Lake of secrets

Te-beo en la calle finished last Sunday. Artist alley went great. Also the live drawing session.

One of the surprises of those days is that last Friday I discovered I won the contest of Trampa fanzine, in the category I participated, senior illustration. I really didn't expect it!! but it also made my day... Even if it still looks like a dream.

The illustration you can see above, is the one I sent to participate. A mermaid in a lake? I wanted people to get a story, their own version, out of this illustration :)

Also, here is a photo, thanks to Alberto Bueno, of the moment right after I got the diploma:

If you are in Córdoba (Spain) you could get the fanzine for free, with my illustration on it, among the rest of participants.

It's all for today. Have a nice day!!

Winter Expedition book

Zimowa Wyprawa, or Winter Expedition in english, was one of the four books I illustrated for Zielona Sowa and written by Urszula Pitura. Again a little set with the book alone plus one of the inside of the book.

It has similar characteristics to the last one I posted some days ago, but with a red fox (and friends) as a protagonist ;)

By the way, you know these nuts come from the walnut tree, right?. Well, my last name, Nogales, is the plural of how we name/translate that tree here in Spain (nogal in the singular and nogales when it's more than one tree). So I couldn't help drawing this particular kind of nuts, it made smile :)

Again, it can be bought if you are from Poland through Zielona Sowa web.

Here is a photo of a detail of the back of the book:

With this book, let me wish you a happy new year! At least here in my country, these holidays will last till January 6th, though I hope you can enjoy the last days of these days. My best wishes for you for the start of this new year!

Snowflakes book

Here is one of the four children books I illustrated for Polish publishing house Zielona Sowa and written by Urszula Pitura. Finally, some photos of it taken by me (Ssadly without good enough photography equipment and not a good place to take photos. Hello natural light, indoor escene, and at-hand atrezzo :D)!

Winter is almost here, and so is Holiday time! All these books have winter related stories.

Concretely, this one ("Snowflakes" would be its title in English) is about a little bunny discovery duing winter :). It has ten pages in total and full color. Hard cardboard, its size is 19x19 cm. On the next photo you can have an idea with my hand pictured. In this case, it's the first two pages you can find when you open the book, plus the original illustration below.

I'm really happy how it turned out! They, all the four of them, are my little joy, and one of the best things that happened to me me this year 2015.

Again, it can be bought of you are from Poland through Zielona Sowa web.

I plan on doing a new post with every book during this winter ("still life" photo plus a photo from inside), so three to go, please keep an eye if you are curious! Hope you have a nice day and enjoy this almost here winter!

Winter Stories books

Do you remember this summer I said I was busy working on something? here is the secret! I was illustrating these four children books for Polish publishing house Zielona Sowa! They are written by Urszula Pitura.

I had a lot of fun working on them and I learnt many new things (first time working with a stencil)! All of them are part of a series called Zimowe opowieści (Winter Stories) and they are printed on hard cardboard so little children can hold them easily.

If you are from Poland they are for sale on their web HERE. They can also be bought from empik.com

Once I'm over with an illustration event I'm participating here in my city (Te-beo en la calle), I will post more photos and maybe inside pictures ;). But for now...

Choinka pana Borsuka (Mr. Badger's Christmas tree)

Ślady na śniegu (Tracks on Snow)

Śnieżne gwiazdki (Snowflakes)

Zimowa wyprawa (Winter Expedition)

I really have no words of gratitude to Zielona Sowa for having faith in me to do this project. They were also extremely kind to me. Thank you very much!

With these I have illustrated five books. So happy!! :)

That's all for now! See you!

Happy Holidays!

 

This little cupcake reindeer want to wish you Happy Holidays!!

It's something I made for the art market where I recently participated, a little set of four stickers for this winter theme (as tags for presents, it's just the version without its text).

