@raichels_

Instagram: @raichels_ Tictail: www.raquelmartinillustration.tictail.com Website: www.raquelmartin.net  

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

I am an illustrator from Barcelona where I carried out my Illustration studies. But I live now in the beautiful little island of Minorca with my husband and my two little kids since 2013.

2. Tell us about your aesthetic.

I would define my illustrations as colorful, kind, optimistic and a little naif ones.

3. What is your favourite medium and why?

After working with different media, gouache is definitely my favorite one. I just love its versatility.

4. What is your artistic process like?

On personal works, I always start a drawing or a painting from a previous idea. But many times this is not a very planned one. Improvisation plays an important role while painting or drawing and I like to see where the process takes me. On commissioned works, the process is much more planned and I always work from previous sketches that I share with the client in order to know better what they want and get to the final piece.

5. Who and/or what inspires your work?

It depends. Inspiration is everywhere ( it sounds cliché but it is true) Sometimes it comes from Nature or people I see at the street...And sometimes from photos, magazines, books or a song lyrics. But for me, vegetation and faces are a recurring inspiration.

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

Drawing and painting have been part of my life since I was a child. And I just feel so lucky to have achieved that they become my job!

7. Where did you study?

I carried out my Illustration Studies in Barcelona (Spain).

8. Where do you see yourself in five years? Working in an agency?

I still see myself working as a freelance illustrator working on commissions combined with personal projects.

9. What about in ten?

I haven't thought about it yet...□

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

I hope my art can delight people. And most of time I try to capture them, so they would like to be inside my illustrations.

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

I love gazpacho (a typical Spanish kind of cold tomato soup) and any type of pasta.

12. Favourite book?

I love writers like Jane Austen, Sandor Marai or Gabriel García Márquez.

13. Favourite genre of music?

Classic rock and folk.

14. What are your hobbies?

Reading, watching movies, going to the beautiful beaches of the island where I live, playing with my kids...

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

Any job related with helping people.