These two artists make such an inspirational team, that we had to get to know them better and asked them a couple of questions for our 7 days of inspiration series. In this series, we introduce an artist each day, who inspired us a lot this year. Well, today it’s two actually, but what they do together is pretty exiting and Fernando was so kind as to answer us our questions. Want to know more about his part of the process behind a video like this? Parts of it we already leaked in our success #ComesWith blog post.
Christmas is coming up, how do you spend this time?
Yes, oh wow, itΒ΄s already end of the year right. Time flies. We normally spend Christmas with our family.
Tell us a bit about how your carreer began
How did you get started?
We started like everyone I guess, we both have passion on telling stories and we were highly influenced by animations and comics when we were kids. I (Fernando) for instance started copying drawings from newspapers here in SΓ£o Paulo, Brazil.
When did you discover Wacom?
I discovered Wacom when I started working digitally, that was end of 2004.
Which tablet did you use back when you started, which one(s) do you use today?
Oh that was long time ago, my first tablet was a Graphire3 Studio XL, then I moved to a Intuos3, a Bamboo, a Cintiq 12wx and now I have a Cintiq 27 HD touch, which I love and use a lot π
How did you find out what creative area you wanted to specialize in?
As I said I love to tell stories and express myself through drawings, Pedro the same, but in his case is through cg models. When we got in touch with animations we got crazy about it. So we both love the animation language and how versatile it is. Naturally we specialized on that, we both work as visual development artists. IΒ΄m on the 2D side, Pedro is on the CG side. We collaborate together for a long time now and we’re starting to direct some projects here and there. LetΒ΄s see what happens.
How did you find your own style? Any recommendations to aspiring artists?
Humm, that’s always a tough question. I really think we have a personal taste. If we change like persons, and we all go through that in life, our personal taste changes too, but a part of that doesn’t change at all. I try to have my heart on it, it’s difficult I know, but that’s when I connect to myself and can draw in an honest way.
You have to trust your gut and realize that some of your movements while you’re drawing or painting are more “natural”. Don’t run away from that, embrace what you feel comfortable doing and improve upon that. At least for me, at the end of the day, you’re communicating something through drawing. So be the best you can be to get that message across clearly. Don’t get me wrong, doing things out of your “comfort zone” is really good but you have lots of ways to do that.
What do you do in the creation process?
How does your creative process look like?
If it’s a concept or idea I always start with research. Sometimes I write before that too. So I have a more objective idea to do my research on. After doing that, I gather everything in one file in Photoshop, normally I don’t use other artists’ references, it’s more photos of the real things… objects, people, sets and so on. Then I start doing thumbnails, really loose sketches. And then I do some color sketches on top of my thumbnails. Thereafter comes line drawing and final painting.
What do you recommend aspiring artist looking up to your art?
We always like the “feeling” feedback. We try to put enough information to tell a story or part of a story on our images. Storytelling is key for us.
Any recommendations on how to improve workflow?
Research, experience and practice. Try to be conscious while you’re working. Some habits make you concentrate more or make you go out of focus. Be aware of that and avoid the ones that don’t work for you. Also try to keep a routine, I know that doing things the same way everyday can be boring, but you have to do a routine to keep things consistent, I think.
Which software do you use? Why did you choose it & can you give tips & shortcuts on it?
Photoshop and Sketchup (if I need to block things on 3D really fast). I chose that because, I’m used to work with it. Plugins on Photoshop can makes things faster. I use brushbox – to organize my brushes (Derrick Barth gumroad) and also perspective tool 2 from Sergey Kritsikiy.
Are there special go-to resources that you use frequently?
Google and Pinterest on internet.
How much of your workflow happens analogue? Which steps do you create digitally?
Almost everything is done digitally, I do some sketches on sketchbook but I keep them there.
Where do you find inspiration and motivation?
What inspires you?
We’re both inspired by things, emotions and situations. It can be a sculpture in a garden somewhere around the city, a lamp design in a friend’s house, our experiences, art in a museum, in the internet or in a movie theater and music. Lots of music gets us inspired.
How do you keep yourself motivated each day?
We have to be honest here, some days are way more difficult than others, but we really love to work on creative projects. So I think what keeps us motivated is collaborating with people that have the same mindset.
How do you overcome the creative block? Any recommendations?
