Reyes works for Rhotenberry Wellen Architects in Midland and has a degree in architecture from Texas Tech. She also attended San Antonio College and Southwest School of Art, studied abroad in Italy, and was mentored by Spanish architect Rafael Beneytez Duran. She is interested in light and time and how architecture can show the visible passing of both.
The first freehand drawing class I took back in 2010 at San Antonio College was more sensibly dubbed “Seeing 101” by its participants; what materializes on paper is a result of what is seen. Since then, almost all my digital work begins with a simple sketch in my sketchbook, a “first look.” My sketchbook and a point and shoot camera are two things never not on my person. Drawing has become the single most important tool I have been gifted, though many others have been received since my start at San Antonio College. Drawing is the medium I use most to articulate the world; however, my digital drawings and sketchbook drawings offer strikingly different views. On the computer, I can draw more quickly, while my drawings in the sketchbook are minimal and slow. At the computer, it starts with a base model using Rhino 3D. The 3-D model itself is not very detailed or complex as most of the linework is added once the 3-D model has been flattened to a 2-D image. Once flattened, and still using Rhino 3D, layers upon layers are created to add details, very similar to how one would use Photoshop. When the drawing is about 90 percent done, it is exported to Adobe Illustrator, where all the fun happens: line weights, colors, fills, backgrounds, etc. There is a quirkiness in each drawing format, something that is intentionally imbued. I believe this comes from my current situation. I currently live in West Texas, a place with deep history and even deeper narrations. It is a land of fantastic madness, where pumpjacks bow over and over to the land, grain elevators tower like cathedrals, cotton blankets the land, and everywhere the horizon looms. Drawing is an attempt at producing adequate images that transcend the factual mundane.
Instagram: @r.ilia.reyes