gave a numbered copy of it to each member of the band but I’m afraid none of them kept it throughout the years. So I can only show a really poor copy of a photocopy that was part of the original booklet that was distributed to the audience in the concert. If I can get a better copy in the future I will post it.

This illustration was completely related with the band Ty-Jir since it was a portrait of us, sinking in the middle of the ocean, lost and astray, looking for a direction and everyone looking towards a different place. The characters who appear in the picture are left to right: Jesús Acosta (bass, vocals), Francisco Valdivia (vocals), Marco Vieira (flute), Pablo Chabarri (guitar), and myself (a weird mixture between artist, lyricist, producer and errand boy). The building in the background is the infamous Crystal Palace in Madrid’s Parque del Retiro, which was a place where we used to meet at the time.

“Metamorphosis of the Kotanoise”, Koldo Barroso, 1988.

On the next engraving “Metamorphosis of the Kotanoise”, there was a big change in the style and techniques I used. It was mostly influenced by Tantric Indian art and other symbolisms. This engraving is made of three different plates where I combined the techniques of aquatint and etching. The illustration represents the backwards evolution of an alter ego in three steps were different elements get combined. This combination attends to a mathematical operation of three different symbols -the elephant, the armadillo, the snail- which is detailed in the right plate of the engraving. During the time I did this engraving I had started selling copies of my engravings in craftsmanship markets in Madrid and I remember this particular piece sold pretty well.

“Moonchild”, Koldo Barroso, 1988.

This engraving entitled “Moonchild” was inspired by King Crimson’s song and the pre-raphaelite art. It is the most complex and elaborate engraving I ever did. It uses several techniques including etching, aquatint, casting, stamping, and graphic pencil and it consists in three different plates: one for the pencil drawing, one for the cast of the teardrops and one for the framing and the colors. I spent months working on this engraving and I only got one single copy of it, which I gave as a gift to a friend of mine. I had a hell of a time trying to make the three plates fit and I remember that I almost ruined one of the expensive printing blankets during the process and got a lecture from the teacher. Today, I only keep one final test copy of this engraving.

“The Tear”, Koldo Barroso, 1989.

For the next illustration “The Tear” I used a similar combination of techniques, but I didn’t get so complicated this time. All of the piece is in just one plate and the background cast was made of a special resin material. The figure of the lady also has a volume cast, as you may appreciate in the picture. After this illustration I quit the workshop for a hiatus and only got back for a couple of Christmas cards. These cards I’ve shown before in a former post about Christmas Greeting Cards. The first one was produced in 1989 and I used the technique of graphic pen. The second one, produced in 1990, I remember it wasn’t printed in the workshop but in the School of Arts of Madrid with the help of my friend David Ariza. I used etching, resins for the textures, and aquatint for the tail of the star.

Christmas card, Koldo Barroso, 1989.

Christmas card, Koldo Barroso, 1990.

I have very good memories from the engraving days. I have always compared engraving with cooking, in art is the most similar thing I’ve experienced because the tools that you use and the process itself looks very much like it. Like counting out the seconds to get the plate out from acid because if you leave it fro too long you spoil it, just like making white sauce. I also have a dear memory of talking to other artists in the workshop, learning from them, while waiting to use the press or the acid.

On the other hand, engraving is not something really practical or easy to do at home, you need lots of tools, room, a very expensive and heavy press, and it’s pretty messy in general. But if you have the opportunity to join a workshop it really worths the experience. For me, it was a beautiful experience that obligated me to be methodical, disciplined, and clean in my work, which I didn’t before. And in terms of illustration, it opened up my perspective in terms of line, compossition and contrast, which was very useful to me.

Although today I don’t keep good original copies of most of these engravings, I still keep the original plates of all of them -I believe- so there is always a possibility that one day I’ll get them printed again but not any time soon.

“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 Song of the Sea Goat” by Koldo Barroso

This is probably the first illustration I ever did for “Words and Vision”: the book I am working on that will compile a collection of illustrations inspired by songs from different renowned musicians and lyricists. When I did this illustration, back in 1990, the project wasn’t in existence yet. I just did it because I felt like it, but in a way it would become the beginning of this project because I liked the experience of portraying the way I sense some of my favorite songs and I kept doing more work of this kind.

“The Song of the Seagoat” is based on a poem/song by Pete Sinfield, which was originally released in his solo album from 1973 “Still”. I love both the music and the poem. Pete Sinfield’s lyrics and poems had been one of my biggest influences in my life and art, including his work with King Crimson as well as other lyrics for progressive rock bands such as Emerson, Lake and Palmer and Premiata Forneria Marconi. He has ben credited as one of the finest rock lyricist and poets in the history of rock music and his solo album “Still” is in my list of top favorite albums.

