Alfredo Genovese - The Book of Filete Porteno

8/16/2019 Alfredo Genovese - The Book of Filete Porteno

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Purpose

Chapter 1. What is filete porteño ?

1.1 Review of filete porteño - Alfredo Genovese 1.2 Theoretical definition - Norberto Pablo Cirio 1.3 Anthology of filete legends

Chapter 2. Filete iconography 2.1 Design 2.2 Topics

2.3 Ornaments 2.4 Motifs and figuresChapter 3. Technique

3.1 Brushes and materials 3.2 Handling the brush 3.3 How to Make a Filete panel 3.4 Fonts

Index

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31

9

55


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Chapter 4. Filete on Vehicles 4.1 Carts 4.2 Trucks 4.3 Buses

4.4 Cars

Chapter 5. Filete today 5.1 Signs 5.2 Advertising 5.3 Objects 5.4 Paintings 5.5 Clothing

5.6 Body painting 5.7 Tattoo 5.8 Murals

Backstage

Bibliography

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What is Filete Porteño?

The work of man must be under-

stood and analyzed in its slow but

constant evolution, not frozen in a

certain period of time.


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Filete iconography

The ornamentation and shaping

chosen by early fileteadores in their

compositions are based on copies

of decorative elements that they

had access to in those times


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The first designs date back to filete ornaments painted in square panelson the sides of carts and lines or filetes that were made on their railsand rods.

Those basic early panels were ofsimple composition and were paint-ed using flat colours, without light orshadow effects but as time went by, fileteadores refined and enriched their

techniques, making the designs morecomplex.

A relevant compositional aspectthat can be found on these pan-els is the location of the design,where a free space can be found inbetween the design and the boardedge. Nowadays, this free space isobserved in most of the art work

and it is called “talón” (heel). When the heel

is insufficient themotifs appears

c o m p r e s s e dbetween the

edges and when it is excessive, themotifs appears to be floating in themedia space.

When the heel is equidistant fromall edges, there is a little more spaceleft on the bottom, the same width asthe shadow cast by the motif.

This balance between drawingand the space left free is the firstfactor to consider in the composi-

tion. Moreover, the equilibrium isobtained by the symmetry of thegrounds and the distribution of ele-ments throughout composition space.Where the motifs are asymmetrical,the heaviest part is placed on theleft and the right space belongs tothe band. The banda, or band, is astraight line that is painted inside,

parallel to the edges of the panel,of variable thickness and volume.It can be detached from the base ofthe acanthus leaf or may be on thetop, occupying the space betweenthe two leaves when the subject issymmetrical. The band, with acan-thus leaf usually structures the wholecomposition.

Parallel to the band, towards theinside, the firulete , is painted. It is athinner width line and has no vol-ume. If there is enough space, it canalso be painted out, i.e inside theheel.

The bottom part compositions tendto be more filled with motifs than theupper, which is usually completedwith straight-bands for the whole

rests on this heavier base. Severalexamples show how the scrolls ofacanthus leaves were used to givemore or less weight to the base.

There are also many levels of com-position, taking into account thedevelopment from the edge towardinside. The main level or external is

defined by external or ornamentalforms which are thick and heavyand are located near the outer edge,acanthus leaves and the main-bandare also painted the same color, togive unity to the whole panel and actas a harmonic framework combiningstraight lines and curves.

2.1 Design


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Typical elementsof a filete

Talón:The “Talon”, is the heel of the panel, meaning the space between the architravemoulding band and the sign edge.

Panel Border or Frame:Enclosing all of the composition or working as a support around it.

Bird:highly stylised animal pattern.

Banda:or band, is the thickest volumed line, (often accompanied by the Acanthus Leaf)providing the basic compostional structure.

The Acanthus Leaf:is one of the principal motifs used in Fileteado compostion. Inthis case the Acanthus leaf has been joined to the moulding.

Cast shadow

Flowers:here are “flats”, four and five leafed petals.

Firulete:::the “Firulete” is the finest, most delicate line used, bothinside and outside of the architrave moulding.

Bolita:the Spheres, Balls or Pellets are generally used to fill spaceswithin the design, to decorate letters or punctuate corners.


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1-Flowers:

There are three types, based ontheir shape: flat, tulips or littlebells.

Flat flowers are drawn from acircular, which is divided into four,five or more equal parts, where thepetals can be brushed either in acircled, heart-shaped, or lobed way. All petals are equal in size, somespace is left among them whichhighlights the flower even morefrom the background and usually,they are painted with a concaveshape with interior shadows.

