Ricardo Martinez

  1. narrative
  2. portraiture
  3. caricature
  4. bio
  5. work process

Ricardo Martinez Ortega was born in Santiago, Chile in 1956. He moved to Spain as a child with his family in 1969, then in 1981 moved to Miami, where he lived until 1989, and met his wife Hazel. Worked for The Miami News and The Miami Herald between 1982 and 1989. Moved back to Madrid with his wife in 1989 to be responsible of the art department of a new newspaper publication, El Mundo. He has lived in Madrid since then and his two children, Gabriel and Erin were born in Madrid. Embarked on a freelance career a few years ago.

Client List

American Express
Coca Cola
Telefónica
Citroen
Gillette
Gallo
7 up
Dr. Pepper
Arena Stage
A&G
Bank of Peru
Samuel Adams
The New Yorker
Time Magazine
Scientific American
Science
Texas Monthly
Penthouse

I do my sketches with a Bic M10 pen on a notebook. I scan the sketch and add more details in Photoshop. Then I copy the final sketch at an 10-20% larger size than its printed size. I fill in the backside of the printed sketch with graphite 9B. I place the the printed sketch with graphite on the back on top of a Scratchboard surface, black or white, and trace the sketch onto the board. After that I use an X-acto knife to scale and fit the
sketch onto the board. Then I start scratching on top of that to bring out the volume of the art.

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