During the late 80’s, I used to carry a bag with me everywhere I would go and inside there was a copy of the Spanish edition of his 1979 book “Under The Sky” my good friend Alicia Ramos gave me as a gift and I still bless her for it. So, every time I would sit in a park or at my friends place I would sit and read some Pete Sinfield’s poems from this little book. The book actually got so wasted from carrying it all around and I ended up getting it re-binded. You can see a picture of my “refurnished” book, and a page with one of the beautiful illustrations by Julia Fryer, who also did the sleeve art for Premiata Forneria Marconi’s album “Photos of Ghosts”.

Pete Sinfield’s “Under The Sky”

So the visionary poetry of Pete Sinfield was a big influence on my work and still is. I can’t tell why I decided to use this particular poem, but I can remember that when I did it I was researching a lot about micro-organisms and lighting forms of life. I thought it would be wonderful to mix this micro-universe with the world of stellar bodies in a scenery that could be located in the sky and the underwater world at the same time. When I do these kind of illustrations based on music and lyrics I don’t try to reproduce all the words say but to capture the general feeling. For this particular piece, I used some images from the poem, such as “aquarium runes” and the “L-shaped goat” figure. But I also got inspired a lot by the music, which was based on Vivaldís’s “Concerto in D” and I pictured the goat directing the concerto in the middle of this dreamy world.

For me, the most important was to capture the overall atmosphere and especially the character of the Sea Goat, who is aware of something about a reality that the human mortals don’t. So, I portrayed this kind and sad figure that still remains me of the mother Earth suffering from men’s lack of consciousness. I did this illustration as a mix of techniques, including pencil drawing, aircraft, and acrylics. I can’t tell why I decided to do it in black and white but I’m pretty sure that it has to do a lot with the feeling that I got from the colors of the music itself.

If you like this illustration I invite you to listen to Pete Sinfield’s album “Still” and seat to enjoy the lyrics and spend a few minutes in the world of the Sea Goat “to touch the earth and to see the birth, the smile, the style down an unspun mile of life.”

Detail of “The song of the sea Goat”

The Song of the Sea Goat

The sea goat casts Aquarian runes through beads of mirrored tears,
Suave pirates words of apricot crawl out of your veneer
Anoint your eyes with Midas’ oil and make it still appear
Alladin’s lamp is glowing bright transmuting panacea;
To fill your souls with sugared holes.
“Oh can’t you hear” sang the sea goat “the nonsense makes me numb.”
“It’s near it’s clear” sang the sea goat “we live to overcome,
The madman’s voice and his nowhere choice,
The pain that drains like an endless day of rain.”

The sea goat reads the flight of birds and writes upon the sand;
Gold waterfalls of autumn wheat slip through a pointing hand
Whose fingers stiff with sentences still beckon to the band
To play the “Best Foot Forward March” and deafen all the land.
With hollow words, it’s so absurd!
“Take your stand” sang the sea goat “the night goes on and on.”
“Unwrap your plans” sang the sea goat “tell everyone you’ve gone
To touch the earth and to see the birth
The smile, the style down an unspun mile of life.”

It fills the air! It fills the air!
The song of the sea goat shaking in the domes
The song of the sea goat as endlessly he roams,
Between the sunset’s crimson veil
On smooth grey streets where the drunkard spins his tale.

The sea goat sips and hurls his glass along the smoke-filled road
Where shuttered snakes of brakeless trains run aching with their load
Of spring-eyed, tonguetied, wooldyed lads who kiss the L-shaped goat
Which soon will smear their uniforms with blood, whitewash & woad.
Damn iron minded, gold braid blinded, officers and gentlemen!
“God!” sang the sea goat “is always on both sides.”
“Change” sang the sea goat “is constant as the tides
“And this play” sang the sea goat “is strangely synthesised
When your part of a cast where the first comes last
Where the east goes west and the sun is burning out

And your part of a cast where the first comes last
Where the east goes west and the sun is burning out”

Lyrics © copyright Pete Sinfield 1973.

“Sailing King” by Koldo Barroso

Today I found the blog of a wonderful illustrator from Spain whose work I didn’t know. His name is Pablo Auladell and he has published his illustrations in numerous Spanish books. I’ve been very impressed by his wonderful use of colors and textures.

For me, it was not only a surprise because of his great work but also because I’ve noticed that one of his works had a resemblance with an illustration that I did back in 1990 for my first portfolio. Pablo’s illustration is a poster for an exhibition called “Los Hoteles de la Imaginación” held in Valencia in February last year. I found his figure of a baroque sun sailing on a boat very resemblant of my old illustration called “Sailing King”. I have to say that my illustration was never published or showcased, so obviously the resemblance is nothing but a curious coincidence. It’s nice to see other artist work coming with a similar idea but in a completely different context.

