@crespo_corp

Instagram: @crespo_corp
Website: www.danielcrespo.es

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

I was born in Madrid and I still live there, I hope not for much longer. I work as a freelance illustrator since 2018 and that’s one of the best things that ever happened me. 

2. Tell us about your aesthetic.

That’s a hard question. I think of any form of art as an open language that lives under some formal rules. Developing a solid one it’s a never ending process which involves lots of experimentation, fun, lots of failure too and it can last a lifetime. I like to think of it as things that works for me or for the project I’m working on, it’s less overwhelming. Right now I like to use warm vibrant color palettes balanced with cold notes and dominant blue palettes. I also use textures to achieve something more real. I like to draw stilized characters and backgrounds, but it depends on the tone of the underlying subject. 

3. What is your favourite medium and why?

Digital, because it’s easy to explore intuitions and ideas. If you end up messing it up you can always go back to where everything worked and it also allows you to share your work easily. 

4. What is your artistic process like?

I usually focus on the idea first, trying to find various ways to tell myself what the illustration is about. The more serious the work, the more I read or see things related to the subject. Then I start drawing in pencil or ink directly, depending on how safe I feel that day. I tend to look for a clear line in my sketches but recently I have realized that in this phase it works better for me to draw just enough, so that later when I look at the sketch it ends up taking shape in my head, then I take a picture and finish it on the computer. 

5. Who and/or what inspires your work? 

The current situation and the feelings it generates us is something that gives me many ideas for drawing, also nature and animals I’m very inspired by comics and films too. 

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

It plays a central role, especially since it became my source of income. I draw every day since ever, even when I’m on holidays in fact that's one of my unfinished business, getting to disconnect. About how does it change the way I view the world, I’d say a lot, because this daily struggle to find ways to represent concepts that work on a visual and aesthetic level helps me also to find new meanings and new implications for these concepts and ideas. This helps me a lot to understand others and myself. 

7. Where did you study?

I'm mostly self-taught but I consider that the university degree in philosophy has helped me a lot when I think what to draw. I've also taken lots online illustration courses that have been very useful. 

8. Where do you see yourself in five years?

Hopefully still drawing and doing it better. Maybe being author of a comic book or two.

9. What about in ten?

Same as in five but hopefully not in a dystopian world. 

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

In the future, I hope to achieve a balance between professional recognition and personal satisfaction by working on projects that excites me or that I think are good. 

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

This one is very hard! I like all kinds of food, I’m very curious and I enjoy tasting new flavors but, at the end I’m a simple guy and I love a fried egg and slice of good bread. 

12. Favourite book?

I can’t choose one. I would say 1984, From Hell and The Martian Chronicles. 

13. Favourite genre of music? 

As I said I’m very curious and I’m always looking for new things but I always come back to 90s grunge. Right now I’m very into new psychedelic rock and I also like to let go of the wheel and see where the spotify algorithm takes me. 

14. What are your hobbies? 

Reading, making music, hiking, making bread, cooking and swimming.

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

I would definitively have continued with my previous dream, to be a rock star.