Hi! As promised, here is another post explaining a bit more about some relevant details from my front view design of La Maja, aaand…revealing the surprise in the end (bit by bit!).

Well, as you have seen in my other posts, I kinda planned the mixture in between the soldier outfit and the majismo trend. But I realized I was introducing more the soldier outfit than clothes that could represent the majismo. That happened especially with the trousers. Firstly, jacket and trousers were inspired in the soldier uniform, but then, also the boots, and the sword…and it was way too much from my point of view. The only clothes that I had representing the majismo trend were the mantilla veil and the red cloth on the hip. I went back to check my references of majismo, and even if they had a looooot of detail, I knew I had to do a flower pattern (similar to the trousers that Rosalía wears in her videoclip “Di mi nombre” and that it is inspired in Francisco de Goya’s paint “La Maja vestida”). So I went that way, but definitely that wasn’t my first option. In fact, in the beginning it was planned to be fully plain, like a horse riding trousers and taking references from the cavalry soldiers. In particular, my favorite brand for this sort of trousers is ZALDI, and for me, there are some simple designs that I consider “classic”, as I have been wearing them since I can remember, since I was a child. So my instinct was to make that same design in La Maja.

And final decision, as I mentioned, was to change it to a closer look the majismo trend.

Let’s jump into the boots. A very funny thing happened during the process over here, and thank god I realized in time! I was designing boots with a zip. It might just sound such a normal thing, but the truth is that I’m designing a character living in the beginning of the 18th century and, according to Wikipedia, zips were not invented until the 19th century. The zip that we currently know was invented in the 1913 by Gideon Sundback, born in Sweden but emigrated to Canada. So, I re-made my design and used a shoelace instead, adding half chaps (they are my fav also for riding a horse, very comfy and cool to wear) and a couple of spurs, but the normal ones just for a better contact with the animal, not the cowboy with the spiky stars. They hurt . And, back to the fact that I needed to make it look more spanish, I had to use the leather straps that are sooo traditional in Doma Vaquera, what is called as a discipline and culture here in Spain. Quoting an article to explain it better, it means the following:

“Doma” means “dressage” in Spanish, and “vaquera” means “western.” So doma vaquera can be loosely translated as a Spanish version of Western dressage, similar to the American Western riding that originated from the fieldwork in an open space around cattle.

The foundation for doma vaquera is classical dressage. Doma vaquera horses show everything that dressage horses show: shoulder-in, half pass, pirouettes, flying changes, collected canter. However, everything is performed with more speed and impulsion than in competitive dressage. Horses are expected to break into explosive gallops from the halt and do extremely quick stops, rollbacks (half turn on the haunches) and pirouettes. If dressage is ballet for horses, doma vaquera is flamenco!

In Spain, doma vaquera is also connected with the art of bullfighting. Both the work in the bullfighting arena and with cattle requires speed, quickness, agility and a high degree of collection from the horse. Unlike in dressage riding, where riders ride with one (snaffle bridle) or two reins (double bridle) in each hand, doma vaquera requires the rider to hold the reins in one hand, typically the left. The right hand must be free for work, such as holding the garrocha, a long pole designed to distract the bull. The discipline of bullfighting from a horse is called rejoneo. The horse for rejoneo is a doma vaquera horse that performs movements such as piaffe, passage, terre-a-terre, jambette, pirouette on three legs, etc.

As I have researched, this discipline was official in the 19th century BUT it existed already since the 15th century in Spain. In fact, my first contact with horses was through this discipline, as my family was also educated and grew with it as our culture and like being part of us. I do admire which is the dressage bit and I find beautiful all the horse equipment designs, but I reject the part related to the bullfighting issue, so I don’t practice this discipline and I do another instead, which is non-harming at all 😊.

Back to the boots, I used the leather straps that you can find in the Spanish bridle as an accessory, and also, added this detail from the soldier hat, so I would not loose that feel of the Spanish independence war. Also I substitute that kind of feather that some hats had, and attached a rose, which is a flower that has also a lot of history in Spain, within legends, famous characters, etc. Of course, again representing majismo with this.

