Before I discovered Dos Hombres, I had decided to start painting. It was 6 months before the rest of the world joined me, in November 2019. Whilst the pandemic enabled me to paint more, and take the craft more seriously, my reason to start painting was more a product of many, many years of procrastination. I was never bad at art, I was just bad at actually sitting down and taking myself seriously to do some art.
It was whilst I was finishing my first ever painting that I knew it wouldn’t be my last. It was a strange feeling of what had I been waiting for, I enjoyed the process, and I knew I had so much more to learn and that excited me.
The New Hobby
Since 2019 I have not exactly set the world alight with paintings, but I have figured out I adore painting portraits and whilst building my confidence it’s fair to say Breaking Bad, and in particular Aaron Paul has featured heavily in my continued learning of the craft – I can’t deny that Paul is my muse.
2023 was a terrible year for me in lots of ways, mainly work related and as a result I found myself having a lot more time on my hands than ever before, but also having to deal with fixing myself, resetting and working out what I still wanted from life as I rapidly approach my half century. I knew that I needed to push myself a little more with my new found hobby of painting, had to mix things up a bit and just find a style that could give me a challenge.
I looked at my paintings to date and I saw a likeness that I was pleased with, the subject matter appeared accurate and it was all very safe, nice, realistic. I needed something a little more creative, possibly a little more ‘me’ and I hit upon the idea of just using colours I would never usually use. I then decided to just take a blank canvas and add those bright bold colours, only I then also added tape, and created the beginings of some strange 1980s inspired colourful canvas.
As I finished the random canvas I hit upon the idea of adding a portrait over the top, one that would react to the individual colour blocks, not just painting on top, but thinking about the colours – creating something that was close to a negative but not in the true form. I honestly thought the portrait part would prove to be a step too far in my skillset, the reality was that I’d finished it in roughly 5 hours (over five days). I hadn’t found it exactly easy, but I had enjoyed it so much it just happened quickly, and came out exactly as I had hoped. I was only disappointed when I realised it was finished.
I needed to do more in this style, just to really test myself. Around this time I was coming to the conclusion that this would not be the year that I would be decorating the walls of my house that still sport the plain ‘off white’ new house wall colours – I have decided on a dream vacation for my 50th instead (not complaining at all!). My newly painted colourful AP canvas however instantly helped to bring some needed colour to those walls, but there was one wall in particular where if I did a series of paintings in this style I could easily bring that room some needed character.
The New Project
Naturally, as someone who is part of this APFans community, running this website, the idea of just continuing to paint various Aaron Paul portraits might have been a solution but let’s be honest, that would be a little weird (but only a little, even for me) so as I drunk a small Dos Hombres night cap, the idea hit me.
The Dos Hombres Project was quickly born
Once I had picked that inspiration I knew I needed to be faithful to the product (it’s trained into me, respect the brands I ‘play’ with), I needed to be challenged and I had to push myself. I wrote down the colours I most associate with the brand and came up with five – White, Orange, Torquoise, Green and brown. I decided to add a neon Orange as well for some brightness. This entire project from that point would only use those six colours, and rely on whatever combination I could mix from them.
There would be three canvases for no other reason than it’s the magic number, as De La Soul once sang.
All three canvases would have it’s own unique colourful pattern in a similar style to the original AP one I’d just done. I would then paint over the top images relating to Dos Hombres but at this point I hadn’t finalised exactly what those images would be.
Creating the canvases was a fun process but by the third one I was ready to just start with the ‘serious’ painting, I have to admit. I knew on finishing the third canvas that this style would be my last for a while, I’ll just need to find a new gimmick but thats a later me problem lol. It had taken just over a week to complete the three different canvases, and they looked great together. I’m sure there would be some out there that would be happy with the canvases as they were in that state. I am not one of those people, I was eager to start the next phase, but what to paint and on which canvas design?
The Dos Hombres bottle was a fairly easy decision for one of the canvases. The other two I was struggling to settle on which images of Bryan and Aaron I would use to represent the ‘Dos Hombres’ two. Would they have their own canvas (the obvious choice) or would I do two sets of ‘double shots’ that they both feature on, maybe a coposition of images. Then it was all about which images to use, there really have been some great images captured of the two since Dos Hombres hit the market.
I finally settled on using two individual images from the very latest photo shoot (from Nov 2023). I then had to decide on long shots or close ups, ultimately deciding on close ups as I really wanted to have a couple of portraits to look forward to. This was because I was realising I’d never really painted still life before, with the bottle. I had sketched it, but never painted. I was also trying to ignore the fact that the image of Aaron Paul I had eventually selected had a number of challenges that I’d need to overcome, namely beard, wool hat *and* a finely patterned coat… I wanted a challenge, and I’d given myself one.
The Passion Behind The Dos Hombres Project
But why Dos Hombres? Obviously being a fan of Breaking bad, and of Aaron Paul I’d have to be living under a rock not to be aware of Dos Hombres. From the moment I first read about this venture I was intrigued by the set up, and was eager to try some. The way they talked about it, learning how hands on they were with the formation, the discovery, the business side of it all. But also the flavours and the process in making it genuinely fascinated me. I had never heard of Mezcal, but I enjoyed tequila, and vodka, so was interested to try. Trouble was it was lockdown, and I was in England, and had no means to acquire it. I watched the zoom call videos they did, various cocktail hours, wishing I could try the cocktails they were often seen making. Yes it was fun to see the two interact but as much as I was there for that, I really was growing more interested in the drink and was loving the brand they were creating.