After the market I decided to take a little break (as I also got a strong cold too, I needed to recover). Just let me tell you everything went quite fine, better than expected, and that I'm very happy with how people reacted to everything on the table, and their opinion. I got my flu there (together with my sister who also participated), but it was deserved for sure. Thank you to everyone who went there ;)!

Here is just a photo of the table we were together, just before starting:

 

As you can there there're works I didn't post here, but I will show them soon, be patient. For now, I hope you have a nice holiday everyone!! See you!!

Live drawing session

This Sunday (16th November), as I told you last post, I was invited to participate in a live drawing session as part of an event called "Te-beo en la calle" celebrated in my city. Well, the day arrived and I had to draw whatever people wanted me to draw.

I was a little nervous at first, it makes me nervous to have people watching intently what I'm doing, but it was something I wanted to try and to test myself. At the end that nervousness went away and I was able to make it! I had a lot fun drawing among really talented artists (I loved the time we had drawing for each other!! :).

It was great to talk to those who came to you asking for a drawing (especially little kids, like the one on the photo who asked me for a princess). Here you have a photo my sister took of me while I was drawing one of these (from my Instagram). Surely I will edit this post later to add more:

This time I was asked for an Alice eating the magic mushroom. Here is a photo of its inking process.

A cat with a cloth hat.

But not everything will be photos in this post! I took there with me some fast illustrations I drew the day before with me. I thought that maybe it would take me a long time to finish just a few illustrations, so I let people in a hurry to take one of those with them. I'm glad I did it because sometimes there were too many people waiting!! Here you have two of them, I will post some of these maybe in my Twitter:

Two random illustrations done with ink and markers

All I can say is that it was a great experience, I'm glad I took part in it, as it was a new challenge for me for sure! People was really nice and I can't wait to meet again all those talented artists who participated. A great way to spend a Sunday! Sure thing I ended exausted, but it was deserved.

Hope you have fun!! Have a nice day!!

One Way

Here is the illustration I told you I made for Leyre Valiente's exhibition in the Museo Nacional de Artes Decorativas in Madrid. This exhibition is called "Mujeres Valientes" and it will be there till May 17th.

There you won't only see my work, but also the illustrations of other 24 talented (and brave) illustrators who take part in it. What do we do there? Each one of us interprets one of Leyre's dresses in an illustration. There're many different styles in this exhibition which is really interesting. But not only this, you will also see some of her beautiful dresses in love. So I really recommend you to go there and to take a look. You won't regret it!! ;)

In my case, I was told to draw this coat for her collection called Malleus Maleficarium, which dresses tell you the story of a woman announced to be a witch.  A really mysterious and magical collection. To understand better this story, take a look at this video filmed during one of her fashion shows.

Here is a photo of the coat I got from her web (on the back there's the same bird stamp):

But it was my interpretation of this coat, I leave it up to you what you think I wanted to say with it. Get your own interpretation! :)

Also, here is the poster of the exhibition with the name of all the illustrators:

Nothing else for today!! I just want to say thanks to Leyre Valiente for the opportunity. I had a lot of fun drawing and planning it ;)

See you!

Red shoes

I remember a dress I loved when I was a child, or to put it another way, a combination of clothes once my mother chose for me which I loved at first sight. That outfit would be used for my birthday party, when I was six or seven years old. That day I wore for the first time a pair of red shoes (my first red shoes!), stockings with lace and a green skirt with tights.

That day I felt really beautifull, it was so different from my other clothes!. I can't remember that birthday party too well, just the final part with my piñata and candies, but I remember looking at my new shoes and stockings while smiling. I'm glad my parents took many photos that day!!

Today, some years later, is my birthday again, and I couldn't help myself but to draw that dress I still associate with my birthday. It brings me good memories... and also "bad" ones. I remember how I didn't use those shoes too much, as their thin lace broke while I was playing outside some days later. I cried a lot that day. Those were my favourite shoes ever!! why those? Now, looking back, I can't help but smile.