My illustration was originaLLY inspired by a song by Jon Anderson and Vangelis called “He Is Sailing”, released in the album “Private Collection” in 1983. I had this idea of portraiting a personified Sun as a King or a God, sailing by the sea and bringing the light to the world.

I’ve never been really happy about the result of this ink drawing, I kind of like more the original pencil drawing, but it shows my interest at the time for indigenous cultures and baroque art and I tried to make the background look like an old map. I even got to burn a little piece of the paper, which you can see. I remember that, back in 1990, I was showing my portfolio to some important person from a reputed publishing company in Madrid and when I showed him this work he told me they would never work with a burnt paper like that. I guess he thought I couldn’t paint an old paper effect and I was just playing with fire, trying to burn the paper a little until it got out of my hands. They never called me.

“Sailing King” by Koldo Barroso

I will finish this post with an extract from Jon Anderson’s lyric of “He Is Sailing”

Out of the mist into tropical splendour
With garlands of flowers
In Majestical fusion we see tonight
On to this sacred reunion of pleasure
They row as a rhythm, ten thousands of millions
They touch the Light
King is sailing they say
King is sailing we hear
King is sailing they say
King is sailing this day of days of days
Cocasaya Tay Toca”

It’s Christmas time! I love Christmas and I love send Christmas greetings. I’ve been sending home-made Christmas greetings since 1989 almost every year. For me, I don’t think there’s a more personal and loving way to greet Christmas than doing my own card. In the 90’s, for a couple of years, I even recorded a bunch of Christmas songs with my friend Lali and my old girlfriend Ela and got them sent to my close friends and family. That was pretty fun to do, even when the results where pretty amateur!

I’ve trying to remember all the Christmas cards that I’ve been sending and digging in the drawers in search of them. I couldn’t find them all but I managed to rescue some of them. And of course, since Naomi and I started Intuitive Designs in 2002 we’ve been sending Christmas greetings to our clients as a way to thank them to work with us, so if you are one of them you may be receiving your card very soon!

So these are some scans of some of the Christmas greeting cards I have sent. Starting with this engraving from 1989, a couple of years after I first started etching engraving, I did this piece a technique of drawing with a pen. I remember this character of the Christmas Tree-Man came up to my mind while I was visiting the old little village of my ancestors in the Basque Country, Lendoño. It was soon before Christmas and I decided to go for this idea of a different way to represent the spirit of Christmas. Maybe in the way that my grandmother and great-grandparents would imagine a magical figure coming from the woods to bring light. I think I may recover this character sometime for a little Christmas story or something similar.

This Christmas card from 1990 is also an etching engraving. For this one I used the technique of aquatint, painting directly on the plate with acid using a pencil. I also used powdered resins for the starry sky. This one represents the Star of Bethlehem, I always thought that the story about a wonderful astronomy event guiding the wise men was so magical and beautiful.

This other card from 1991 was an acrylic painting that I later color-photocopied. Sadly, I don’t keep the original painting today. I took the idea of the star further to represent the Seven Sisters, the Pleyades. Probably because around this time I had a lucid dream where I met an old wise woman who told me she was from a planet in The Pleyades. This woman also told me that I would work with computers in the future. At the time I hated computers, I didn’t want to have anything to do with computers. It was 1991 and they were cold and ugly, and I used to think they were only useful to waste your time playing video-games. It’s funny, but by 1996 I started realizing about the wonderful possibilities of computers in arts, design and music, and I got my first computer. Soon later I started focusing all my professional life to computers and the Internet, so whatever the dream meant it was damn right! So sometimes when I look up to the sky I have this feeling there’s somebody out there…

In 1994, I did this other Christmas card influenced by some stained-glass windows that I saw during a visit to Salisbury’s Cathedral, by the Preraphaelite artist Burne-Jones and made by Morris & Co. They’re just delightful! I always wanted to learn how to do stained-glass but I ended up doing this little piece of watercolor featuring an angel.

This Christmas card was sent by Intuitive Designs in 2006 and is a vector digital work that I finished up in Photoshop. For the background I used some vector brushes of snowflakes. I barely ever use brushes done by other people, but this one time I did an exception considering the snowflake figures are not necessarily something personal that someone has created, but patterns from nature. I remember I wanted to do something with a Eastern touch and I got influenced by pictures of the Chinese dragons and the revolving fireworks in the Chinese New Year’s Eve parade.

We don’t want to kill the anticipation to our clients who are waiting for our new card, so I’m going to wait for another week until they get it and then I will post here the latest Christmas card. Meanwhile, Merry Christmas everybody!