At some point, I thought about adding roses on the trousers. It would have looked like this:

I discarded this quite soon after a few tries.

As for the jacket and the X cross belts, most of it is the soldier uniform, but I included again a flower pattern to make it look, again, a mix with the majismo trend. Added a jewel in the X center, to make the aesthetic match with the earrings and the mantilla cannon wheel too. Shoulder pads were adapted again to the Spanish bridle and leather straps…but trying to distinguish them a bit from the boots, and these would look more like fur.

I guess those are the most relevant things that I had to explain, as maybe it was not clear for everyone taking just a first glance.

And...surprise revealed. She is coming with a creature. Of course, IT HAD TO BE A BULL! Changing a horse for a bull on this occasion was a clear decision for me from the start (also a challenge), because obviously I’ll magnify him. In English I know it is only called fighting bull, but the real name of the breed is “Toro de Lidia”. I love these animals and, sadly, hate the bullfighting tradition. They are not dangerous at all. In the contrary, they are as noble as horses. A bull is a Spanish iconic, and I think that all what it represents and its tragic life (due to humans and its tradition), matches perfectly with my character of La Maja (led to war, also provoked by humans). She can’t ask for a better partner to go to war.

I only have two thumbnails yet to check the proportions between both characters, but I’ll develop it soon.

Sketches for the back view. I've had my doubts about which of those two I should have chosen, but I believe I made the right decision. The outfit will look clear on that pose, hopefully.

Hello again! My last two weeks have been madness, and I'm trying my best to finish my entry to meet the deadline! The back view is still in process, but I decided that even if that it's not fully finished, I had to keep on with my illustration. Otherwise I'm sure I will feel overwhelmed in the end by it.

I have recorded myself while drawing a set of 9 thumbnails to work in composition. Of course, don't expect any details. In fact, I have used some bits of images that could help me quicker (by doing photobashing) to see what works better. After some discussion with close ones, I have decided that number 3 will be the chosen one, although I want to fix a bit more the space between elements. I have doubted in between 2, 3, 4 and 9. What do you think? Do you agree with carrying on number 3?

Song: Bagdad by Rosalia (to keep the right direction ) . Piano version.

Thanks for watching!

Definitely, I will work more in the background number 3 has been the chosen one in the end!

Time is passing by so quickly...I hope I can submit everything in time for the deadline! Leaving here a 3/4 view of my character, as I need it to develop a design for the final illustration.

Hi! Well, no time for much more. Only a week left for the deadline. Doing my best to finish everything by then. Back view is finally done. My final Illustration is almost there.

I've decided to post this one too, without the spanish mantilla and veil, in order to appreciate a bit better the back view design.

Name: Raquel Martínez
Email: Rakskuder@gmail.com
Website: https://www.artstation.com/rakskuder
Instagram: @rakskuder

Concept Sheet: La Maja, The Spanish Artillery Soldier

Final Illustration: The last cannon

Hi! I've decided to make an extra post to explain a bit more my final entry. I haven't share barely any details of my process with the final illustration, so here it goes:

If you scroll up, you might have seen my quick sketchy thumbnails. The selected one was number 3:

Thumbnails are not my strength, but definitely, they helped me to make right decisions in time.

So, I kept up with my design and worked for ages on the silhouette of La Maja, riding her bull-war machine. First, the initial sketch:

And second, I'm posting the final version of the silhouette given that the art process became at some point very very messy! But at least you can check that the result was already pointing to the right direction:

One of the details that I corrected almost in the end was the sword. In the beginning, I did not think that I should make my character grabbing the sword together with the reins, but the more details I added, the more I realized that the sword had to be used just right there, as they were in war, in the middle of a battle.

I want to talk about the composition too. Even though I’m quite happy with the final result of my illustration (having in mind that I had a little time to create it as my days are busy with my job), maybe the cannon ended up being too big. Sometimes I think about it, and sometimes I just deal with it and say to me that it’s fine. After all, the name of the illustration is called “The last cannon”. Both, La Maja and her bull, and also the cannon gun were representing that same title.