Maybe today I'm not wearing a dress as special as that one, and maybe birthdays are not that special or exciting for me anymore, as I'm growing older, but here I'm looking for that little girl who was so happy that day about here birthday. It makes me feel glad for what I have, my family and friends. Sometimes I wish I could go back to that day, if even for a few minutes, to feel those emotions... but at the same time, I'm glad I'm starting to appreciate what is really important.

Be always by my side little Carmen and watch my back while I'm growing older. Hard times are coming but if I can look back for a little to you, while I'm down, I know I can keep going forward ;)

---

So, Happy Birthday to me!! and to celebrate, what about some books and a surprise cake (really it was a surprise, It's been many years for my last birthday cake :D)!!

Today is no day for worries, lets just enjoy!! Have fun and see you!!

About sketching

Today I'm busy, so I decided to show some old sketches of illustrations I already finished here, so you can see how some of my illustrations are created.

Sketching is a really important part of the creative process regardless of the artistic discipline. If you have an idea, you need to draw/write it down in a paper as soon as possible. It will help you to visualise what you really want to get, to see if it's viable and what you need to eliminate.

Try not to start working directly with your first idea. Make some little drawings at first. Don't start sketching many detailed illustrations: you need to draw shapes, (like circles or triangles for example) to help yourself to know if your idea is good.

For the illustration of the little girl above, I drew some little representations (and here I only showed two of them) of the idea I wanted to get. Once I decided which composition I wanted, I designed the girl who appeared in it. This final illustration is here.

Sometimes, when I'm not working on something specific or for someone, but more for myself, I like to draw random little sketches of ideas I am getting at the moment. Some of these ideas stay as sketches for a long time (others are finished as soon as I draw them). Later, when I'm cheeking my sketchbook, I decide to start working with them from cero if I feel it's "the right moment".

Always bring a sketchbook with you, you never know when you will get a new idea ;)!

The sketch of the little boy sitting was drawn with a ball-point pen in a sheet out of nowhere. It helped me to get the idea to start, some weeks later, this illustration. I changed things of this, but you can see, I used this as a first idea.

The last illustration is more finished. I wanted to create a character design for a little bird. Just to play with a different style.  It's one of those cases where I create the design directly from zero and I decide to start illustrating it directly.
You just need to have fun with what you do, but try to take it seriously. Work with many ideas, compositions, moving components, perspective, etc. Also, if you are working for a client, it will be really appreciated you can show them many possibilities ;)

Long post today!, I hope you have a nice day. See you!!

Featured in Templum Magazine

Back in 2013, I was asked by Templum Magazine's creators to make an interview for it and to show some of my traditional illustrations I made back then, among many others talented artists. They were really nice and kind and I want to thank to Ediciones Babylon (this magazine is one of their projects) for the oportunity.

The wait was long, but here is my contribution for Templum 10th issue (pages 106-111). It can be read online too, both in English and Spanish :). Also, you can download it for free if you want. Here is more information about how to download this and later issues too.

Nothing else for today, just to tell you that later today, and tomorrow, I will be out to attend a workshop about programming together with many girls. I will let you know about it once it's finished, but for sure tomorrow I won't be able to post anything here, sadly I won't get any time at all...

So, have fun!!

Filmed interview

Last Tuesday I was interviewed by a private channel in my city, PTV Córdoba, to talk about my illustrations (again only in Spanish). I also show some of my traditional illustration, some of those done with pencil colors. Also, you can see my Moleskine.

I'm still surprised with this interview. Sure, there're things I would have liked to remember, I had more to say, but my I forgot to mention them, to talk about my ideas, and concepts... I think I just lived the moment without thinking too much, just answering to the interviewer's questions, not even stoping filming once. Maybe not perfect, but also not that bad :)

The interviewer was lovely and very kind with me, she constantly tried to make me laugh. Also the camera man, very patient. If they are reading this, I really want to thank them for that day! :)


Talking about another interview, yesterday I was interviewed by a radio, concretely, Radio Córdoba SER (yeah, Spanish... sorry). I shared its audio in my FB page and Twitter, but you can hear it directly from here.

