Mark Rios, also known as Mr Dripping, is a multi-talented Spanish visual artist, performer and social media sensation who recently blew away car racing fans by doing the live painting of a famous German F1 driver, Sebastian Vettel, in Abu Dhabi following his retirement announcement.
Mr Dripping is the pioneer of the 21st century of painting artwork. His unique approach of making fine-looking portraits in a few minutes through his controlled technique of dripping the lines of paint on canvas directly without touching it is one of its kind art.
His spectacular live portraits have profoundly impressed not just millions of people but celebrities as well. A large number of fans of Mr Dripping follow and value his artwork. One of the reasons for his huge popularity is his collaboration with big companies and participation in corporate events of the NBA, Nike, F1, Monster and other big brands.
Mr Dripping has painted live portraits of many world's top celebrities and athletes using his unique paint-dripping method. Some of the big names who recognize Mr Dripping's art and have gotten their portraits created by him include Tom Cruise,
Will Smith, Neymar Jr, Sebastian Vettel, Chris Brown, Major Lazer, Sara Sampai, Antonio Banderas, and Xavi Hernández. In addition to that, Mr Dripping's artwork has also been exhibited in several cities and international art exhibitions, including Barcelona, Madrid, Florence, New York, Los Angeles, Dubai and Art Basel in Miami.
Sebastian Vettel 2022 Abu Dhabi Hand Embellished Artwork
Mr Dripping has made many live portraits through his splendid paint-dripping technique. However, every artist has some close attachment to a few of their work. For Mr Dripping, the event of printing Sebastian Vettel's portrait while standing by racing is special.
"Unlike anything I've ever done before," says Mr Dripping.
The event took place on Sunday recently in Abu Dhabi, where Mr Dripping had painted live in front of thousands of people facing the high-speed wind.
The tolerable wind speed to do his painting accurately on the canvas is 0.5 km/h, according to several tests Mr Drilling has conducted himself. However, nature had the plan to push the difficulty level further. That Sunday, he had faced fast winds of 30 km/h.
But, keeping himself calm, he started dripping paint to canvas with the start of the national anthem on the grid and completed the portrait of Sebastian Vettel in just 1 minute and 30 seconds as the national anthem ended.
"The wind was very strong, and with my technique I cannot do accurate lines if there is even a small breeze
We had to get creative. With the help of my team and Pirelli, we were able to build a structure with tires and see-through panels that minimised the wind a bit. It was definitely a challenge but this was a once in a lifetime opportunity for me and I wasn't going to give it up." says Mr Dripping
Facing the nervousness of the audience and the fast wind, he was still able to paint a spectacular portrait of the German racer. After the race ended, the CEO of Formula 1 came to him and walked with him to Sebastian Vettel to present his artwork.
"I cannot explain the gratitude I feel, I will remember this day for the rest of my life.", says Mr Dripping.
If you want to see what is going on in his life, then you can have a look at his
Instagram, where he updates his followers regularly with stories and posts.