@belmathilde

Instagram: @belmathilde Facebook: www.facebook.com/mathildebel.illustration Website: www.mathildebel.com

1. What's your story? Where are you from?

Hello, I’m Mathilde. I’m from La Rochelle, a small French town on the Atlantic cost. I grew up in this town close to the sea and started drawing and doing creative things very early. I studied graphic design and worked in a lot of different jobs, before I decided to become a freelance illustrator several months ago.

2. Tell us about your aesthetic.

Colorful, simple and playful.

3. What is your favourite medium and why?

Indian ink for sketching because it allows you to somewhat lose control. Digital media, because it gives you access to endless possibilities for colors and composition.

4. What is your artistic process like?

I start with an idea, sometimes very specific, sometimes still unclear. I often connect different visual elements that I discovered over the last months, to create my own composition. Most of the time, I first draw in black and white, to focus on the composition and the shapes. Afterwards, I switch to the computer and rework the illustration, coloring it. Sometimes I have a palette in mind right away. Sometimes it’s more difficult and I want to change the colors every 5 minutes.

5. Who and/or what inspires your work?

Many things! Common, everyday objects, a certain combination of colors, a book, another artist’s work, a movie, a pattern, …

6. What role does art play in your life? How does it change the way you view the world?

Art and creativity are essential for me. The world around me is an endless source of inspiration.

7. Where did you study?

I studied graphic design in LISAA, an art school in Nantes.

8. Where do you see yourself in five years?

Doing what I like and working on enriching, very different collaborations.

9. What about in ten?

Working in my own atelier and having enough space to try new techniques and media.

10. What do you hope to achieve with your art?

Maybe it’s naive but I’m very happy when people tell me that one of my illustrations made them joyful and makes them smile.

11. Now, tell us a little more about you as a person: what is your favourite food?

Italian food and my grand-mother’s food.

12. Favourite book?

« Northern Lights » by Philip Pullman

13. Favourite genre of music?

French music, jazz, indy music and sometimes 80’s music.

14. What are your hobbies?

Riding my bike, cooking new recipes and planning my next trips.

15. If you weren't an artist, what would you be?

Probably working with animals.