Tulip flowers are built from ahemisphere, and they are painted

in that shape. They are more closed,as if looking at a cup from slightlyabove, and they can be more openor less open. The inner and outerfaces are divided into different pet-als and are normally painted in dif-ferent colours. These flowers have acentral axis that many times guidesor determines the direction of otherelements in the composition.

Little Bell flowers are more close-ly knit together than tulips and arebuilt from a cone or a triangle. Theouter side has a big fold or cut,through which the inner side –dark-er in colour– can be observed.

Another type of flower that wasused in the past in fileteado is thepoppy (amapola). It is a very com-mon ornamental flower represent-ed with the convexity of an inside-out tulip, and profusely used byCarlos Carboni. All of these typesof flowers can be used in differentcombinations with each other.

2.4 Motifs and figures


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Description of the most popular motifs used in fileteado porteño

1.Flat flower 5 petals 2. Flat flower 4 petals 3. Tulip flower 4. Poppy 5. Little bell


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3- Acanthus leaves: They are ornamental designs which

can be seen in the arts of diverse cul-tures from ancient times. In the case of fileteado art, plant motifs are taken pri-marily from architectural ornaments,and, usually, acanthus leaves form thestructural part of a composition.

There are two main types: the leafending in a curl or the leaf integratedwith the ribbon previously mentioned.The first type has its foliage adjoined

to a stem that ends in a curl.There is a balance between

the foliage and thecurl, so that no oneof these elementsdominates the other

in the compositionalframe. The curling

can be considered

the centre from which the leaves thatmake up the foliage emerge, that aredistributed all throughout the outerpart of the composition. The secondtype has this very same foliage adjoinedto a stem that goes on uninterruptedlyalong the band.

The acanthus leaves foliage is madeup of smaller leaves -adjoined to acommon stem- that must be set apartfrom each other, either in their shapeor in their direction. This differenceemphasizes the dynamic essence of fileteado and avoids monotony in thedesign.

Each acanthus leaf has its volumeaccentuated, and the leaf can be con- vex or concave. The leaf structureis built from its veins or axis, and,

together with the sharp edges, theyconstitute the most outstanding partwhere the light hits the panel, and areemphasized with a bright tone.

Top:1.Acanthus leaf curl ending.

2.Acanthus leaf integrated with the band.


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Left:cantilever detail with acanthus leaf

Bottom:samples of acanthus leaves


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Technique

In despite of mat erials used,

I believe the fileteado technical

knowledge is based on two key

issues: drawing and brush skill


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The filete brush can be recognized

by the length of its bristles. The mostcommon ones are made with hairfrom cow’s ear. The metallic part thatholds the bristles is called the ferrule,and it can be round if it is a filetebrush, or flat if it is a lettering brush.

Another variety of filete brush isthe “banda”, that is a handle-less fer-rule loaded with five-centimetre-long

bristles, which is used for longerstrokes.

If the brushes are intended to

last for a long time, they shouldbe cleaned extensively with mineralspirits if synthetic enamel is used, orwith soap and water in case of acrylicpaint. It is also desirable to keepthese smeared with vaseline or greaseand keep them inside a tube, so thatthe bristles are kept in shape. If thebristles accidentally bend, they can be

easily straightened with hot water.

3.1 Brushes and materials

Ferrules, wooden handles and cow ear bristlespacking from a brush factory.


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Using bandas or bands brushes

The bandas are special brushesused to draw longer lines.

Long filetes on spokes and cartwheels, lines dividing two colour lay-outs, borders of panels, designs called“llaves” -used for vehicle decoration-,were all created using the band brush.They were also used for bracket-

shaped lines called “bigoteado”.We will state the differences

between the band brush and the filete

brush. The band brushes are held in

the same way as the filete brushes butonly in a more frontal manner, sincethey lack a handle, they are held inthe hand cavity. It must be loadedwith paint carefully over an metalpalette, spatula or tile, making sureall the bristles face the same directionand are not entangled.

When painting, the band leans

against the surface and then it isdragged slowly with a measured, uni-form stroke, so that it does not vary

in straightness or thickness. The paint

load should be controlled so thatno drops are allowed, because theycan ruin the line if they drop morerapidly when the stroke is being per-formed. As the band progresses it isdischarged, causing a thinning of theline that is offset by increasing thepressure slowly. When the band runsout of paint, lift it, reload it and place

it on the line just before where it wasinterrupted, to maintain the samewidth and concealing the junction.

Filling the band brush Handling the band brush Stroke


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Fileteado art was born as a craft,

and, as such, it is carried out usingseveral techniques which evolved andwere improved over time, and whichchanged with the coming of new mate-rials and supports.