Again, the interviewer was very kind with me and attentive, even if I was there just for a few minutes. If you are reading this, thank you :)

Don't worry!! It's the last interview I have done lately. Last week, till yesterday, was very busy, in part because of them, but it was also fun, I learned a lot about myself for sure!

I will be back to my schedule in the next days. See you and thank you for your support!!

To the adventure

Finally I can show you this illustration!!!

I was really happy when Pilar from Bienvenidos a Lilliput asked me to draw the cover of the first number (nº0) of her magazine!!  Of course I wanted to participate ;). After a many sketches we decided to draw this illustration of two adventurer mouses ploughing through the sea... or maybe a lake? But how are the bravest? the captain or the cabin boy ;)

I had a lot of fun while drawing it, I enjoyed every little detail and texture of it. It almost made me feel bad when I finished it... :(

Also, inside there's a little interview about myself and my illustrations, among other really good and personal sections. It's very colorful!!. If you want to know more about this magazine, take a look to this post (Spanish only).

Once I know of some places where you can get it, I will let you know ;).

Here is a list of places where you can find this magazine... and more ;)

Have fun and enjoy this adventure with us!!

Lunarcitos

Last Friday was I Fiesta Patillera, organized by Sus Pasitos. I designed and assembled some badges as presents for their visitors with their logo and one of them with an original illustration made by me.

That day I tried to help as much as I could, and I even helped in one of the workshops that were celebrated there, specifically, one of paint organized by Eva Cano Castiñeira.

I meet lots of kids, and it was great to explain and to help them with their handicrafts (to create a chameleon with a wooden clothespin and cardboard). It was great to see how every kid decorated their own clothespins, with many colors and designs. But there was one kid that was coloring it all green. That's how this story begins.

He started talking to me about his little chameleon, that he wanted it to be well done, so that's why it was all green. I told him that it was very pretty, and I started explaining to him how to make his eyes with clay, but he wanted to draw them better. He was scared his eyes would be too big...


-Don't worry about that!! Chameleons eyes are very big! They can move them a lot to look around, and they can even look behind and above them.

-And can they look into space and look for planets and rockets!?

-Sure they can!


Why not? That's what I love about children...And that's how we started talking about his chameleon. Then he decided to start drawing many dots to it.


- And how will you name him?

- I'm going to name him... "Lunarcitos"!

Here is a photo of his chamilion, not completly finished.

So cute :)!! Then he started to tell me about his story, that he could talk, how he got his paws hurt by a shark, that he couldn't walk very well...


- But, is he happy?

- He is!!

- That's good!! That's what matters!


That little time with D (let's call this little boy like this) was great. He was very imaginative and talking with him made me feel like a child that again believed everything was possible and fun. He said he wanted to be an artist in the future, I'm sure you will be a very good one!!

I drew the illustration you can see above all this post very fast, and it doesn't make Lunarcitos justice, but I couldn't resist to draw your chameleon, D. Thank you for telling me about him. I loved to hear his story from you. I had a lot of fun! My best wishes for you and your family :)

Long post for sure, but I had to tell you about this little boy that impressed me.

Nothing else for today! Have fun and tomorrow more!

About photography

This photo was made in class, together with my classmate
Nisicrita. They gave us a "word"and we made a photography
like if it were an image to publicity a product. In this case "line"

I decided to study photography because of I really enjoyed it in my Illustration studies. There, I learn to see the image with a different perspective, and learn from observation about color and perspective, but I knew, I had a feeling, that I could learn more about it.

Also, photography is being a hobby I really enjoyed before starting my Illustratration studies, just that I centered it in a more..."familiar way". I loved to take photos of my friends, and film them (till the point they got tired of me).

