Armando Huerta 

"Jenna Jameson has one of my paintings, "Rouge", tattooed in her Right Calf. She also has an Angel painted by my master Hajime Sorayama in her
Left Calf. So the Honor is double for Me. 
Cool uh!" - Armando

Armando Huerta with Olivia De Berardinis

Erotic Pinup Artist

  While Armando was attending school for graphic design, he spent much of his free time reading books by Giger, Gil Evgren, Olivia De Berardinis and Hajime Sorayama. “I was impressed by their use of the airbrush in their art.”, says Armando. Starting out as nothing more than a hobby, and while working on a degree, Armando taught himself the airbrush techniques used by the artists he admired. One Saturday morning in 1991, he decided to take a three hour airbrush class.“It wasn't something I did seriously.” he explains , “But, then I realized I had 20-30 paintings laying around the
house. I gathered them and sent them off to different publishers.”
  Armando credits Hajime Sorayama as his biggest inspiration, " I personally think he's the best of them all. Sorayama pushed me into the Pin-Up world. When I saw one of his books for the first time I was intimidated by his art. I thought "I will never paint like this". However I'm still trying. Sorayama is
not an artist...he is a God . He has a book with a set of instructions on how to imitate his techniques
in the back. I learned his techniques by copying and following those instructions."  Young Armando
learned color theory and the use of the airbrush, but never illustration nor drawing of the human
figure.  Armando explains, "Sorayama uses a realistic brush-painting technique and rarely uses
airbrushing. I use more airbrushing because his technique is extremely difficult to follow.
He applies fresh ink, and someone with less than stellar skill can easily mess it up, because the ink
 is wet and dries too quickly. It's difficult to handle."

 People says it's a gift, but it comes with a price and some times it's a curse.
 After receiving a degree in Graphic Design, Armando had a stint with Playboy Magazine-Mexico (1993-1995) and Coca-Cola-Mexico (1995-2003) in terms of his graphic design work, but he gave them up for his love of Pinup and to work on becoming a freelance artist. Huerta got his first taste of fame back in  1997, when the bodacious Bad Girl was the hot trend in the comic book industry. "Comic books were actually one of my biggest influences as an artist before I learned how to airbrush." said Armando in an earlier interview. "I wanted to be a comic book designer. I really like it when people tell me my work looks like it has some comic-book influences because that's what I strive for. 
 Being a resident of Mexico, Armando knew he needed to be where all the action was taking place, in the United States. He began submitting his artwork to comic book publishers over there. 
 High Impact Studios was one of four companies in the U.S. that responded favorably to the samples of paintings and comics that Huerta sent out. Armando signed a one-year contract to produce 18 pages of art each month and two covers. He accepted the job and soon after High Impact handed Armando their star characters, China and Jazz, and featured his work in their flagship title, Double Impact. By the end of the year, he had a reputation  among Bad Girl fans. With his unique style of creating over-exaggerated female illustrations, Armando gained instant fame among the comic book fans. "Nobody else drew like me so I became famous very quickly.", says Armando.  

  When asked what made him decide to switch directions from a graphic designer to a pinup artist Armando responded with, " You're born as an artist. It's something in your blood. It itches, hurts and push you to draw or paint. 
  

Double Impact comic book cover by Armando Huerta

love of Pinup and to work on becoming a freelance artist.
  Armando began drawing nude images of women at the early age of nine. An intense interest in pinup ignited after being exposed to an issue of Playboy Magazine. " For me, women are the most beautiful creatures on Earth. I don't find any other subjects as interesting as women. I don't like to paint cars, airplanes and things like that. I just like women." , states Armando.  Undoubtedly, t he female form  inspires him the most. But, he adds, "Not the good ones but the bad ones. Femme Fatales, Showgirls, Porn Stars, Strippers and even Prostitutes. Night life and decadence. I found light in the

  Armando Huerta Arellano was born in May of 1969 in Mexico City.  His mother says that he, like most children, began drawing as an infant. Being a proud parent, she has saved all his childhood artwork. Just as many other young aspiring male artists, Armando was drawn towards Pinup Art. Erotic art is compelling to many young artist not only because of the beautiful women depicted,  but for the complex tones, the multitude of textures and attention to even the smallest detail. Armando attended Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana until 1993.

