Nacho explains, “I really love Bored Panda and I love getting the chance to see my art shared here as well! In most cases, I find that humor is the best way to connect with people. I try to make my art universal, so I use objects and elements surrounding us to represent human emotions. I try to make my audience feel like the illustration is talking about them because I feel like it’s the whole point of it.”
Rendered digitally by using a drawing tablet and the well-known software Adobe Photoshop, Naolito starts by first sketching out countless ideas of his ideas on a simple blank canvas. He then looks back at them a few weeks later and if he still finds them funny and relatable, he takes it upon himself to refine them into a fully finished product that he can share with his audience.
First, we asked the artist if he had any major influences in his life that might've helped him to develop and refine his style.
“When I started drawing, Pandaluna, Nesk, and Readystyle were my major influencers. Nowadays, I follow some 3D animators that inspire me a lot, like Luciano Muñoz and Daniel Martinez Lara.”
Art, in any kind of form, takes a lot of time not only to practice but also to produce. Therefore, we asked Nacho how long it takes him to fully finish his quirky illustrations.
“Normally, I usually spend some time every day thinking about new concepts, but when one of them is defined, it takes me about a couple of hours to execute the final illustration. It wasn't always like this, as it took me so many years of training to get to this point! (At the beginning, I spent more than a week creating just a single design!) As you could guess, it's very important to plan the idea, style, perspective, etc. before you execute it.”
Being an artist is not easy: one can easily encounter a lack of inspiration, burnout, etc. so we wanted to ask the talented illustrator about his ideas for art.
“My inspiration is my daily life. For example, I draw food a lot because I love food. When I created the 'Before and After' series, I tried to show the most common human routines (our worries, what makes us happy, etc.) and most people found themselves relating to them.”
As we mentioned before, sometimes creative work can cause quite a burnout, so we asked the artist how he has dealt with that as well.
“I do love creative work in all terms! Probably, most of you know me as an illustrator, but I am also a full-time 3D animator since last year, and I now create my own animated short stories. I love storytelling and of course, I enjoy creating characters that finally can move... it is awesome! Besides, I consider myself a creative handy person, as I do love crafts, carpentry... (I built all the storage and furnishing of my own stores by myself)."
We also asked Nacho about how people have reacted to his work.
“Personally, I had the opportunity to experience these reactions when I had the stores in Barcelona. I often worked on the top floor of one of them and I really enjoyed it when a lot of people came into it and started laughing when they saw the designs on the walls. They took photos with me and sometimes they asked me to sign the art prints, which made me so proud. I've never forgotten this beautiful time.”
The creative process is not easy, but there are some enjoyable parts about it.
“Every part is interesting and for me, it's important to enjoy every step to get the most powerful results. Certainly, I do not enjoy when I have to repeat the same things a few times. That's why my projects are not so long and they usually are different from one to another.”
We also asked what was the inspiration behind the Instagram account that Nacho uses to share his art.
“The aim was always to share my work with all the people that love cute cartoons: In the beginning, I started with a blog where I posted my drawing progress every day. Then I jumped on Facebook creating some pages and community groups to help other artists, and finally, I became very popular on Instagram. I'm glad to receive lots of supportive messages, I’m really thankful to all my followers.”
Digital art and art, in general, is not easy and requires a lot of patience, time, resources, and in most cases, even money. Therefore, we wanted to know how the talented illustrator/artist started his own career in digital art.
“Basically, I've been a digital artist for all my life. When I was a child, sometimes I used to draw with pencils and oil painting (as my mother does nowadays) but as soon as I got the chance to get a computer, I used it to draw (and programming, but it is a different story). It lets me experiment with different things quicker and nowadays I feel comfortable working on my drawing tablets.”
Artists get motivated by a lot of things, so we wanted to find out what motivates Diaz to keep up his work.
“For me it’s definitely curiosity. I really love to create new characters and give them life. I always dreamed of being an animator and finally, I got it! But I'm always studying and learning new ways to work (from illustration to animation as well). It may sound hard, but I think that you can always improve your work, and I enjoy knowing that tomorrow I can find better solutions to my own approaches. I enjoy discovering new forms of creativity and applying them to my daily routine. That is my true motivation.
At the moment, I continue drawing comic strips that I post regularly on my IG, but I’m also currently working on 'Homework,' an animated short film that I presented on Kickstarter a few months ago."
