Written By Armando Huerta

ARTIST PROFILE

Armando Huerta

DATA

Armando Huerta was born dead in May of 1969. After a few moments, the doctors resuscitated him and the Dark Lord of Pin- Up came into the world.
With a young appreciation for arts, Armando discovered a passion for drawing after his first viewing of Star Wars, in 1977. Self taught by nature and never formally studying art. In 1988 he entered the Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana. Here he received brief lessons in color theory and graphic design. He decided to take a workshop for 3 hours one Saturday morning. This one time class started Armando with his weapon of choice, the Airbrush. In 1993 under the influence of Sorayama and his books. Armando's first job was to collaborate in Playboy Magazine Mexico.

Airbrush : Paasche VL Double Action
Spra y Guns : N/A
Paint Media:
Badger Textile White, Pelican Black, Rotring Yellow and Red, Liquitex Pthalocyanine Blue and Gloss Purple. I can create any color with these 6 colors.
Surface Media: Illustration Board
Lighting : Natural and Florescent.

THE MAKING OF BETTIE ROCKS!  

 This was a very ambitious painting since the visualization of the concept. Bettie never posed with a guitar and a flaming bikini, as far as I know, so I had to gather all the elements and create a "Frankenstein" with them. Plus the original picture with the pose was very poor so I did not have a good reference for anything. Most aspects of the painting, lights, shadows, etc. came from my imagination. This painting was really hard to complete. It was full of accidents such as the airbrush spit 3 times over the skin.

  This is a pictorial step by step tutorial. No digital medium has been use, no Photoshop, no Wacom tablet and I'm very proud of it. Much respect to the people who use them. In fact I'm a fan of many of the digital pinup artists. But this is real old school art made with the same old school elements : water, earth, wind and fire. I know I'm a dinosaur and facing extinction.

 Draw the entire painting in detail using H,HB,B and 3B pencils. H for precise lines, HB for the soft tones, B for the dark tones and 3B for shadows. Use pencil fixer, a workable fixative, when you are done with the pencil stage and before the color stage. Any brand is good just be careful to not apply too much or the airbrush ink will not adhere to the surface of the board. Apply two coats of fixative. Let it dry and pass your finger over a dark pencil area. If you finger comes almost clean it is ready.

 The more detail that is drawn with the pencil the better the end result. Make sure to apply fixative over the entire drawing when finished.

 Cover the darker flesh tones over the base. Cover the darkest shades of pencil. The pencil is the key.

 Peel back the tape to check skin values against the white background.

 Proceed with detail down the leg. Use the same values begin the other leg.

 The hair. Begin airbrushing the the base of the hair using the lighttest shade first and then the darkest shade.

 With an orange color define the planes of the face. Next use a dark brown to paint the eyebrow. With a mixture of black and purple create the eyelashes. Using pink and orange create a look of makeup.

 Continue using the black and purple mixture to define the eye as if applying eyeliner. With white create the eye and with blue create the pupil. Add detail with adding light and dark to the pupil. Don't forget the reflected light in the eye.

BETTIE ROCKS! 

 Mask the area where you would like to apply the color with tape or frisket. Cut it with a sharp blade.

 Apply the color in light layers of ink so that the dark areas of pencil are still visible.

  With white ink, brighten the highlights.

Click Here
For "Part 2" of Betty Rocks!

 Cover the whole hair with a mixture of dark blue and black. Try to preserve as many highlights as you can. With a fine brush begin to add the detail of the hair strand by strand.

 Complete one section at a time so you get more control of the tones.

 With a soft sable brush go back over the painted area and add detail.

 Peel back tape from both legs and compare the tones of both legs.

 Using the same steps as on the legs repeat on the stomach.

 Add a touch of white to create highlights.

 Peel back tape and compare tones and values of the stomach to the legs.

 Use the paint brush to add details, add highlights and deepen shadows.

 Repeat the same process as the legs on the arms and chest. Lay down your mid skin tone then build up your shadows using your darker tone.

 Add your highlights.

 Sharpen your details with the paint brush.

 Peel back the tape and make sure all body parts match. Lay the tape back down to add more detail and shadows if needed.

 The face. Apply the big color areas with the airbrush.

 Use white to cover the teeth. Using a dark red cover the lips. Lighten red to cover the tongue.

 Add hightlights and shadows using the paintbrush. Use dark browns for the shadows.

 The hair. Begin airbrushing the the base of the hair using the lightest shade first and then the darkest shade.

 Peel back the tape and compare the hair tone with the skin tone and the white background.