From sounds to colors

Feedback from Roberto Sierra

Growing up in Puerto Rico I originally wanted to be a painter, but life events drove me to music and I ended up becoming a composer. I remember being frustrated by not being able to draw well and not having the appropriate guidance. Throughout my life the desire to paint has been always there, and a year ago I started to draw. I remember grabbing the pencil and being hesitant, thinking “I cannot do it…” Since I am a professional artist (music composer) I have the highest regard and respect for all art forms. So, I did not want to do something that would below acceptable standards (at least from my own point of view).

I have been mainly drawing and now started using gouache; although I have improved my skills I am at the point that I need guidance to further my work. In an interesting way I find that drawing and painting has been informing my music thinking. In particular the concept of color and light has opened my musical mind in a rather different and interesting manner.

I have included here a self-portrait that I did (one of my first pencil drawings) and a color drawing that I humbly did recently of my wife after Holbein’s “The Lady Eliot”—a modern version of it.

I think the “contemporary old master” is Salvador Dali. He possessed the technical abilities of the old masters and yet he created a personal style that was new and at the same time linked to the grand tradition of European painting.

My favourite artist is Vermeer. In his case I admire his flawless skills and the ability to communicate human emotion through color and light.

I have never painted with oil or acrylics, so I need to learn everything!

I am very curious about web art academy and from what I have seen I think that I have a pretty good idea of what I will find there.

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