So, I decided to give it a chance. I knew I would have studied it sooner or later, so why not then?. There, I learn in depth a lot that now is helping me a lot in my illustrations, like the effect that lighting can have on the environment, how can it be affected the weather, hour of the day, place, objects around... Those little things that can create a difference in an illustration.

There was also, in the second year, an as signature where we were told about a photography project and we needed to develop it from the start to final photographies. I really enjoyed the sketch stage! I loved to capture my ideas in the paper. My teachers knew I would go to them the next day with a pile of sketches. I think I sketched and worked on my idea more in Photography than when I was studying illustration (showing them here is useless if you don't see the final photo).

Something that impressed me back then was the need to work with people (when this not necessarily exist in illustration, where you can work in your place, look for references in books or the internet (if you need to draw a tiger you can look for images or even go to the zoo, but if you need one for your photo you will need to be NEAR it, and what it involve), finishes the illustration with guidance and send it. I'm sure that there's other cases in which their work need more help, but I'm talking generally about illustrations for books).

For photography you need to move around a lot, to look for models (sometimes a dear classmate could help, but for others it was impossible), you need to buy clothes, accessories, to decide beforehand where you want to take photos and to ask for permissions if needed, even decide the hour you can start and to finish (in case of outdoor sessions). With photography you depend a lot in other people, but not only in people like the models, you also need assistants for reflectors and lighting, you need to take care of the model (is it cold? are they hungry? do they feel comfortable? ...). In some cases, you need to travel... so you need to get a car at least and to spend money on gas and be prepared to buy food or for any unexpected event...

Later, once you take them, you need to select the best ones and retouch them. What if the one you finish your client (in case you have one) doesn't like them? If you don't come to terms, maybe you will need to start from zero, or the client will go to look for someone else (of course, it also happens in illustrations, I think it's obvious)

If you love photography you will enjoy it for sure anyway :)
Thanks to photography I learned that I loved teamwork, to get advantage of what everyone was good at and adapt yourself to the others (and the contrary), to create something unique and special. Surely it was easy because of all my classmates were lovely, there was a good feeling in our class, I'm really proud I was part of that, they are the best :)

There're more things I would like to tell you about Photography, but this post is long enough! so maybe next time! See you!

My scanners

I use my scanner a lot, especially for sketches. Even if I like making digital illustrations, I can't help to make the sketches by hand, in the paper, and later to scan it. I like to think there's something traditional in every illustration I create (of course, there're exceptions for which I use my graphic tablet directly, but very few).
It's also useful for traditional illustrations, and especially for those, to know your machine is essential. I have used... three scanners so far.

One of them is a multifunction device that still works, but that I don't think to use ever again to scan any drawing (but it's ok for documents and similar). Ever. It made me understand the importance to get a good one for you. Scanner or printer, both together never.

The first one I owned an HP scanjet 3670, that lasted me around five or six years? if not more. Not bad, much better than my multifunction device. It could scan to 2400dpi, if I remember correctly...

Photography property of ©HP

The problem I had with it was that I always had troubles to "control" it, I think I didn't learn correctly how to use it. Even after the first day, I had problems with its software. It didn't appear in my computer even after installing it, or it appeared but rarely worked. The first times I couldn't control which dpi I wanted, and it always scanned to 72dpi. It started working correctly when I bought a new computer tower, but still couldn't use all its software, but the essential appeared.

But during my photography's final project, it started giving me problems, this time, in every drawing, photo, document, anything I scanned, all over it, appeared some colored vertical lines. Thankfully for this work, it wasn't too noticeable (and it was at the end of the project, anyway, so not too big deal). But as I kept scanning the lines were more and more visible.

I was told it was a problem of its lantern, and that it would be cheaper to buy a new one. So bye bye old scanner!

The one I use now is an Epson Perfection V330 Photo as a present from my parents. I decided to buy it because I used another Epson in class while I was studying photography and loved its quality and also because of I could scan negatives with it (tried it recently and I'm quite happy with it). It can scan to 12800dpi.

