Finding Ilustrata on Instagram was such a visual delight. Today, we have Bruno, from their team, answering our questions.
Bruno: We’re an illustration studio, made by three illustrators me (Bruno), David and Victor. We’re all from Brazil and we live in a small city here. We have been working on ilustrata since 2013 when we’ve created that, but our illustration work just came up in the studio’s second year first of that we were more like a design studio.
Subsign: What was your childhood like? Do you think your experiences from childhood have influenced your present creative endeavors?
Bruno: Our childhood definitely has influenced us. We all here love to draw since we were kids and here in Brazil there is the biggest Japanese population outside Japan, so the country always had a great influence on Japanese media products especially animes. So we grew up watching animes like Pokémon, Dragon Ball Z and more.
Personally, I can say that I’ve learned about drawing using Dragon Ball’s characters as a reference, I think I’ve drawn hundreds of Gokus. I couldn’t find any my Goku’s drawing but I found some older ones of Pokémon and a ninja, based on a Lego with ninja’s thematic that I had when I was 5-6.
Subsign: What did you want to be as a grown up?
Bruno: In my childhood, when the adults asked this for me I always answered them that I wanted to be an “Inventor” someone that creat things. I think I got it, we’re kinda inventors trying to transform our ideas in illustrations.
Subsign: How does your workstation look like?
Bruno: Our studio is pretty great, we did the place with an architect friend of ours and she built the place beautifully. But our room is quite simple, there are always a lot of papers on the table and our Pcs and equipment.
Subsign: Do you have a work style? How would you describe it?
Bruno: We have three different styles here, I think my style is more like a Japanese retro comics, David has a more minimalist and cute style and Victor has a really cute style, with a Japanese taste.
Subsign: Can you share with us how your creative process works?
Bruno: Actually it’s simple. We always start with some thumbnail sketches, something really simple just to test the idea and we do this until we have a nice composition.
After that, we pick the better sketch to start the digital work and its nothing but a more refined version where we’ll do some adjustments and in some cases we can notice on this version that our idea won’t work well, so we come back to thumbnails process. While we’re doing this we also built a reference panel, that will help us to make a more accurate drawing, especially when we’re working with subjects that we aren’t used to.
After we reach a nice digital sketch we go the lineart and colors, there is no secret here we just need to execute what we’ve thought on the sketch. After this, the work is done.
Subsign: What is your favorite work you have done so far?
Bruno: Hard question, I don’t think we’re able to choose one. As we did them it’s to easy to see all the errors. I would prefer to choose another artist’s work haha
Subsign: Who do you follow for inspiration?
Bruno: Mathiole, a Brazilian illustration as us. Gaston Pacheco, and Bicicleta sem Freio, also a Brazilian studio. There are so many but these ones are truly special for us.
Subsign: What advice would you give to someone starting out in the creative field of work?
Bruno: Try to find your own voice. Everyone has the potential to tell something unique to the world, that could be through illustration, music, videos or whatever. You just need to know what you have of unique and to put it on your work.
Our work is nothing but a demonstration of how we see the world. Of course, you need to study the fundamentals of the area you want to work, so how much more you know about this easier will be for you to share your vision with other people.
Subsign: If you would have a superpower, what would it be?
Bruno: Maybe fly? haha
Subsign: Can you recommend for our readers a book, a song, and a movie?
Bruno: Actually I will recommend a manga, “Oyasumi Punpun” from Inio Asano; “Space Lion” from Cowboy Bebop’s Soundtrack, please hear it with a headphone and eyes closed it’s a trip; and the movie “Mononoke no hime” from Studio Ghibli.
Subsign: If you could throw any kind of party, what would it be like and what would it be for?
Bruno: Maybe a party in the beach at the sunset, with a huge bonfire, good food, good music, and our friends.
Subsign: What famous people would you invite to the party and why?
Bruno: Of course I would love to have all my favorite artists in this party, but just to make the party funnier I think Snoop Dog would be a great guest.
Thank you, Bruno, for being a part of it!
If you know an artist that should be in the spotlight, contact us at jojo@subsign.co .
For more of Bruno’s work, you can follow him on the links: ilustrata on Behance, ilustrata on Instagram.
