“The Night Walker” by Koldo Barroso

I did this illustration called “The Night Walker” back in 1986 when I was a teenager. I don’t remember doing this for any particular purpose but I figure out it was probably for my first illustration exhibition, which was held that same year. I remember I was working at the time in a series of experiments using sepia ink. For this illustration I also used acrylics on top of it, for the white fog and smoke effects.

I can remember I was highly influenced by the work of Brian Froud and John Bauer at the time. The face-shaped tree is an obvious resemblance from Brian Froud’s “Faeries” book. I believe the woodland landscape is a result from the walks I used to have at the nearby woods in my school at Villaviciosa de Odón, Spain. The short ash tree is in fact the portrait of a particular tree in the wood, which my friends and I named Tatum. I wrote a short fiction story about this tree for the school, probably some embarrashing amateurish story influenced by J.R.R. Tolkien which don’t keep today, but I remember that for some reason I got an A on it.

At the time, I used to have a friend called Alejandro Herrera Insua who used to pet a crow, he would carry him on his shoulder, just like the wizard I draw in the picture. This long haired character is definitively influenced by this illustration of a troll by John Bauer. My older sister used to have this picture on her wall when I was a kid and I used to stare at it. I remember I was really fascinated with this long haired -kind of hippy- troll. It was in the 70′s and I’m sure my sister had this picture because she thought it was something really cool, which is pretty funny because it was originally painted around 1910. This opened the door to John Bauer’s work, which I later knew better.

Illustration by John Bauer

Also, I’m pretty sure it was also influenced by Brian Froud’s characters of the Mystics from Jim Henson’s “Dark Crystal”, which is still one of the works I admire the most.

A few months ago, my dear friend Paco Valdivia told me: “I’ve been sleeping all these years with “The Night Walker” in my bedside table. What do you think?” I didn’t remember or have a clue about what the hell “The Night Walker” was. I just did this drawing such a long time ago! So I asked him about it and then he sent me a scanning of a photograph of this old drawing. I just couldn’t believe it. Last week, my friend Paco came to visit and of course I gave him the original drawing as a very special gift. After all, the Night Walker will keep walking with my dear old friend and I hope he brings good venture and inspiration to his nights.