Since its very beginning, fileteadores painted their creations with syn-thetic enamel and developed theirtechniques using this material with

long-bristle brushes, all throughoutthe period when filete was performedon vehicles.

The paint was changing with thechange of media and applications,incorporating acrylic paint, oil, make-up, fabric paint, and others as needed.in despite of materials used, I believethe fileteado technical knowledge is

based on two key issues: drawing andbrush skill . The technique developedhere is similar to that performed on vehicles. It is also the oldest and maybethe most forgotten, in which syntheticenamel was on a rigid support andit will be explained in the followingsteps:

3.3 How to make a filete panel


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Drawing the Fonts

It is not difficult to acquire acertain calligraphic ability if somerules about the making of the alpha-betic characters and the organiza-tion within them are observed. Topaint a font it is necessary to definethe type of stroke, angle, propor-tion and spacing that it will have,

repeating this pattern in the restand, in this way, drawing an alpha-bet with related characteristics.

A letter can be painted using uni-form strokes (if its thickness is thesame), or variable strokes (if lettershave differents thickness) as whenthey are painted with a quill. Withthe filete brush, these two options

can be performed at will.

1- Letters upright: vertical and italic2- Proportion, letter high and large

3- Letter spacing

1-

2-

3-


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Fileteado fonts

Different typography varieties usedin fileteado ornaments usually havesome features that are repeated nomatter their type. We intend to explainsome of these features observed in mostof the letters designed for fileteado.

First, it is very common that someshapes are added in the letter outline,

such as tops in the ends and curvededges used in old French letters —char-acteristic of brush strokes such as thosenamed “fishtail ”— and, in other cases,using broader and more imaginativecriteria.

Letters with inner decoration can beseen too, either when they are partiallyfilled with other colours , or when small

pearls or other patterns are painted onthem. Over the beveled edges wherelight hits , highlights are added to makethe letter stand out even more from thebackground.

Letter face:

It is the shape of the letter itself, andit is painted first. If it measure is wider, you can decorate it more, adding othercolours in the inside part, shadows andhighlights to get a bas-relief or beveleffect, a coloured outline, pearls, dia-monds, etc.

Letter raising:

The imitation of raised or blockedletters had its origin no doubt, in theuse of thick or proyecting letters madeof wood and secured to the sign-board

instead of painted letters, and fileteado

use to paint letters in this way. Theedges or thickness of these letters arepainted a different colour than that ofthe face of the letter.

Generally, perspective projection ismade downwards and to a unique lat-eral vanishing point. The receding linesof the sides of a letter drawn at an angleof 45º with a set square, but it can also

be made towards a centre, upwards ordownwards when the text is curved orhas a semicircular shape.

My own preference for these casesis to project the block to the left anddownwards and then to place the pro-

1. Letter face2. Letter thickness

3. Repiqué4. Cast shadow

5. Bevel letter edge6. Face letter bevel


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Filete on vehicles

Gradually, the filete on buses deve-

loped, including figures that we

could classify into different groups:

“Turfístico” (horseshoe, jockey cap

and riding crop), “Timbero”

(shaker, dice and cards) and

“Pilchístico” (gloves, hat and cane).


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4.3 Buses

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4

3

5

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20

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12

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Fileteado bus scheme by Alberto Pereira

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References

1 Lomo cutting on the front roof

2 Internal number

3 Mudguard trim

4 Custom design

5 Windows trim

6 Talón de pollera (skirt heel)

7 Roof stripe or poncho

8 Space for route letters and line number9 Rain drain or gotera

10 Lomo cutting on the back roof

11 Coco cutting on the back roof

12 Side molding

13 Space for company name

14 Panel stripe or bagueta

15 Skirt stripe or bagueta de pollera

16 Space for patterns on request

(see on right)

17 Bumper blades

18 Skirt or pollera

19 Wheel cover

20 Filete on wheels


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Filete today

Working like a designer and

an artist, I managed to do

a lot of works in the advertising

field, graphic and clothing design,

bodypainting, and tattoo,

in a process that continues

even to this day.


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5.1 Signs

Aguilera Guitars - (Brighton - 2008)

synthetic enamel on hardboard, 300 x 50 cm

Caminito Havanna (2009)synthetic enamel on metal sheet, 240 x 100 cm


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5.2 Advertising

Painted bottles on differents brands, syntheticenamel on glass

Alejandro Dolina books covers

Top: Villa del Sur, design for place mat

Button:Club del vino, cover magazine


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Top: Evian bottle artwork

Left: Aiwa sign, acrilic on canvas 130 x 100cm

Bottom: CD covers designs and ACI world2007 logo

Documents

Alfredo Genovese - The Book of Filete Porteno