Try to start and give it a try. If that doesn’t work, try to do another thing that makes you feel good and come back to it later. Doing sports works a lot for me, or even a moment of rest, watching a movie or walking around. Sometimes I face creative block on personal work, and on that case I give a time to myself. Maybe I need to fill my visual library or I need to experience something to have something to speak about. On professional side, I guess we all have deadlines, and we have to show up to work and to deliver the best we can every day. So keeping a good balance, giving your body and your mind moments to rest and to recharge will help a lot.
Which artists do you follow & why?
That’s a really long list. I have a lot of favorite artists and all of them have a really strong point of view. We can feel that they’re really honest with themselves. Some of them are:
- Richard Thompson
- Ronald Searle
- Bill Waterson
- Tim Burton
- Nicolas de Crecy
Click to open/close the rest of the list.
- Laerte
- Ziraldo
- Flavio Colin
- Gonzalo CΓ‘rcamo,
- Tonko House (Dice Tsutsumi, Robert Kondo, Chris Sasaki, Mike Dutton)
- Moebius
- Crater Goodrich
- Andrea Blasich
- Shanon Tindle
- Anette Marnatt
- Nadya Mira
- Victoria Semikyna
- Ralph Eggleston
- Daniela Strijleva
- Pete Docter
- Harley Jessup
- Noah Klocek
- Ryan Lang
- Cory Loftis
- Max Tobias Lang
- Aurelien Predal
- Carlos Grangel
- Tony Fucile
- Conrad Hall
- Manu Arenas
- Nick Galifianakis
- Megan Brain
- Mike Mignol
- M S Sasek
- Ken Anderson
- Mark Davis
- Alfred Hitchcock
- Wes Anderson
- Heidi Smith
- Henri Sellick
- Carlos Nine
- Katsuhiro Otomo
- Michael Dudok de Wit
- Hayao Miyazaki
- Craig Kellman
- Genndy Tartakovsky
- Sargent
- Thiery Martin
- Woulter Tulp
- Anders Zorn
- Degas
- and the list goes on.
Speaking of a good balance, what about you leisure time?
Whatβs your favorite music? Your favorite musician / band?
We both share the same taste when it comes to music too. We love blues, jazz, rap, r&b, bossa nova. I guess we like a lot of different Vince Guaraldi, Aretha Franklin, Emicida, Tim Maia, Tom Mish, Jurassic 5 , BB King, Derek Trucks Band, Ron Artis II, Gary Clark Jr and the list goes on.
What kind of holidays do you prefer?
Beach on summer is very nice. Not the crowded ones though.
Which movies / series do you love?
I love cinematography. So every film that got Conrad Hall involved (Road to Perdition, American Beauty, Butch Cassidy), Roger Deakins (Blade Runner, Sicario, True Grit), Vitorio Storaro (The Last Emperor, Apocalipse Now…), The Godfather, Alfred Hitchcock’s films (The Birds, Psycho, To Catch a Thief, North by Northwest), Pete Docter’s (Wall-E, Monsters, UP, Inside Out) and recently I watched Bong Joo Ho’s Parasite, which a really loved.
Is there some advice you’d like to give?
Which tutorials can you recommend to aspiring artists in your specialization?
I did a lot of Schoolism and CGMA classes. I recommend them. Always look for the artists that are teaching and giving the lectures. Try to find the ones you admire/like. That will help a lot.
What challenges could aspiring artists face? Any idea how to overcome them?
Self doubt will be always an issue I think. Can I work with this? Am I good for that? I think that we will always have that thing going on in the back of our minds. The best way to deal with it, in my opinion, is thinking that everyone in this planet is different. In visual art there’s no number 1. It’s like in music, we can’t tell who are the best musicians/bands in the world. We have the ones we like the most, the ones that touch us more but that doesn’t mean that they are better than others. We are all different, and there’s nothing bad about it. Be patient and work on your skills and keep the passion on drawing, painting, modeling, telling stories and bringing them to life.
What are we going to see from you next?
We just started Flooul, it’s a studio based here in SΓ£o Paulo. We realised the new Ron Artis video clip you saw at the top, called In My Heart recently. We hope to direct more projects like that and also collaborate with people around the world that share the same passion as we do.
Thank you!
There has been quite some wisdom behind these open answers. We want to say “Thank you, Fernando, for taking the time and sharing your advice!” and we’re looking forward to seeing more of you next year. If you also want to see more of these two brilliant artists, make sure to follow them online. Here’s where to find them:
Website
Instragram
Fernando specific:
Instagram
ArtStation
Pedro specific:
Instagram
ArtStation
