The Stay at Home order started a couple of weeks earlier in Spain. All my family is there while I do my thing an ocean apart in New York. Worrying about my family and friends, I started drawing a coloring page a day to download for free on my website. That made me feel good for a little bit, but after I felt I wanted to do something else, create something for myself.
That following week I thought, maybe a diary would be a good idea, but since I am not very fond of sitting down anr write about my feelings, I decided to go back to the image. I love creating images that tell stories, so that's what I was going to do. With that idea in mind, I started creating early morning self portraits, like a meditation system to put my mind in something else than what we are going through.

I get up, I get dressed, I make coffee and prepare the ink I am going to use that morning. I set up my cell phone to record the time lapse and I draw. A quick sketch on pencil some ink to capture the light and shadows of my face. I look in the mirror and for those 5 minutes I only think on shapes, and even though I am sitting at the same desk every day, looking at the same mirror and the same face, it is different every time. The skin tone, the darker sharper shades if it is sunny, silkier if it is cloudy. 

It is a diary in images, that despite they are the same they are different. They reflect how I feel that morning, the news I listened to the day before, the number of people we have lost and the ones we will have to say goodbye. The tough times many people is going through due to the lack of employment and money, the ones that are now richer than before thanks to this pandemic. Less than five minutes a day is a long time when you stop thinking and just look seeing.

I have edited a couple of videos already and I used Lara Bello's music, singer and songwriter from Spain that lives in NY and with her sweet melodies moves my brush.

From Studio Q I decided to create a quick self portrait a day. Using mostly ink or watercolor I'll be sketching myself in less than 5 min.
Many years ago, when I was a college student I used to paint many self portraits, This is an extended practice between artists because you always have yourself as a model, You don't complain or move and it's an easy way to practice your skills.
​I am not looking for perfect portraits or beautiful faces, just a couple of minutes of letting my hand go and try to replicate how I feel each day.

Here you go!