The Wonderful Endless Path of Enlightenment
Interview
Music is a very important part of my creative development. Music can easily lead me to very specific emotional states that I like to represent in different colours and shapes. And all the time I see images, not just fashion, but art, product, posters, portraits, etc. All the arts are connected and are great sources of inspiration.
Bertha Allegre speaks with Patrick Morgan
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When did you first get into drawing?
I started drawing when I was 7 years old. I started by drawing my dog, who was moving all the time jaja, and then I started to doodle little figurines, quite childish, but I had a lot of fun doing that during all my classes at school. All my life I loved drawing. My father drew very well, especially portraits in pencil. He studied at a very good Art School here in Mexico City, so I think I inherited that from him. At the university I drew whenever I could, but then I left it for a long time, since I never thought I could make a living from this. Until 4 years ago I went back to drawing, since life itself invited me back to that path, and it was then that I got to know fashion illustration. And it's 1 year that I'm really drawing it every day, I have the chance to study fashion illustration at Milan for a while, and then at Barcelona, and know I am on my own way to study this wonderful endless path of enlightenment. It is a continuous metamorphosis.
Why did you choose to make fashion part of your inspiration?
Life brought me to this path alone, for a job offered to me at the Istituto Di Moda Burgo, an Italian fashion school. And when I started I didn't dedicate so much time to it since I was teaching, but now, I try to practice every day and every day I fall more in love with fashion illustration.
What is your particular working day as a creative?
Music is a very important part of my creative development. Music can easily lead me to very specific emotional states that I like to represent in different colours and shapes. And all the time I see images, not just fashion, but art, product, posters, portraits, etc. All the arts are connected and are great sources of inspiration.
What tools do you use when creating your images?
I see a lot of reference photos, and for them I use the computer or the cell phone. I never trace anything. And it depends on my mood I use markers, watercolours, pencil or coloured pencils. All part of my state of mind. In general I use my emotions a lot to illustrate.
Who are what has influenced you over the years as an artist?
I have had many influences, and painters who are my great favourites, such as Van Gogh, Sorolla, Dean Cronwell, Matisse, Botticelli, etc ... I think that is changing all the time, as we as artists, and the list just become bigger and bigger, and sometimes you love some more than others. Everything is always changing.
What advice do you have for younger artists looking to be part of this industry?
Don't be afraid, the joke is to create and bring out everything you feel. In the end there will be people who do not like your work and there will be others who love it! That's the way it is with everything. The joke is to be persistent and never take your finger off the line.
What are you drawing today? Music are you listening to?
Books that your are reading? Favourite artist/designer at the moment? Now I read a book about the history of fashion by Jim Heimann and Alison A. Nieder. Although sometimes I have little time to read since most of my time is spent working or drawing. As artists I am all the time looking at more fashionable illustrators now, and I really like the work of Chris Gambrell, Nadia Coolrista, Leilo Rebrova, etc. I really admire my fellow illustrators around me a lot. Music is what has always accompanied me in life, and I am very fond of both music and radio. Now I listen to Neils Fraham a lot to draw, on a special list that I have called Music for Painting Downer, haha, it's very good, it's on Spotify. Please email 5-7 Images of your work and a picture of your working studio.