Gabrielle Leos
UHS Journalism
Uvalde High School sophomore Ruben Lopez took to the stage with his artwork at supersonic speed. In fact, the fictional comic book character of Sonic is one of his favorites.
Lopez is amazing students and teachers with her daily works of art. From drawing sketches on paper to digital art, Lopez can produce in minutes what seems to take years to produce.
Art has always played a role in his life.
Jaqueline Cardenas|UHS Journalism
Ruben Lopez, a second-year student at Uvalde High School, works on his art in the classroom.
“My dad was also a really good artist, so I got it from him when I was younger. But mostly I’m really self-taught, so I’ve taught myself over the years. I’ve always had an interest in art since I was little. I doodled, drew everywhere I could – just a mess all over with my drawings.
The characters of Sonic and Mario are a common thread in Lopez’s art. But for him, new media mean new beginnings and new adventures.
“I usually do pen and pencil, and pencil with colors and stuff. But digital art seems like a “new medium” right now. So I’m going. »
This exploration led to the creation of animation projects and participation in the development of online video games.
“The program that’s used for the work I’m doing is called Psych Engine, an engine for a video game where you can modify whatever you want, whether it’s adding new things like characters and mechanics to the game of base,” López said. “The main roles I like to play are either as an artist, coder, or musician. But I try to specialize in things that are out of my comfort zone, in case those people can’t do their respective jobs. When you think about it, these things work like an office, everyone has something they hired for the sole purpose of doing that main thing.
“A lot of the mods I work on use pre-existing characters already created by someone else, like Mario or Sonic. But I plan to use original characters in the future.
Ruben Lopez
Lopez often composes his own music to accompany his projects.
“Most of my projects will be accompanied in one way or another by music, either composed by me or written by me. I try to put everything I have when I make the tracks, in trying to make it unique from all the other pieces of music people make for the game.”
He has a wish list for high school art class.
“I wish we had a video game creation class to show students how to code, write music, and create sprites for anything they want to do with video games.”
Lopez also envisions a bit more freedom in standard art classes.
“I would also like to see a traditional hands-on art class, where students can have free will and draw whatever comes to mind.”
Lopez has the encouragement of his peers who see his drawings daily and he has strong family support with his art. He describes his personal gallery: “My dad just piled my art up wherever he could find a place. You can find a piece of my art anywhere in my room – in my closet…under my bed…”
Lopez plans to make her art a career eventually.
“I have experience in many different artistic mediums. I usually go with traditional art most of the time. Most of the digital work I do is very simple. As for art as a career, I will (pursue it), but I’m still at the minimum age to seek colleges at this time and will start building my portfolio by then.
