30Sep 2018 by kike_K No Comments
Das Boot

Das Boot

Illustration, vessel
In the middle of the digital area, it is increasingly difficult to find good pieces of paper or illustration cardboard, specifically made for airbrush tool. When making this profile of a German U-boat I thought of working onto a DM plank, whose measurements were 30 x 110 x 0.5-cm, previously applying a few layers of gesso (plaster), smoothly sanding down each layer and waiting patiently for each coat to dry in order to get a perfect white and levelled surface.  Acting like this, the pencil drawing can be as much precise as required and adhesive masking tape can be used. In any case, I needed a while to get accustomed to a material less absorbent than paper. The usual pressure of the airbrush absolutely needs to be slightly reduced in…
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02Jun 2018 by kike_K
Wrecks

Wrecks

Painting, vessel
Wrecks Some time ago I was given the chance of achieving my very first painting related to sea (oil on canvas 32x46-cm) for the cover of the book “Buques españoles desaparecidos sin rastro” (Spanish ships missing with no hint), by Manuel Rodríguez Aguilar, published by Almena Ediciones in 2013. My good friend Manuel asked me to feature a very particular view of Yute steamer, gone missing after a storm by the end of the 1920 decade. I had to use a photograph whose quality was so really poor and carefully remake shapes and concrete details using some pictures of other similar freighters. A view from the stern with a quiet sea, Yute steamer is heading to its own fate with some threatening clouds in the background.
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04Feb 2018 by kike_K No Comments
Hikawa Maru

Hikawa Maru

scale replicas, vessel
HIKAWA MARU Recently I had the chance of building a model featuring the Hikawa Maru in scale 1/350. This vessel for both passengers and charge was completed in 1929, survived WWII with no major damages and nowadays has been turned into a floating museum and a floating hotel, kept in perfect condition and docked in the Japanese harbour of Yokohama. It is really a much beautiful plastic kit sold by Hasegawa, it has been assembled with no further detail. As Fate would have it, I travelled in a boat no much older than that Hikawa Maru, the Begoña, when I was six years old. We crossed the Atlantic Ocean from Cartagena de Indias (Colombia) to Vigo, stopping at La Guaira (Venezuela) and at the Canary Islands. The journey lasted seventeen…
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