 Huerta learned a valuable lesson in copyrighting his artwork at an early stage in his career as he fell victim to having the company print his artwork and purposly giving a more well known artist credit. In an interview posted on his Web site, Armando said,  "I quit the dream of making comics and making paintings and started working in graphic design in Mexico."
 Having a degree in Graphic Design, Armando landed jobs with Playboy Magazine-Mexico (1993-1995) and Coca-Cola-Mexico (1995-2003) in terms of his graphic design work.  He eventually gave them up for his

 darkness."
 Residing in Mexico City, Armando came to realize that there was no place for his pinup art there. Mexico had no publishing company's that would seriously  promote his art.  Chasing his dream and wanting to further his career as a pinup artist, Armando relocated to the United States and took up residence in California. There he teamed up with his manager , Armando comments, " Right now I have a good manager, I can't do it by myself. Especially since I've had several problems and lost money  by associating  with bad people."
  It doesn't seem that long ago since he fantasized about being  

able to produce Pinup artwork like the masters that inspired him to pursue pinup art as a career. Over the past 10 years Huerta has dedicated his life to perfecting the art form. Armando is seeing his dream come true as he is now being recognized as one of the top modern pinup artists. The Internet has provided him with a tool that would expose his work to the world.   " The Internet changed my life as an artist.", declares Huerta, "I would be nobody with out it. It help me to clean my name after the Carralero incident. It moved my art at the speed of light to all the world. It's a "manager" who works 24/7 in a planetary level. You can say that I was the first Pin-up artist that came out of the Internet .

 Armando calls himself "The Worlds Most Dangerous Pinup Artist Alive". That's a statement that is backed up by the hardcore erotic art on his website. Upon entering his website you see the tag line that reads, "Better Nasty Than Sexy". " That's my motto for my more hardcore kind of paintings.", states Huerta. When asked to discribe his work he reponds with, "Dirty and Epic" and notes that his favorite female to paint is Betty Page. "Bettie   is the perfect model" says Armando, "She's funny, aggressive, erotic, vulgar, sweet.  She is a legend, even a myth." 
 Armando does many bondage themed illustrations. Although, he says he is not personally into bondage at all and doesn't own any leather outfits.. He feels that his art has much more life to it by combining flesh with textures like leather and metal. "  I'm just a regular guy.  But, I like all the things associated with bondage, like the electrical stuff, flash, the

techno and hardcore beats. I focus my art in bondage instead of traditional attire."  
 Modern pinup art is beginning to lose its credibility due to many newcomers creating them digitally. He has the ability to create digital images but, Armondo preferes to maintain true art intregrity and do his illustrations the old fashioned way, with paint and brushes! We asked him if he thinks that the fine artist will survive as technology replaces their skills? Huerta responded with, " Humans are lazy creatures by nature. Computers does everything easier. Digital will become the next "art form". Artists like me, we will become an endangered species

 Armando's dedication and hard work has paid off for him in a big way. His art has been featured in Art Gallery's, appeared on several well known magazine covers, like Heavy Metal. He has even written four of his own books, "Better Nasty Than Sexy #1 and #2", "Better Than The Real Thing" and "Whoops! - Sketches and Drawings".  
 Whoops! is a fun concept that Armando plays with based on a mix of the classic pin-up cartoons from the 50's and modern manga anime. It combines the voluptuous figure of Jessica Rabbit with the  sexy attitude of Holli Would from "Cool World".
 Armando spends what little free time he does have

working establishing himself as world wide recognized artist. " I try to do gallery shows, attend comic , tattoo and art related conventions." Armando continues, " My art is turning more mainstream so the people are not afraid of me anymore.   Plus, I have an unfinished painting in my studio. I started this painting in 2002 and still is not done. But,  the day that I finished that painting, I will be in the next level."
 Armando Huerta has turned his childhood dreams into a reality and has become a pinup master that the next generation of artist will admire and look to for inspiration.  When asked if he has fulfilled all of his artistic dreams, he finished with, " I think I achieved all of them

so far...I could die happily today. But, I wish I have lots of money so I can go back and paint whatever I want again, as I did in the beginning of my career.
                                        -End

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All images on this page copyright Armando Huerta www.armando-huerta.com

Written By Steven Craig