One of the things that I like the most about being present in markets is interacting with clients and followers, and sharing the love for drawing and animals (mostly birds). Often, I am asked about my work, my career, and my life, and I came to the realization that those questions are often the same, so I decided to create a post where I will answer some of them.
So let’s go.
1. What artists influence your work?
This is a bit tricky to respond actually, because I think I take a little bit of a lot of different artists I see online. I go on Pinterest a lot, to grow my mental library, and the art I see there inspires me so much, but often is so hard to know the author. What is my mental library? It’s basically a collection of different styles and illustrations that I love that are then transformed into my own style. The more I see other art, the more content I have mentally to create my own work. Now if you were to ask me about an artist that I would love to embody, that would be Alphonse Mucha with his amazing Art Nouveau posters.
2. What did you do before becoming an illustrator?
So before being an illustrator, I worked as a graphic designer for over 10 years. Some people tell me that both jobs are similar but I have to disagree. Yes, illustration is often under the graphic design umbrella but personally, I think graphic design is more of an “organizational” creativity, where you need to display a message in a pleasing way. The illustration is drawing! It’s fun, it’s a state of flow. That is graphic design for some people, but not for me. Do I still work as a graphic designer? Sometimes. There are some projects that are quite fun to work on, but mostly I rather stick with illustration.
3. Do you take any courses to develop your skills?
- Oh boy, I will out myself now. I’m almost a course hoarder, but do I finish them? No. I have bought a few (more than I like to admit) courses online, and I have started some of them. But there is always something that happens that makes me take a break from the courses and then I never get back to it. I should though. I do a lot of my learning also by trial and error, and often if I need to do something specific that I don’t know how to do, I just Google it. So I would say these are my most used ways to improve my skills.
4. How did you find your style?
- The real question is: Have I found it?! Some people may say yes, but I always believe that I’m still looking for it. Maybe is not a definitive thing. So I will tell you how I ended up with my art the way it is now. In traditional art, I always said that I didn’t want to be a realistic illustrator, but my hand kind of led me in that direction while my brain pulled me another way. So I think my style in those mediums is quite a midway between realism and stylized art. On digital art, again I never wanted realism and I was never capable of getting even close. I liked a more cute, stylized look so I just tried for that using the brushes I liked the most. Most of my digital art is done using only 2 brushes (per tool, meaning 2 on Procreate and 2 on Photoshop). I just found brushes I liked and I stick to them, and then the occasional specific brush but it's getting more and more rare.
5. Where do you sell your artwork?
- Mostly my website. Everything I have available for purchase is always there and most likely will always be there first. But there are other places/situations. As some of you may know I do a lot of markets around the Helsinki area. This will change this year as it is harder to do so many markets when you have a small baby. But I will be participating and some markets. You can check my event schedule here. Then there are the stores. The one that I’m always present is in Portugal and it’s called Olá Breiner. This store is in the beautiful city of Porto, where I used to live before moving to Finland. I am always looking for new stores and collaborations so let me know if you know any.
6. Where do you like to work the most?
Home is a pretty obvious answer because it’s where I have all my tools. But besides that, I always really enjoyed working in cafés. Even though I get super distracted by anyone passing, or every noise louder than the music in my headphones. I do hope one day I can get a proper home studio, where I can blast music, where I can make a mess or just enjoy a cup of coffee while in the middle of a creative block.
7. What do you like more about being an artist? And what do you like less?
I actually think that one of my favourite things, besides the fact that I can draw all day which I love, is the solitude of the job. I get to be alone, with my thoughts, listening to music, finding and staying in my flow. For a while, some years ago, I thought I wanted to be in a studio with more people until I was in a studio with more people. Yes, you have less temptation from the couch or bed or TV, but you have people coming and talking to you and breaking your focus. You have their noises disturbing you. You have the self-doubt of people watching you work… So I discovered then and there that I’m a lonely artist.
Now what I like less is probably all the self-doubt that I have about my work. And from what I heard is pretty normal in all artists. Art is not objective. There is not a right way or a wrong way, and that is quite hard on my logical mind. But I am trying to be a bit more kind to myself, so maybe with time, I will get better at this.
These are definitely not all of the common questions I get, but I think it’s a good start. There will be a part 2 so keep an eye out for that, and if you have a question that you would like to ask, just let me know.