While exploring the internet for psychedelic art back in 2013, I came across a strange pencil artwork of a trippy, glowing, monkey-like character. The bright colors and overall weirdness caught my attention and I was hooked. After some thorough research I managed to trace the artist; Adriel Restrepo from Kissimmee, Florida, United States.
This article tells Adriel’s story so that people who come across his artwork can get to know the artist behind these fascinating psychedelic drawings and gain an appreciation of the effort and creativity that goes into them.
Below is the artwork, entitled Dopest Dope, that started my interest in Adriel’s artwork, which I have since grown to love.
Adriel Restrepo is a self taught artist specializing in psychedelic PrismaColor pencil florescent artwork that glows in the dark under a black light (ultraviolet). Adriel mastered this art form through repetition, and trial and error over the past decade. According to Adriel, the errors he made when he first started creating art were vital learning steps necessary to move forward.
Adriel Restrepo was born in the creative streets of Yonkers, New York on 16 January 1987. He lived in New York with his family until he was 8, when he moved to Miami, Florida with his mother, older brother and twin sister. Adriel loved drawing monsters and watching cartoons from a very young age. It was always his dream to create his own animated world one day. Because of this, he is also very interested in making animated films, and as a kid he used to create stop-motion animations with his sculpted clay characters and toys for family and friends – who have always been very supportive and encouraging of his art.
According to Adriel, “My grandmother was the strongest multi-talented woman I have ever known, she was a huge influence in guiding my creativity throughout my life. I was very close to her and loved her so much. It was a huge disappointment for me when she passed away. My life sort of went detouring wrong paths of stupid drunkenness with a little sauce of negative thoughts, but one thing that stayed the same was my passion to draw. I was sort of suffering from depression until around 2008 when I discovered Marijuana and later discovered Magic Mushrooms (shrooms). These substances have amazing powers to heal and make you think in a more positive way, giving you the power to gain a better sense of control over your life. Turns out it was not really depression I was suffering from, but rather a certain way of thinking that grew in my head like a virus, until I found these natural magic plants that cleaned those thoughts away by creating overwhelming happiness and appreciation for life and the loved ones around me.”
Adriel went on to describe the experience that led him to creating his first psychedelic artwork, “My first inspiration manifested while getting stoned alone for the first time. I was sitting on my couch, and as I was drawing I noticed some of my color pencils were glowing under the black light and after that it has been a spiral of artworks branching into many ideas that I probably would not have had if I did not smoke weed.” Adriel’s first psychedelic artwork, entitled Floatn’ N Smoken’, which he created in 2009, can be seen below.
Adriel has come a long way since this first artwork and he has made a sizable production of original psychedelic artworks depicting his strange and unusual characters, which can be seen in the slide show below. It has become a full time career for him, in addition to his other creative interests. “I’m a big fan of art, psychedelics, monsters, and animation, so I decided to roll it all into one big joint together so that I am doing something I enjoy while still making a living and helping my family in any way I can.”
“My art is purely from my own personal life experiences, which I am expressing” – Adriel Restrepo, 2013.
Adriel’s art making process usually begins with gathering some inspiration. This may come in many forms, including music, motion pictures, ideas from friends and family, podcasts, comedians, nature, science and of course from eating or smoking Cannabis.
According to Adriel, “I don’t always have to be high before drawing, but it helps me tremendously. Weed enhances my senses and creative mind, and at the same time puts everything in the right order and perspective for me to be productive in creating art.”
Once Adriel has the concept for the artwork he is creating, he gets some thick bristol paper and uses a pencil to lightly sketch the overall raw shape of his idea. He then uses either black paint, black pens or a black Sharpie permanent marker pen, depending on whatever he has available at that moment, to define the outline. Once this is done, an eraser is used to remove the light pencil marks to make the image more clean.
However, according to Adriel, things weren’t always done in this way; “In the early days I didn’t use a Sharpie or erase the inner pencil work. I really enjoyed showing and leaving the light pencil marks layered under the PrismaColor pencils. It gave the art more information and history, and at the same time it gave whoever looked at the art closer, a chance to learn the process just by observing the art. I then learned to use a light table with a light bulb under a glass to shine through the papers. This was done so that I could sketch on one paper very fast, loosely and rough. Then I overlay a new paper to refine the line work by tracing over the rough first draft.”
Once the outline is done, Adriel utilizes Prismacolor pencils to bring his characters to life. He uses many different techniques of shading to blend colors. He begins coloring in the different areas of the character by selecting three different hues of a color (dark, medium and light). He then sharpens the chosen pencils and starts the process. The dark color is used as the border, then the medium and light colors are blended in to the center.
Once the artwork is done, it is placed under a black light and that is where the magic happens.
Below is a photo of Adriel exhibiting his first set of psychedelic artworks in Oviedo, Florida.
Over the years, Adriel has experimented with many different art forms and his art has both matured and evolved. He also studied computer animation where he learned a lot about art and animation. In 2013, Adriel’s art was featured in Sativa Magazine B2B July 2013, and he worked on a short 3D animated film called the Path of Balance, where he helped design, storyboard, and digitally create the main human character and animation movement.
Adriel is involved in many other art projects such as creating and selling custom artwork (based on your ideas), posters for comedy shows and podcasts, custom art shirts, hat pins, stickers, clay sculptures, paintings on canvas, Halloween costumes, 2D animation and story boarding, and if you are interested in any of his old artworks, he also sells waterproof canvas prints for very reasonable prices.
Adriel also does live drawing on Periscope where he requests ideas from the audience and brings them to life within minutes in his own unique style.
You can find Adriel on social media at the following links. He is most activate on his Facebook page and sells his artwork on Etsy:
- Facebook – MonsterMations
- Etsy Store – Monstermations
- Twitter – Monstermations
- Instagram – Adriel Restrepo
- Youtube – Adriel Restrepo
- Periscope – Adriel Restrepo
If you have any questions for Adriel or would like to support him by purchasing some of his original art products, send an email to MonsterMations@gmail.com or adrielrestrepo@gmail.com for prices or make an offer based on your budget.
Finally, below is a photo of me (excited face) with the original Adriel Restrepo psychedelic artwork I purchased. This was Adriel’s first time sending art to Africa, and he went out of his way to add some extra artworks and stickers for free. Super happy customer!!!
About the Author
Born in East London, South Africa, Dayne Skolmen developed a passion for writing articles in his early 20s. His favourite subjects to write about are interesting people, places, and items from the past. With every article he writes, he discovers all the details about his subjects and pieces them together to form a brief history for you to enjoy.
For more wonderful articles visit Dayne’s Discoveries Blog, like Dayne’s Discoveries Facebook Page to keep updated with new publications, or Contact Dayne to share any information, stories, or photographs relating to Adriel Restrepo Artwork.
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