The Xara Xone Featured Artist Gallery
The Art of Newton Florentino

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February 2003
Newton Florentino

I was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil. From the time I could hold a pencil in my hands, I've been scribbling on any piece of paper I could find. I do the same today, but on a digitalized tablet.

In my twenties I started working  as a commercial illustrator for advertising agencies. At that time we used tempera (Gouache) and pastels. You can imagine me at my desk with many brushes, water, tubes of paint all over the place, mixing the colors and doing something like 6 color advertising layouts a day! It was a lot of work!

I was never satisfied with the ordinary and I always tried to improve my work by buying books of the master painters to learn new (old) techniques.

I moved to New York in 1979. I now live in Queens Bayside. When I first arrived, I started looking for a job doing layout "comps", and showed my portfolio around. While the art directors loved my portfolio, they told me that in New York, comps were done using Magic Markers (felt tip colored pens).

In my thirties, to stay in the business I learned how to illustrate with this new tool, how to blend one color into another, the best kinds of paper for using markers without bleeding, how to keep the illustration crisp, and not overwork it.

For the next couple of months I was learning and redoing my portfolio using the new media. I mastered the medium and  after one year I was giving classes on how to illustrate with magic markers!

I used to do the whole comp by hand from the illustration to the lettering. But after 1988 the art directors told me just to do the illustration, the layout will be done on the computer. After that I decided to make the transition to computer aided illustration.

I learned to use FreeHand, Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. For many years, I was doing beautiful Illustrations using these programs. But I wasn't totally happy with the way I had to work to achieve certain effects and I would often have to jump from one program to another.

Then in 2000 while surfing the Internet I found XARA X. I don't have to tell you how happy that discovery made me. Now I do everything from the sketch to the final illustration in Xara. It gives me all the tools I need to complete the whole job.

I'm still using the Magic Markers today for my initial sketch before I do the finish on the computer.

—Newton

 

All images ©Newton Florentino and may not be
copied or reproduced in any manner without the written permission of the artist

Click on the thumbnail images to see the larger
and complete image.


ŠNewton Florentino

CADILLAC CIEN

ŠNewton Florentino

THE BODY SYSTEM

ŠNewton Florentino

THE WARRIOR

ŠNewton Florentino

PEACEFUL MOMENT

ŠNewton Florentino

THE BODY SYSTEM 2

ŠNewton Florentino

HARRY POTTER

ŠNewton Florentino

MORGAN AERO 8

ŠNewton Florentino

YELLOW VW BEETLE

ŠNewton Florentino

BENTLEY CONTINENTAL

ŠNewton Florentino

THE MUSE


XARA Artists Wanted! We are always looking for new artists to feature on this page. If you would like to be considered for one of the future featured artists, Click Here to contact us. Please don't send images at this time. What works best is for you to place some of your best images on a Web page and send us the URL. If we decide to feature you and your images, we will contact you and provide further instructions.

The Xara Xone ©2003 Gary W. Priester All rights reserved.

 

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