I treated carefully the greyscale, although with such amount of details, it can be a bit more difficult than other pieces that I do with flat colours. Also, I’m pointing out with blue arrows the eye direction of the audience. That should be the path that an eye would follow to read the image, according to the diagonal lines of the composition and light/greyscale tones of colours.

As for the details of my characters, most of them have been explained above in other posts. If I have to say something else about this, it is again about the Doma vaquera style (Spanish western style). First of all, I did and interpretation of a horse on top of a bull, which ended up being more powerful as a war machine. However, there are some bits of the bull that are nods to a horse. For example, all the equipment (bridle and saddle) are originals from the Doma vaquera designs. But also, the mane has been adapted to the same hairstyle that is usual in that discipline. Bulls don’t have any mane at all. Only horses do. So, I decided to go forward and make that final mix in between them.

Finally, I hope you can distinguish the nod to the Spanish flag in my final illustration as well. In both, concept sheet and final illustration, I played with the idea of making an “old book” of history, as my main inspiration was the real History of Spain, The Independence War on 1808. In particular, based on the 2nd of May, as it was the bloodiest episode of war in our country. Also, never forget the artist Francisco de Goya, who let us see that war through his art, plus, the Majismo trend and Las Majas (dressed up and naked. You can take a look on google of Francisco de Goya's art piece “La maja desnuda”(naked), which is the same one of his other piece “La maja vestida” (dressed-up)). I need to add that, Rosalía performed as a Maja in her “Di mi nombre” Videoclip, and she was a huge inspiration for my design in the end. It all made a whole puzzle in my mind: a warrior, a lady, a strong and sexy woman and a modern view to be adapted to my digital art.

You could see a red frame (at the bottom and top of the images) representing the Spanish flag.

Having said that, I hope you could appreciate those red and yellow colours in the overall desings and illustration. Playing with fire was like heaven to represent those colours in top of the real colour materials of some other elements (outfit, veil, saddle, etc).

Again, about my characters, here is a bit of the storytelling behind them, so you can understand their backstory through the writing:

"La Maja is a young Spanish woman, set in the City of Madrid. She was taught with the same education as every single woman in Spain by that time. But something in her own nature was different, and when she was 16, she became part of the urban tribe of Las Majas, as a rebellion with all of those who thought she would be tamed alive. No, she was not a housewife, despite the fact that she knew that role deeply. No, she dreamed with a brighter future, performing her art, becoming a master of her craft.

Suddenly, one day war arrived to her life, and all the things that she refused to have, were then an option in her mind. With every single sound of a cannon shot in war, she imagined her future, with her children, with her family and friends. In her beloved warm land. At home. With freedom.

When the people that she loved never came back from war, she realized it was her turn to act. She had no choice to achieve her own dreams. Fail and die, and it will all be ended. Or win and live up the way you love.

But at the end of the day, she was only a woman. Men were the only ones made to go to battle. She hadn’t got a man’s uniform, neither the best sword. Not even a war horse. So, after her father died first while fighting, she took part of his uniform to honor him, his war medals, his old sword, and combined them with her own outfit to honor her spanish culture, her believes as a woman and human being the way she knew it, and to honor the strong and powerful women that represented Las Majas. She would look for a horse, but would not find any. Instead, she would run into an abandoned stables near her house, where a massive and brave bull was tied up. She set him free and whispered him with a soothing voice. Two untamed creatures that understood each other, those who shared the same destiny in life, now they gallop together to war, until the last cannon could be discharged to save their country: Spain."

I made these two adjustments to the final design of the front view: the chin had to be larger (I realized about it the more I was doing facial expressions) and part of the jacket had to be red to match with other bits of the outfit.

Here I leave Front and Back views with a higher resolution for you to see.

I hope you like this post. It has been a very nice experience, to take part in this contest, and I hope to be around in the following years! So, this is not an “adios” (goodbye), this is just and “hasta luego” (see you later) … 😉