First of all, I would like to thank all the support and kind messages for my last post a couple of weeks ago. It was a vulnerable post for me and to receive such kindness and support made me feel so grateful and useful. In this week’s post, I would like to discuss time management and its impact on making everything seem feasible while I also take the opportunity to show you my last piece which really illustrates the topic. You will understand why :-) This might seem like a very evident idea with so many productivity blog posts and videos out there but this is less of a “tips on productivity” post and more a “give time and value to your dreams” post. As always, I can only speak from my own experience and, as I am myself on the pursue of a fulfilling and sustainable creative life, I hope this can be useful to someone else going through the same.
Read More
#ClimbEveryMonday | How to Keep Your Art Going When You Feel Like Giving Up
Hello everyone! As some of you might know, it has been quite a while since I have published in this blog. As some of you might already know I moved last year to Edinburgh in search of new life experiences, to broaden the scope of my work and to ultimately learn more about myself and in terms of my artwork. It has been a little over a year and throughout this huge change, I have stumbled upon many road blocks that affected my creativity. Many of those came directly out of my own fears, doubts and insecurities as an artist. I have been guilty of judging myself, comparing to others, experiencing fear of putting my artwork out there and being affected by the know-so-popular “impostor syndrome”. Do those ring any bells? While trying to cope with all those blockages, I realized that I often shared only the content that showed me as being productive, being full of ideas or mastering my craft. In fact, underneath all that was the internal struggle to gain confidence in myself, appreciating my artwork and letting go of the fear of being judged and of failing as an artist. Believe me, this was no regular battle, this was an internal, Game of Thrones like clash with my own White Walkers (spoiler alert!) ^-^ In this post, I wanted to share with you a little about my personal experience and a great piece of advice that I think it might be useful.
Read More
Venturing Recipe Illustration
When I was commissioned with my first illustrated recipe I had to figure out the best way to showcase my artwork and, at the same time, visually –and beautifully– interpret a dish that someone had entrusted me with. Whether you are doing it for yourself or for a client, in this post I would like to cover up the process that took for me to find the best way to accomplish that and also other considerations and inspiration that I found extremely helpful. There are many different approaches and angles to go over illustrating a recipe but this is just my own.
Read More
2017 Appreciation, A year in review
How do you measure a year? In my case, 2017 has been really important as it has been the first as a professional illustrator, after a career shift and it has entailed a lot of heavy –sometimes painful– lessons and new beautiful experiences. Everything has been so intense to me that I felt I needed to somehow look back and appreciate it all. So, can I measure five hundred twenty-five thousand and almost six hundred minutes? Exactly like this...
Read More
Food illustration portfolio reel 2017
A little over a month has been since my last post and it does feel like a lifetime. Since the last time I wrote here, I have been working a lot on promotion and creating new pieces to showcase my artwork this year. As a result of that I created my first Youtube video! It is a short one but it took quite some time to make. The title video of this post is a brief compilation of some of my most elaborate work of this year 2017 –that I can't believe is nearly finishing–. I included not only final illustrations but some process footage that I had been recording. Let me invite you to watch it, comment it and if you like it, subscribe to my channel!
Read More
On Cookbooks that I love
I you have been following me on my Instagram and Facebook accounts, you will probably know the topic of my post today. It is no surprise that I am talking about one of my favorite subjects in the world, cookbooks. As if books alone weren't fascinating enough, the wonderful publications that I have found over the years, revolving directly or indirectly around food, never cease to beguile me. Having in mind that I paint mostly about food, you can imagine that the editions that I value the most are the ones that present illustrations. The books that I want to discuss today, in this new post series that I am starting, are precisely two beautiful rare and super illustrated cookbooks that I wanted you to know. Prepare for a feast for your eyes...
Read More
Pumpkin velouté with sour cream, baguette slice and olive oil.
On the Importance of Appreciation
Judging by this post's title, maybe you would think that the subject deviates from slightly more artistic or professional matters. I want to reassure you that this post is not a preaching one nor I am trying to come off as a super profound person, though I value and trust my sensitivity a great deal. This post comes from personal experience, which is directly connected with my work as an illustrator and the conclusions I got from that experience.
Read More