{"id":24533,"date":"2016-10-25T12:05:10","date_gmt":"2016-10-25T17:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vitruvianstudio.com\/?p=24533"},"modified":"2019-01-19T16:16:29","modified_gmt":"2019-01-19T22:16:29","slug":"artist-spotlight-randy-ortiz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vitruvianstudio.com\/blog\/artist-spotlight-randy-ortiz\/","title":{"rendered":"Artist Spotlight: Randy Ortiz"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the things I love most about teaching is seeing how students incorporate things they\u2019ve learned at the studio in their own work. The best of them seem to employ the concepts and methods we teach in a way that is both familiar and novel at the same time.<\/p>\n

Since we\u2019ve begun teaching online, we’ve been able to witness this effect even more. One of the more notable recent examples can be found\u00a0in the work of Canadian artist Randy Ortiz.<\/p>\n

I first saw one of Randy\u2019s drawings on Facebook. It was a punchy, contrasty portrait sketch with super-dark darks that practically leapt off the screen. What I noticed right away about the drawing was how graphically decisive it was. The large\u00a0structures of the head and face were clearly expressed, and the implied angle of view was consistent throughout.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t as common as one might think, and it made\u00a0me want to know more about this Randy Ortiz person.\u00a0After digging a little deeper online I found more drawings like the first one that caught my eye, and discovered that not only had he taken our\u00a0online portrait drawing course<\/a>, but was actively telling others how helpful\u00a0he found the experience. After contacting him to congratulate him on his work, I discovered that he’s a really nice guy, too.<\/p>\n

Perhaps what I like best about Randy’s work is that it’s well-drawn without trying to be “pretty”. Realist artists can easily fall into a kind of trap, where we\u00a0focus so intently on the difficult business of making an illusionistic image that we fail to pay enough attention to\u00a0content<\/em>. The result is pictures that look beautiful, but have little to say. Randy doesn’t have this problem.\u00a0His imagery is dark, imaginative, and\u00a0weird \u2013\u00a0<\/em>which I mean in the best possible sense of being unpredictable\u00a0and a little unsettling. I’m always eager to see new work from him because I know it will surprise me somehow, and I love that.<\/p>\n

I contacted Randy because I wanted to know more about him and his work. He agreed to an interview so I can share what he has to say with our whole community. Thanks, Randy!\u00a0 I look forward to seeing what you do next.<\/p>\n

DJ:\u00a0Why do you draw? In other words, why make art and not do something else?<\/b><\/h4>\n

RO: Drawing is something that just feels natural to me. I need to do it or I\u2019ll go crazy, whether I make a living on it or not.<\/p>\n

DJ: You seem to focus on drawing almost exclusively (unless I\u2019m missing something). Why not painting? (One of my favorite drawing teachers turned away from painting early in his career, and it was always interesting hear why. His take was that there was nothing he wanted to say as an artist that couldn\u2019t be said through drawing \u2013 for him, the added complexity of painting was unnecessary.)<\/strong><\/h4>\n

RO: My work over the years has been pretty compartmental. I started off mostly using pen and ink for many years, then crossing over to digital (mostly to accommodate a smooth process for all the screen printing work I would do), then landing where I am now with charcoal\/graphite. It\u2019s basically a long, drawn out learning process for me at the moment which will eventually lead to experimenting more with oil painting in the future. I don’t know why I\u2019m not doing it all at the same time, perhaps it\u2019s the fear of spreading myself too thin, but I prefer to take what I\u2019ve learned in previous practices and mediums and see what I can do with it in the next. (A few days after typing this, I started experimenting with paints and so far it\u2019s been a really fun learning experience.)<\/p>\n

DJ:\u00a0Part of what I really like about your work is that it\u2019s symbolically rich. Where does that subject matter come from? What are you responding to?<\/b><\/h4>\n

RO: It\u2019s a purging of negativity. It\u2019s a very therapeutic process to leave all my worries on a piece of paper. While I am generally a pretty happy person for\u00a0the most part, there\u2019s a dark part of me that I can\u2019t really avoid and I feel I need to express that story in my artwork. Best not to let that stuff build up and come out in other ways.<\/p>\n

DJ:\u00a0You identify as a self-taught artist. That can mean a lot of different things (I know people who went to art school for 4+ years who still identify as self-taught). Can you explain what that means to you?<\/b><\/h4>\n

RO: If no one taught you a particular technique, how did you arrive at this method of drawing? What do you like about it? In other words, why do you draw this way and not some other way? I\u2019ve never attended any art schools and mostly just taught myself how to draw earlier in my career by observing and being inspired by other artists I love. However, I found that this can only go so far and over the past few years started taking online courses to further refine what I already know. I\u2019ve taken pieces from the techniques that I\u2019ve learned and combined them to fit a style I\u2019m currently comfortable with.<\/p>\n

DJ:\u00a0You took our online portrait course, and as far as I know you found the experience helpful. Could you describe how it helped? What other resources have you found valuable? (books, websites, DVD\u2019s, other artists, etc…)<\/b><\/h4>\n

RO: The portrait course on the surface seems like it\u2019s just mainly focusing on getting a true likeness of a person, but it\u2019s much more than that. It helped me understand the complexity of forms and shadows in a way that I never understood. It helped me become much more observant to achieve a more realistic rendering in my work. Aside from Vitruvian, I found Stan Prokopenko\u2019s youtube channel pretty valuable as well as DVD\u2019s by Scott Waddell and David Jon Kassan. They all seem to have a different style overall, but learning from all of these people has given me so much knowledge to pick and choose from to form my own style.<\/p>\n

DJ:\u00a0Charcoal and Graphite, huh? Have you experienced any difficulties using those materials together?<\/b><\/h4>\n

RO: Most definitely. A lot of my work uses both, but I try not to mix them too much. Majority of a piece will be mostly made using charcoal with tiny \u00a0areas of graphite to help render areas I can\u2019t with charcoal (and vice versa). Then there\u2019s pan pastel which is a really good bridge between the two. I use it quite a bit in my current pieces.<\/p>\n

DJ:\u00a0I saw online that you do a lot of posters (which look great, BTW). How did you get into that?<\/b><\/h4>\n

RO: It all started when I did a show for Spoke Art many years ago. My work was then noticed by Mitch Putnam of Mondo and since then that alone opened me up to the poster world. I\u2019m very grateful for the opportunities they gave me.<\/p>\n

DJ:\u00a0Being an independent, freelance, self-taught artist\/illustrator is a tough gig and requires a fair bit of self-promotion. Any tips for the kids out there? How do you get your work seen?<\/b><\/h4>\n

RO: This is a really hard one to answer as there\u2019s no real sure fire way of garnering attention. It\u2019s almost trite to say at this point but social media is definitely invaluable and makes things much easier to get eyes on your work. However, for the most part, I feel it\u2019s best to just keep your head down and work hard at getting better. You need to love what you\u2019re doing and most importantly, love doing it whether you\u2019re making a living from it or not. Being \u2018seen\u2019 shouldn\u2019t be your main purpose for making artwork. If your work is great, you\u2019ll eventually get your due recognition.<\/p>\n

\n\t\tSelected Drawings by Randy Ortiz:
\n\t<\/h1>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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