About the Artist

My connection with aviation began long before I started seriously drawing it.

From a very young age, I watched my father build wooden radio-controlled aircraft powered by gasoline engines. I clearly remember how the large dining table at home would become our little workshop. It was there that the huge construction plans were laid out, the wooden parts were cut, and little by little, something that began as lines on paper turned into a real aircraft.

I must have been around five years old when I first started helping him with small parts of the build. But what mattered most was that my father always took the time to explain what he was doing — why a certain part had a particular shape, how the controls worked, and what made it possible for that machine to fly.

Sunday mornings became one of my favourite parts of the week, because that was when we went together to the flying field.

When I was about nine years old, my father bought a second transmitter. Using a buddy-box system, we connected both transmitters, and once the aircraft was airborne and stable, he would hand control over to me. If he noticed I made an unusual movement or things were starting to go wrong, he would immediately take back control.

That is how I learned to fly.

Before long, I was confidently flying a trainer aircraft, and not much later I was even flying an aerobatic Sukhoi radio-controlled model.

Aviation was also present in many other ways throughout my childhood. We went to airshows, I collected aviation stickers and cards, and I spent hours on the computer playing the early versions of Microsoft Flight Simulator. All of that helped shape a passion that never disappeared with time.

I am not a pilot in the professional sense, but I have learned that there are many ways to experience aviation. Mine began alongside my father, and much of the passion and knowledge I have today comes from everything he was able to pass on to me from an early age.

Over the years, I also developed a deep interest in aviation history. I have always enjoyed reading books about pilots, aircraft and real events, especially those connected with the aviation of the Second World War.

From an aeronautical point of view, that period represented an extraordinary acceleration in technological development. In just a few years, aerodynamics, engines, structures, systems and overall aircraft performance evolved dramatically.

But there is another aspect that fascinates me even more: the relationship between man and machine.

Aircraft of that era demanded constant physical and mental involvement from the pilot. There was far less automation, the controls transmitted the aircraft’s behaviour much more directly, and each machine had its own personality, limitations and peculiarities. The pilot had to listen to it, feel it and understand it.

That direct connection between pilot and aircraft is one of the reasons why historic aviation feels so special to me.

I am deeply interested in the real stories behind each aircraft: who flew it, where it operated, what happened during a certain mission, or which small decisions may have changed the outcome of an event. Reading testimonies, researching real episodes and learning about the experiences of those who were there gives me a visual and emotional foundation for the scenes I later try to bring to paper.

Because when I begin a work, I am not simply trying to draw an aircraft.

I am trying to represent a moment, a story and a feeling.

Drawing has always been a part of my life, and I enjoy working with a variety of traditional techniques, combining graphite, coloured pencils, markers and other media whenever the subject requires it.

However, if I had to choose one technique above all others, it would be graphite.

I love the way it allows me to work with light, reflections, metallic surfaces and the countless tonal variations that can exist between black and white. It also forces me to build each image slowly, layer by layer, paying close attention to the small details that together give an aircraft its personality.

Today, through Rubén Ramos Art, I try to bring together those two parts of my life: my passion for aviation and my passion for drawing.

Each artwork begins with research, with a real story, or with a scene that sparks my imagination. My hope is that anyone looking at one of my works will not simply see an aircraft, but will also be able to imagine, even for a moment, the story that exists behind it.