How did you get into art?

I started drawing at a early age but my father actually encouraged me. I was about 5 and he had observed me drawing and pretty much said to me that he believed I could do it. I would free draw but I would trace too and it was one moment where apparently that really worked, I stopped tracing and really giving into this talent he believed I had potential for. 

My eldest brother was the original artist of the family, he inspired through my adolescence. 
My mother was a constant encouragement. She ordered a home test for me years ago for this art school she saw on TV. I completed the test and passed but we couldn't afford it but that was still a memorable moment to me. 

What did you do to advance your skills/knowledge?

In high school I joined a art organization that focused on empowerment through making art be a tool for social change. We made murals that were on a chosen social justice issue and from there we'd all come together as youth artist along with our teaching artist(s) to discuss the topic through workshops, we'd take our research and create visual interpretations of the information we gathered and then create our design as a team. It was all that team work that helped me get an eye to different peoples styles, my age and older. Creating the murals became the experimental lab where we'd learn to paint, learn techniques and better your skills and you always had something to learn.

It was a whole lot of skill sharing between artist, learning and practicing techniques. There were insightful lessons on color, perspective, scale, it goes on. From there id take my notes and practice, PRACTICE is the key to developing skills and training your artistic muscle and artist eye. The workshops would be interesting because sometimes I knew what the teaching artist was describing because I had done it on my own but didnt know the name of the technique or why I chose that color. I built some art literacy through these workshops and it just helped me repeat what I had done in the past but better or just learn to verbalize the process of creating.

What’s your prefer use of medium? (paint, Ink, digital)

I prefer to use fine tip black ink markers for sketching.

Acrylics on canvas, birch wood, cardboard and for mural painting.

Dabbling with spray paints, its fun to switch from brush and cans because the handling is different but I use it also for murals.

On extra free time, chalk drawings are something I love to experiment.

The only carving I do is when Pumpkin ( even watermelon ) carving. I thank my friends at Maniac Pumpkin Carvers for that.

Do you have an Artist name? How did you get your Artist name?

The artist name I adopted is simply Sketch. I liked it because how short it is and I could practice creating a tag for it back when I had a black book in '09.

However it also fit because I draw on anything, so it was a constant verb so I became Sketch.

Who inspires you?

Children, they have this authentic vision of what art is and to me that's the creativity we all hope to preserve as evolving artist, the creative child that is having fun making art.

Ive seen a lot of people become that as adults but over the years I've seen the creativity spur out of my siblings who just wanted to make something. Shout out to them and children like Erik, Anthony and Ivana who've made coloring in books exciting again..

..& myself, I inspire me.

What is your goal when you make art?

Improving my technique and learning new mediums.

What's your go to song right now?

Cancion del elegido - Silvio Rodriguez

What is your dream as a artist?

My dream as a artist is to be multidisciplinary in the creative field and to also use repurposed materials for art making. I want to make other artist think carefully about the use of mediums or materials that contain chemicals or trash otherwise reusable items.

Also to travel and make murals in different parts around the world.

What is some advice you would give to someone with a dream to become an artist?

Go ahead and do it, art is more than a job and a passion. Its a calling for a craft that lets you create and gives abundant happiness to you or those around you.

Where can people find you? (social media, website, etc)

Instagram : Sketch_93