Elegant Design

A well-executed drawing and composition make up the core tenets of Jose Lopez Vergara’'s oil paintings

- Jose Lopez Vergara

My work follows the academic closely. I've the academic process to my personal way of working, and I've created a process that always works for me. When I paint, I focus on three main things: design, drawing and paint application. I consider design to be the most important part of a painting. Before I start painting, I make sure that my composition works. Good design is the foundation of every good painting; that's why this step can take up to a month for each piece. Every time I have an idea, I try to make a simple drawing in my sketchbook. If the sketch works, then I start working on my iPad to develop the idea. There I plan the colors, the value structure and the shape design. After this step, I start drawing.

There is something very important that I learned in my years in school, and that is that a good composition will make a good painting even if the paint application is not great-in contrast, even a great paint application and rendering won't make a good painting if the composition is bad. Without a good composition, a work loses its visual value and seductive qualities.

When talking about realism, a bad drawing can ruin a great design. If trying to create an appealing realist piece, specifically talking about figurative work, a well-executed drawing must be a priority. This implies a basic knowledge of anatomy, portrait design and a humble eye to detect any mistakes and correct them. It is true that sometimes our eyes are so familiarized with our work-in-progress that it is difficult to see any mistakes; luckily there are some ways to refresh our eyes. One way would be to simply take a picture of the piece you're working on. When looking at the work on a phone screen you are forced to look at the whole image without focusing on small details. Another useful way is to flip the image horizontally, as this will also give you a fresh view of your work.