Interview with Raul, master artist from Spain
by joseangeles@muchomail.com
It's always great to probe into the mind of an artist because they're neat and stuff. Here in this interview I had the chance to enter the world of Raul, a young horror artist/painter from Spain that sure does know how to make brushes and pencils form images more evil than Martha Stewart jaywalking with a bag of money she stole from an orphanage! You might have seen his work on a couple releases of metal bands (Blood Freak, Troglodyte, and Frightmare) and I even got him to do that one comic, "The Hunger," for Goreshitdeath Comix. Hell, he even did the cover for issue 2! He's such a swell guy and it shows in his awesome work, one of the best and most talented artists in the underground, he really brings an epic feel to the horror style, now read on:
-Most of your work has a sinister feel, evil as fuck! Does life imitate art? In other words, are you as evil and creepy as your art or are you a real nice guy? Hahah. What's the most evil thing you've done, besides your art of course?
Alot of bad things.haha! I’m a good boy, but just in case be careful with me. Haha! Now seriously. I am really shy and unsure when someone who isn’t familar with horror art looks at my work. I don’t want them to judge me because of what they see and think I am a bad kina of guy. Lol. You know I actually try to separate myself from deeper kina of horror art like H R GIGER.
-I read Enric Rebollo ( Judge Dread) and Mike Ratera (Conan, King Kabur) were your teachers at the Joso Art School. Has drawing always been something you could do naturally ever since you were a kid though? When did you first discover your talent and how? Do you think going to art school helped improve your work greatly? Or do you think your skill developed mostly from yourself?
I have always drawn, when I was a kid I would dedicate my time copying the covers of Heavy Metal Bands. With time I started to take my drawing more seriously and decided to attend an art school. In art school of course you learn alot, but there comes a moment when you have to learn for yourself. I would say I learned more on my own than in school, just the same as there are really talented people who have never attended or recievede artistic formation.
-Although your work has mostly demonic and b-movie subject matter, there's
like a very tasteful classical art style in it. Were you influenced by a lot
of the real old classical European painting stuff? What are your artistic influences
in general by the way?
No I haven’t any influences of classical art. My influences are: : Ed Repka, Derek Riggs, Ken Kelly,Simon Bisley, Wes Benscoter…
-Speaking of how high-class your art is, do you find people telling you to draw less gore/horror stuff and more commercial things? Do you prefer drawing the gore and horror subject matter rather than anything else though?
Horror is my style but I also like and enjoy Fantasy Art like Dungeons and Dragons and Science Fiction Art. Thus I am open at drawing those genders. I naturally enjoy drawing demons and zombies more though.
This here is one of his non-horror stuff. As always, still amazing!
-There's a very distinct coloring technique I noticed in your work. Right away when I see one of your creations I say, "hey that's Raul's painting!" What do you use to paint your stuff and what kind of paint is it? How do you get it so good? Is there some kind of painting trick you use?
Haha! Thanks! Well there really isn’t much of a secret. I use acrylic paint on hard paper, similar to oil painting. I use alot of water and at the end its clean. If you notice some of my drawings have had little retouches in Photoshop. I use Photoshop to get the effect of a aerographic look and to eliminate imperfections. I do so because I don’t have an aerographer. I know I could make a drawing using Photoshop but its just not the same..I just don’t get the vibe of digital art.
It's like I could see myself in that puddle of blood...oh shit, it's real...and the demon is coming right at us!!!
-How long does it take you to get something done by the way? It looks like you put a lot of hard work in your stuff, especially with all the different color values and even getting things to look like they're reflecting!
I start drawing a rough draft with pencil and usually I am two days with it, I usually don’t spend much time with it when I have an idea of what I am going to do. Alter the rough draft, there are four days of painting. Summing it up I’d say a drawing takes one whole week.
Troglodyte art! Yay, Bigfoot..and he's killing people!
Frightmare "Bringing Back the Bloodshed" album artwork. If you just downloaded the CD, you suck!
-I've seen your work mostly for bands and record labels (razorback records most notably). What other things has your work been featured on if any? What's the biggest band to date that used your work? Have you done a lot of work in comics yet? If not, you should, we need more horror artists like you in comics!
Lol true we do need it. No I haven’t worked much for people. In Fact a year ago I decided to go out and show my work. At the moment my most important work has been for FRIGHTMARE AND BLOODFREAK. I did do a comic with a friend of mine. The comic is eight pages long, my friend drew the pictures and I the color. The title of the comic is “The Beast” and thats what it was about, a beast that killed people set in the middle ages. It was quite fun making it, some day I’ll show you.
-Speaking of bands and freelancing, are you selective when it comes to whom you work with? Do you work with anyone willing to pay or do you just work with whoever is doing something that personally interests you? Have you been able to make a decent amount of money with art too?
Yes I am selective. If someone asks me for something that takes me away from my style, I don’t accept. Styles of music and such doesn’t bother me if Ilike the concept. Money? At the moment there isn’t much money in art.Haha!
-Here in America, comics are pretty much dead, horror comics especially. It's all that computerized stuff and Image style comics. Is it like that in Spain too?
Here in Spain its worse because there aren’t editors. So imagine who wants horror comics! Whats wanted is Manga Japanese style, comercial or intellectual comics. Everytime I go to a comic store, I leave depressed because I can’t find anything that excites me.
A lot of people like this one apparently.
-This is a tough question for most artists, but anyways, so far, out of your many works, what do you think is your best art piece that you're most proud of? And what's the story behind making this glorious art piece?
The only story behind my art is the music I listen to while I draw. and paint.. There are alot of people who really like the drawing of the little girl with the gasmask. That drawing happens to be the one I least like because I find it pretentious and I look for something else, So I’d say my favorite is “The son of evil” is my drawing that I most like. While drawing it I was listening to “Bonded by Blood” by “Exodus”.
"The son of Evil". Holy shit, there is a son and it is evil in this pic!! I too think this is his BEST.
-Since mostly metalheads and horror comic/movie geeks are the ones that dig your art the most, what are you favorite bands, music, and comics? Any band in particular that gets you in the mood to paint?
Classic Megadeth CD’s inspire me alot, also Sepultura’s “Bestial Devastation” and “Morbid Visions” really anything thats speed metal, thrash metal from the 80’s. Comics? I read comics from Alan Moore and even Charles Burns. I also like the work of Gene Colan in Drácula. I would really like to see a re edition of Creepy.
-What are your plans with your artwork in the future? Any upcoming projects we should all know about? Any bands you want to work with? Is there anything you want to paint soon?
Right now I am doing some paintings for a band from Singapour called Suicide Solution. My plans are and I would like to have my own web page, but I never seem to have time to make it. What bands, it would be great to work for Ghoul, but really any band is good for me.
Ghoul + Raul = Raghoul?..which would be great!
-That's about it, nice interviewing someone as talented as you, it's a true honor! Feel free to say anything..and I mean ANYTHING..mwhahaha.
Thanks to you for interviewing me. I would like to say that I hope in the future people Hill still have an interest in old school music and art Iron Maidan style. Thats all!!