At the first opportunity, it was literally my first time out of the house once the restrictions were lifted I found myself on a tube train going into Central London. I’d been confined to my house for nearly three months at this point, so it was a little scary doing normal things again. I was wearing a mask in public, and that still felt weird but I was determined to get out at Bond Street, cross the street, go into Selfridges and buy a sacred bottle of Dos Hombres. There were very few people around which made the process easier, and living so close to the London Underground at the time made the journey pretty easy as a result. I ended up buying two bottles, just in case I wasn’t able to make that trip again – such was the uncertainty at that time.
It was much stronger than I was used to, but I soon acquired the taste and as I had hoped enjoyed the drink just straight with ice. It became my little treat during difficult times, shortly after I acquired the bottles my mum’s health took a turn, and just a month later she sadly passed. This isn’t about to become a story of me turning to the bottle to cope, rather that in a small way I found need comfort and distraction in learning the art of cocktail making due to watching so many master classes, I remained very much drinking responsibly and finding some small joys at a difficult time as I continued to follow the antics of the social media stories. I soon began the process of selling my mother’s house, and decided to leave London, move to the countryside, begin again – all very stressful, a lot of crazy but Dos Hombres was right there at the right times to distract and enjoy, just when I needed it.
I’m not about to claim it saved me, or did anything that any other drink might have also done at the time but it became more than just the drink as time moved on. I have always enjoyed everything that came with knowing about Dos Hombres, reading the social media updates were fun, engaging, sharing in the sucesses that was being regularly posted. Then naturally following the antics of Bryan and Aaron as they began to make public appearances to introduce more and more people to the drink. I appreciated the marketing, and the design, two things that form a large part of my own day job over the past twenty years – I could relate to messaging, how much work was being put into it. It has always just hit all the right notes for me as a product and as such it’s been the subject of my art a couple of times before this project – notably when learning ‘illustrator’ as a new skill last year to bolster my resume, needing an example of my work – I produced a ‘dummy’ ad for Dos Hombres which was then shared by the Dos Hombres account which, honestly, was a huge moment for me (and really helped sell the fact I could use the program to potential employers!).
That’s why my Dos Hombres project will be proudly displayed on my walls, my own little homage to a much bigger thing than me. To me it’s not just a drink, it’s marketing done well, it’s branding done well, it inspires me and it’s a part of certain memories that make me feel a connection to the brand and yeah, it’s also a damn fine drink as well that I will enjoy for a many years to come, I’m sure.
The Project Continues
The bottle only took about five days to complete to my complete surprise. Now the fun really began as I started the Bryan canvas. I’d painted Bryan Cranston previously, but never in such detail but bar a wonky eye, easily fixed, it happened nicely but slower than I usually worked. Making sure the colours were right for their different areas became the bit I had to really concentrate on. Soon enough, having painted the donkeys I was onto the final canvas.
Third time the charm?
It’s not like it was the first time I’d ever painted Aaron Paul in portrait. This would be a breeze, surely. No. The painting honestly fought me every step of the way. I couldn’t work out why it just didn’t feel right, by the time I started on the nose I knew something was off, I just didn’t listen to my gut. By the time I got down to the chin it became painfully obvious to me (and apparently only to me) that things were off kilter, the hand was wrong, the mouth was wrong, the nose had never been right. You always try to not redo or paint over something that looks ok on its own, regardless of the bigger picture but eventually I realised I would ruin the entire balance of the painting if I didn’t fix the errors.
So nervously I painted over the hand, the nose and the mouth, it felt wrong, it hadn’t looked like a disaster, it was just me being picky… but I’m so glad I did it now. Once I had fixed the errors, and it had only taken a couple of hours in the end, the painting came alive to me, and thats all I ever want.
Only trouble was I now needed to deal with the coat, I couldn’t avoid it any longer. I’d managed to do the beard convincingly, but the coat, I really wasn’t sure there was any way to get that looking anything close to the real deal. I decided to just do dots. It looked terrible, I hated it, but I continued because I honestly had no idea what else I could do. I took a photo of my progress, I packed up for the night then relooked at the photo I’d taken and with shock I saw a convincing enough looking patterned part of the coat.
My plan was to continue doing the dots, but it wasn’t that simple. The coat changed with each colour block, dependant on the arm, sleeves, collar positions so in the end I just dealt with each section seperately, I was hoping I’d find a method, but ultimatelely the method become just do what feels right and hope for the best. It seemed to work, I became lessed stressed, it was more about the illusion, the suggestion than trying to recreate a photo realistic version of the coat, it was my interpretation and I’m sticking to that reasoning!
It also helped that around this time I posted an update to declare I was going dotty, but that I would succeed – a small time later I had a message from Aaron Paul himself, three hearts, and it was all the motivation I needed to get the painting finished (thanks Aaron!!!)
I finished the Aaron canvas, and the entire project on the 50th day from the project starting, finishing by conquering the hat detail with the last of my determination. It was kind of cute to hit the 50 days considering that’s the same number as my landmark birthday coming up soon! I see that as a sign, just not sure what it means but its a cool little factoid to share with you all. I have recieved so many messages of praise, including from Dos Hombres themselves, and I cherish them all – the most important thing however is that very soon my very plain walls will now have some needed colour, and it’ll be something I’ll enjoy looking at for some time to come.
When you get the chance, enjoy a virtual glass of Dos Hombres with me! I hope you enjoy the finished products above – to learn more about Dos Hombres for yourself, and where to find it visit their informative website.
