RODERICK DE JESUS

Watercolor/Illustration

Roderick De Jesus learned the beginning of his career from the esteemed How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way. Soon afterwards, he turned this knowledge into a small business involving making bookmarks for his mother and relatives. Always drawing during grade school, he also taught local kids how to draw stick figures as cool as his own. It wasn’t until his sister exposed him to the likes of Michelangelo and Da Vinci that he realized he wasn’t very interested in the classical tradition of painting. He was however influenced by the works of Sargent and Hopper, as well as his teachers at the American Academy of Art. Struggling with his growing A. D. D. as well as impatience with photorealism, he’s developed the style you see now. To him, watercolor is an immediate medium. Its quirkiness reflects his spontaneous personality and tendencies. With watercolor, Roderick has found a sidekick in which he can follow his dreams – pursuing art as a career. . . and flying.

My work aims at creating emotions and spontaneity through the use of color and the loose handling of subject matter. To me the importance in a scene is the emotions and memories inspired by the piece more so than the realism and representational. My preferred medium is watercolor because of its ease of use and its reflection of my personality. Loose, yet tight, not quite realistic. Permanent. You can’t go back from your decisions like in oil or clay. You can erase, but you can never return to that white paper once covered, just like life.