Creative of the Month
-Tania Estevez-
1) Tell us a little bit about yourself and why you consider yourself a Creative.
Hi! My name is Tania and I’m a freelance painter and illustrator based in London. I was born and raised in Valencia (Spain), where I developed a little more my creativity studying in Art School. I worked in several design studios until 2013, when at 23 years old I decided to make a change and I left my home and my hometown to start a new adventure in Madrid. It is then when I started working as a freelance illustrator full time. I worked for publishers, editorials and graphic designers. On those days I learned a lot about how to manage my creativity and how to be able of making a living from what I love. I’m still learning about that. I guess it is a natural process.
I consider myself a Creative because that is what I do. I create. I love creating things myself. I love painting, I love drawing, but I also love design and sculpture. I love creating. My whole life I’ve been doing and creating things even without knowing. Being able to spend my days creating my own thing is the best that has ever happened to me.
At the moment I run my own online store and have several projects and ideas in hands. I do commissioned paintings and I work for brands around the world like Sephora and Elemis.
2) Who inspires you the most?
I look for inspiration everywhere. It is hard to say who or what inspires me the most because that is constantly changing and everyday I find new inspirations. But one constant in my inspiration is always nature. I’m a plant lover and I feel very inspired by it.
Normally I take pictures of every little thing that inspires me. When I take a walk or when I travel I always come back with new pics that provide me with inspiration. Also, Google or Instagram are a good and fast source of it. And of course there are artists, illustrators and photographers that I admire and have inspired me always like Conrad Roset, Mark Demsteader or Flora Borsi.
3) What is the last book you read and what is your all time favorite read?
Last book I read was “The Art of Social Media” by Guy Kawasaki. It’s not what I usually read but someone recommended me that book as I’m currently studying a Marketing course.
I normally read books about history or fiction but set in some real time. One of my favourites are The Book Thief and The Physician.
But my all time favourite and special read is the complete Harry Potter saga as I grew up with those books 🙂
4) How do you express yourself?
I think I’m expressing myself all the time, everyday, with every single little thing! I express myself doing my job, painting, drawing… Also in many ways through design, photography, decorating my home, cooking, my dressing… I always trying make sure that everything has a bit of me.
5) What is your most favorite project that you’ve ever worked on?
I usually love all the projects I do, so it is very hard to choose one of them.
I guess, now I’d say it is the project I’m currently working on. It’s being a long and special project and I am enjoying it a lot, so I think I could say it’s my favourite.
I’ve been working for Elemis during the lasts months and we have created together beautiful boxes for their last product launch. As the product is a marine oil, I designed a mermaid with the blue and green colours of the bottle on her tail. But every box is different and so every mermaid. Each bespoke mermaid is made by hand and has a different face. Each one painting and customised for its own receiver. I’m still working with the brand and I am so exciting about what comes next!
6) What would be your biggest and wildest dream concerning your creative talent?
My biggest (and maybe the wildest) dream would be to have my own physical store-studio, with my paintings, my creations and also a selection of furniture and decorative products that I love. As I’m a big lover of interior design owning this kind of space would be absolutely amazing.
But I’m really happy right now. I feel very lucky of being able to live from my art and my illustration projects. And working at home is not bad at all 🙂
7) Describe your perfect day.
My perfect day starts in bed with my love, waking up early, feeling the sun on my face and with a delicious breakfast waiting on the table.
Then we can go for a walk in a nearby park and finish at the other end of the city, as it always happens to us 🙂
We make stops: one for coffee, visit some museum, take a look in some bookstore, having lunch in one of our favourite places, maybe a picnic sitting by the lake… I do some sketches and read my book while the sun makes us brown.
After that we can go back home for a drink or continue in some chill out bar with good music and friends.
8) If you had one tool for the rest of your life to express your creativity with, what would it be?
What a difficult question to answer! I mostly use pencils, brushes and watercolours as my day to day tools, but I also sometimes need inks, or the computer… I guess if I have to choose one of them I would say the pencil, as it is the tool I use always. I like to combine tools but if I have to choose that’s the one.
9) If you were a character in a book, who would you be and why?
I really don’t know! 🙂 I love reading but I never thought about being one of the characters in those books.
It just came to my mind Girlboss of Sophia Amoruso, not because I feel reflected on her life but because of her nonconformity, her desire for improvement and her hard work and commitment to create something of her own.
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