Photography property of ©Epson

I'm quite happy with it, now I know how to use it more or less correctly, but at first it can result a little difficult to use, because its software, I mean. At first I used the easy mode, but now I always work with the professional one. I don't recommend it if you haven't tried another lower before.

The bigger quality of it is much better than my last one for sure, sometime maybe too much, because it shows every little detail and texture. It won't be too much of a problem once you know who to use the software and maybe a little of photoshop ;). Also, it gives you more freedom to scan bulkier materials thanks to its cover.

Right now I can't say anything bad about this one, I hope it'll be with me for years!


Here I show you a little detail of the same illustration (a fast one done with acrylics from my Moleskine). I scanned first with my HP and days later with my Epson.

  - The first one was with my HP, you can see a little those vertical lines over the drawing. I remember I retouched later its color with photoshop (and sadly I can't find its original photoshop file), so the color it has now isn't the same it had when it was scanned at first, but at least it gives you an idea of the detail it could capture.

  - The second one is with my Epson. Here I didn't know how to use too well the software, but you can see the detail it can capture. Now I know how to conceal it a little and how to intensify its texture more. The colors closer to the original in my Moleskine are the second's.

The complete illustration of this preview can be found here.

With this I'm not telling HP is a bad brand or anything. Keep in mind the HP I'm writing here about is way older than my actual Epson. It's true it is told Epson offers better quality, but I think newer HP could work just fine! It depends on the way you use them, as always :). The problem I had with the lines could also appear in my newer scanner, it's quite common and there's no way to know when the lantern will stop working correctly... Again, I'm just talking about my experience with these two.

Long post for today!. Have a nice day!

Operación Ozono

"Operación Ozono" is the first children book I have illustrated, written by Felipe Galán Camacho. It was published by Edimáter after finishing my illustration studies in 2009 (also, it was my final proyect). Back then it made me really happy when I was told I was going to illustrate it (even now), but it took me a while to assimilate it because it seemed a dream...

The experience was great! My editor was very patient and taught me a lot. I'm really glad for that :). Also, I tried some techniques with this illustration I hadn't' tried before, and it was very fun!

Here are a two illustrations I made for this book, although there are more inside:

You can buy it from Edimáter' shop here. But it can also be found at Amazon and other stores. Just keep in mind it's in Spanish!

Have a nice day and see you tomorrow!!

Looking back

 
I have always loved drawing, since a kid, my parents noticed it right away, and I enjoyed it.

Since then I have been always drawing, and especially as a kid, learning by myself. I was not conscious always, but I "forced" (dunno a better word to describe it) myself to try to draw, for example, a face from a photograph. No one showed me how to do it (and of course I made some terrible mistakes, like not knowing about face' structure, or how to use the pencil correctly. But I just started to learn about pencil's pressure, or even using my finger to smooth it to create shading.

When I was a teenager I started to read comics, and of course, to draw them. Again, nobody taught me about page's composition or panels or anything, but I did it anyway, and started to create my own characters and stories (to call them someway, they were terrible, but I had no problem to show to people I didn't even know).

But as I grew older and older, I noticed I started to lose that... "intuition". I keep learning , by myself and by others, or that feeling of "I just want to draw something, I don't care what it's". I hadn't any pressure.

I suppose that's what mean to grow... I still love drawing, it's my passion I wanted to become my profession as a child, but sometimes I miss that sense of  "freedom" and "intuition" I had as a child. Luckily, there are times sometimes I still feel it, like cracks. Nowadays I try hard to treasure them and enjoy them while they last.

Childhood is for sure really beautiful, that's maybe why I love so much children's books, and to draw for them. I got that feeling again together with many happy memories, and I think it's great.

...

Hope you have a nice day and see you tomorrow :).

Long live!

