At the moment I started writing this post it is 1 pm in Cuba. I'm in the middle of a power outage for more than 2 hours, I have no gas to make food and to complete the picture, in front of the building is blaring "music"....REGGAETON 🥺.
In a desperate search to evade reality, I ended up here...trying to paint a stone of kindness. Is there a better way?
Over 1 month ago I got my hands on this divine gift, sent to me by my aunt from the USA.
Although I have wanted to use them since then, I had not found the necessary inspiration. In fact I doubt that what prompted me here today is the appropriate motive, but I will do my best to honor this beautiful community that has inspired so much art.
Now for another challenge.... what do I paint????🤔😂
Yessss, a Catrina!!!!!
This symbol of Mexican culture has always been dear to my heart. Initially known as "Calavera Garbancera", it was created by artist José Guadalupe Posada and accompanied texts that satirized and criticized certain social classes and the social situation of that time. It was in 1947, when the muralist Diego Rivera incorporated it in his famous mural "Sueño de una tarde dominical en la Alameda Central" (Dream of a Sunday afternoon in the Central Alameda) dressed with elegant attire, baptizing it since then as "Catrina". Today this symbol represents much more than what it initially meant and has transcended the borders of her country. If you want to know more about its history click here 😉
Now to what I came for.
I selected a rock as suitable as possible and applied a coat of white acrylic because it was very dark. If anything is typical of these skulls, it's the vibrant colors and I have to guarantee that with a white background. I drew in pencil the location of the eyes, mouth and nose to have a reference. My drawing skills are limited 😜.
Once I selected the colors I intended to use, I started. The first thing was the teeth, how difficult 😥, the rock is small and also my lack of talent attempted against the easy performance 🤣. After erasing it a bunch of times, I got to what I show you 😬. I had to use magnifying glass!!!
From there on it was a bit simpler, the eye sockets, an attempt at a flower here, another one there, some leaves, lots of colored dots and the final result.
I hope that when I use my acrylic markers again the rock will look better. Waiting over a month for this one was...although it achieved the goal of alienating me from reality 😆.
All rights reserved on the text and images, which are of my authorship unless otherwise indicated. I use DeepL for translation because my English is very bad 🤭.