My project began as a way to explore how cultural specificity can be developed into a style of illustration. My initial iterations are inspired by the Coronel Aureliano Buendia, the main character of the novel Cien años de soledad by Colombian author Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
After losing 32 successive battles, the defeated Coronel retires and dedicates the rest of his life to making small fish out of gold. Each fish he makes he then melts down and remakes, in successive infinite iterations until he dies. My 100 iterations are 100 slightly different ways of drawing the same fish, using various textures, pens, lines, shadows, and effects. Based on these initial drawings, I began researching the history of design in Latin America, hoping to find a style of illustration that would communicate the same cultural specificity of the novel and capture the rich amalgamation of art and design tendencies that define the region.
In order to anchor my project in an authentic and culturally specific aesthetic, I began experimenting with the way in which pre-hispanic cultures illustrated their histories in both written and sculptural form. These initial iterations helped define specific forms, shapes, patterns and colors that are central to pre-hispanic designs and as such will form the basis of new iterations going forward.
Fish based on Music designs
Fish based on Mayan Designs