INTRODUCTIONIf you are reading this book you are probably interested in art, or maybe you are an artist yourself. In that case, you might relate to me when I say that I can’t pinpoint exactly when I started being interested in art. From a very early age I always found interest in the beauty of things; drawing and painting was just a way for me to channel those creative interests. Paper and pencil were always available so I went for it.
I grew up in the 90’s (born ‘92) watching loads of anime, so it is no surprise that my first drawings were recreations of the characters in those cartoons. At the time I didn’t know that those cartoons were in fact anime, but even nowadays my style is heavily influenced by anime and manga. I started just copying the characters and style, but it was an easy way to get into drawing characters, which is what I still do to this day. Looking back, it is so interesting to see how something that happened so long ago still has an impact in my day to day life today.
By the year 2000, I already had a huge interest in the plastic arts, being known in the family and school as the creative kid. However, in the summer of 2001, something happened that completely changed the way I would imagine my own future from that point on. That summer I picked up my first comic book series, with which I would be obsessed for a while. It was no other than W.I.T.C.H. by Barbucci and Caneppa for Disney.
To say that I fell in love with that comic book series is an understatement.
Naturally I started drawing the characters from the series, I would do it almost every day—it became my favourite thing to draw. But most importantly, I then knew that what I wanted to do as a career was to be an artist. I really owe both Barbucci and Caneppa a huge thank you, for without the inspiration that their series brought me I would have never considered art as a career.
W.I.T.C.H. was only the start of course, soon after I realised I really loved comics and manga for girls, and luckily for me by that time manga titles were finally starting to be available in the west.
Overall the early ‘00s were a time in my life that really shaped my style as an artist, from shapes to colour to subject matter.
By the mid ‘00s I was already spending a significant amount of time on the family computer, and soon enough my interest for art and comics transferred to my online activities. That is when I discovered that people were sharing their art online with the rest of the world.
It was a big revelation!
This is the kind of thing that you only realise years down the line when you reflect upon your past, but up until then I had only shared my art with friends and family who, at the end of the day, had no further interest in art. But being able to show your art to like minded people and getting to interact with them made such a big difference.
Feedback was one of the things I really appreciated at the time when I started joining these online communities. For one, these people had a genuine interest in art and they knew more than people in my real life. But also strangers on the internet are much more likely to be critical of your work than say your parents.
My favourite website to share my work at the time might sound familiar to you: Deviantart. There were so many artists there, suddenly so much inspiration and art became available to me, it was a game changer. Also, suddenly sharing my art became this super exciting thing, my art was no longer just for me.
Copyright © 2023 by Lidia Cambón. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
