Hello

Welcome to this new site of mine. It took a while before I finally got my own self sustaining website. 

Hopefully I'll be making regular updates on the site and I intend to maintain if not surpass the quality of the new images that are here now.

Who am I?

Sorry to disappoint, but I am not that German Actress/ Babe who has an unusually high search result when you type in 'ferres'.

I guess my work has been around on the web long enough for people to start asking who the hell is this Ferres dude. So, what about me?

Let's see, I was born back in 1968. I live in an island you hear about only when there is a disaster, both natural and man made, and of course the occasional silliness.

I am Catholic (surprise, surprise). I have been drawing and making doodles for as long as I can remember. I think I'm the only BDSM-art freak in my little corner of the globe.

My interest with erotic imagery has been with me since I realized I was a guy. I did try to be more sedate but the powers that be guided me to this direction and they were not exactly subtle about it.

I got into airbrushing at college. The course was not exactly related to my interest but the discipline provided some necessary experience with this air powered weapon. I never finished . I had several years of experience with the airbrush, doing illustrations for ads as well as architectural concepts.

So it wasn't like I took up a computer and started making these illustrations. I started with traditional media and migrated to digital when opportunity allowed.

Influences...

Hmm. I distinctly remember 3 movies that have profoundly affected my youth and probably set the fires in my psyche. There was the very adult 'Caligula', 'Ilsa, She wolf of the SS' and 'Heavy Metal'. (Do I hear the pitter-patter of psycho analysts?)

At first, my early works focused more on Sci-fi and Fantasy art. I created large illustration of mostly Fantasy settings. Chris Achilleos and Boris Vallejo were my favorite artists at the time and of course there was the occasional Corben and his well endowed females. I failed to develop a real interest in superhero type comix, I was more into the HM mag scene. Corben's work on the Den series was an eye opening experience for me and his influence can still be discerned in my work today.

Beliefs...

I can't say I'm a God fearing individual, but I do believe in God. I just think of myself as a none practicing Catholic. I don't understand this need to fear someone who suppose to love you. He gives you total love but if you do something wrong he sends you to hell... 'forever'. If this were a marital relationship, somebody definitely needs counselling.

The Naked Earth...

Perhaps some of you have heard about 'Naked Earth'. Well, that was my first true foray into real adult comix. It would not be fair to talk about myself without bring up the 'Naked Earth' project, since without it I would not be doing the kind of work I liked doing and actually get paid for it.

When I first started Naked Earth back in 1997, it was in black and white. I had very little knowledge of computer coloring by then. There was a Mac but it was being hogged by someone else who will remain nameless.

I did a few early pages using water color and pencil techniques to create halftones. I really had no idea it was going to go anywhere, I just wanted to draw this comic. I did not care if it was going to make money, I just found it liberating to take a pencil to paper and mold a fantasy world where the only limits were my imagination (cliché moment).

Well, later on Mr. nameless decided to buy himself a new Mac and I finally got a Mac to work with. First thing I did was get more ram. This was back in 97 mind you. Ram back then cost about an arm and a leg. I think it set me back $500+ for just a measly 64 megs of ram. So I was chugging away with 128 megs of ram on a 90 mhz computer with 1.5 gig total of disk space. Scary, huh? It still gives me nightmares.

1998 came along. Now with my own computer to work on and armed with a little knowledge of PhotoShop, I tried coloring a more recent version of the Naked Earth pages. Eventually getting access on the net with the help of a friend and with my own website, Naked Earth was sent off to the world. About a year afterwards the Mac promptly died (Oh, the humanity!).

Naked Earth became a medium to develop and fine tune my skills with the digital canvas as well as the monetary gains to upgrade my computer. With the death of the Mac, I had to move to a cheaper PC. It took a while to relearn the keyboard commands of the PC, specially the change in the ctrl and alt keys with command keys.

When things finally settled a bit in late 1999. I focused exclusively on 'Naked Earth'. By this time 'Naked Earth' was being promoted by ols2000. The partnership lasted until late 2001, then things went south when a lot of wrong people got into the mix.

Two books of Naked Earth were complete by late 2001 and a third one, 'Naked Earth: Shadowside', was starting up. After a couple of months with little word and no income, I opted to move on.

'Shadowside' had a different look to it compared to the first 2 books. It also had a stronger BDSM feel to it. I took sometime to experiment with new techniques, this eventually evolved into the present visual style I use today. Even though 'Shadowside' never got completed, it is perhaps the single project that put me into a transitional path to my present incarnation.

Now I'm working almost exclusively on BDSM art for dofantasy.com starting with 'A Passage East', the 'Disenchantment' and the just released 'Steel Trap Maiden'. With the launch of 'www.FERRESart.com', there will be opportunities to go beyond BDSM art and perhaps even bring back 'Naked Earth'.

The style...

How do I make this fanciful images? Well, it sure ain't easy, duh. It takes close to four days to do one page or one large illustration.

Just to remind everybody, the computer is just a tool. It is not the magic bullet to turn you into a success. This is the same with the airbrush, you can't just wave it around and make astonishing art. It is only the tool of the craft. And like every other craft, it take a lot of time and dedication.

The style and look of my work has gotten distinct and recognizable over the years. This was not exactly my intent. My purpose initially was to be able to render a graphic novel in full color at an acceptable clip. But as the years passed and I refined my skills, a certain kind of look evolved. In fact if you look at my works from 3 years, you can easily spot the differences.

I don't use inks at any level of the work. I sketch things out in pencil then scan it to the computer. The scanned image is then retraced via path strokes until I have a clean line art on a separate layer. That usually take about a day or so.

I then start coloring on several other layers, first doing flat colors. Then preserving the 'transparency' of the layers, I start to tone the flats. Using the airbrush tools with a Wacom tablet, I bring out the images.

I don't picture the finished look in my mind. I just apply the colors and techniques and let the final look be determined on it's own. When the image looks finished then I stop and move to the next one. Visualizing a finished look is just a quick path to disappointment. Usually, after a few days I look at the finished image again. By this time, my eyes have readjusted, I can see the flaws and start weeding those out. Of course, nothing is without flaw and nothing is ever or will ever be perfect.

In closing, I'd like to thank Nuria for this opportunity to launch this new website of mine, promoting both myself and my works, as well as to all you guys who have enjoyed my work and supported me on whatever direction my art went.

Ferres ^_^