Something different this time!! It's a fan art of Ponyo I drew to use as a strap together with others of my favourite Ghibli's characters.

Back then I wanted to try another way to color, so it was fun!

I thought about showing at least one here because of Hayao Miyazaki's retire from full-length animated films. I adore his films and he's an inspiration for me and many other artists (I really can't decide which one is my favorite). I hope all goes right for him now, and I can't wait to watch and buy his last film.

It makes me remember the present I received from some really good friends, it was "The Art of Howl's Moving Castle" in English. It's gorgeous, really inspiring and I could spend hours just taking a look at its illustrations and sketches. One of my favourite books for sure, together with the novel this film is inspired by, written by Diana Wynne Jones (RIP)

I feel like watching one of his films today! Maybe Chihiro's? I dunno!

See you tomorrow with a new illustration!

A little break

It came a little unexpected and fast at first for me, but I will have a little break till Sunday as vacations. I will go to the beach and I'll enjoy my time with some great friends. I can't wait!!

It's been years since the last time I went on vacation to diverse problems... It'll help me to relax (although I'm not relaxed at all today, I am scared I will forget something!) and as a little regard to myself, I deserve it!! it's been too many bad experiences this month (well, not everything was so bad...) and I worked hard!. I hope it will make me good, even if they are so few days.

I will take with me a little notebook and a pencil, to sketch when I get some ideas, no pressure, just for fun! Also, I will tame my reflex camera with me, to practice photography a little again.

I don't think I will upload something here tomorrow, I will be busy, but I will try to post on Monday or on Tuesday. Maybe I will write something on my Twitter, but not here. I have some digital works to show and some post planned for this month, so be patient!.

So, see you in a few days!! Have a nice start of the month.

Studies

Some days ago, I was asked by a friend to contact a young relative of hers. This girl was interested about art; she likes to draw, and wanted to know about what I studied in my Illustration studies. A few days ago I talked to my friend about this again, and it gave me the idea to tell you what I talked with her about. 

Please, keep in mind I’m talking about my own experience with Illustration studies, here in Spain more specific in Cordoba, I can’t know exactly if that’s the same case out there, because every school is different. I’m just giving you my point of view.

Is it really necessary to have "talent" or vocation for art studies? In my opinion, I would say it's important to have “talent”, it will help you for sure, but what I really think is important is the student's interest/vocation. Even if the student is not "very talented", if he/she really wants to learn and is motivated enough, it will go ok, maybe with a little more effort, but they could get it.

One thing I recommended to this girl to think about is that she should get there with an open mind, and ready for critiques. This world is subjective, maybe too much, even if teachers try hard to be as objective as possible to their students, I think it's something really hard to get, because their opinion or likes and preferences always "show up", even a little.

Something they wanted us to try in Illustration was trying out different styles (and different “themes” inside Illustration), we may dislike some of them, but they encourage you to experiment and to get you out of your comfort zone (once you are graduated you can do anything you want, but it will help you to have a different point of view of things, and in the future, to define your art, style, or whatever). This happens with any illustration, photography or graphic design studies, for sure, they will try to get you to experiment with different styles, techniques...

  

If you want to study art, please be aware of this, not everyone is “ready”. Maybe you will get out of there not drawing the way you did before, it depends on the person and their way to draw, or maybe you will want to keep using your style every time, and depending on the teacher, it can give you a hard time. In my case, I'm glad they showed me many different styles, I learnt a lot and it’s helping me a lot right now.

Do you need to study art to be an illustrator?  Not really. Would it help you (in your curriculum, to learn more...)? Sure it would, but some of the most famous illustrators nowadays didn't actually study "illustration". Some of them studied originally graphic design, and others studied nothing related to art, but ended working as illustrators. You won't draw necessarily better if you study art, you are the one who decide what you want to be, everything depends on you.

Long post for sure, but I thought it was time to write about it now that school time is close. Have a nice day and tomorrow there will be something different, I promise ;).