ManicWorld Magazine

– Have you always been beautifully creative or did that recently happen?

“Since I was a kid, I have always been a creative person! I always had pencils and paper around. I loved doing a lot of collages from magazines and stickers, mixed with drawings. When I grew up, I had less space for my creativity; I was fully committed to my STEM path at the university, so I didn’t have much time to express my hobbies outside university life, where free time and creativity were very limited. Only after my bachelor’s in biology and master’s degree in marine sciences, I decide to take some free time for myself and decided what to do. So I bought myself an iPad and I started with digital art in October 2023. I opened my socials and started sharing my art. In that year, I rediscovered my love for art and my creativity.

It is certainly something I have cultivated over the years in many ways. Working as an illustrator allows me to be creative in so many ways. The numerous projects I work on largely inspire me and fuel my creativity. But to preserve it, I tend to work when I’m feeling the most inspired and creative, and this is when I create my best work!

– So how did you get into book illustration?

My obsessions with books started when I was in middle school with very classic series like LOTR, Eragon, and important classics such as Pet Semetary, Dorian Gray, or And Then There Were None. My very first book fan art was a portrait of “Saphira” from Eragon, inspired by the original cover from the 2006 edition. I always had a good collection of books, with a strong preference for fantasy, horror, and thriller. I was fascinated by the hardcovers and illustrated editions of these books and started collecting them! My passion for books and art grew simultaneously as the years passed, but who would’ve thought I would be lucky enough to be able to work in the creative field as a book illustrator. 

I’ve found myself working on my first project by chance. I wasn’t actively searching to enter the book illustrations since I thought that was out of my reach at the time, and I didn’t know exactly how to start. I remember that one day, I was on Threads, and I posted one of my black and white illustrations, and after a few minutes, I received a request for “book internal art” for a romantasy series. I was quite confused because I didn’t know exactly what this author wanted from me, but I decided to give it a try! Since that moment, the demand exponentially increased and allowed me to decide to see if a freelance career as book illustrator could be a concrete possibility. A year later, I’m now officially a book illustrator. Some from the book community recognized me as the first book illustrator specialized in book internal art. Apparently, not much attention was given to that type of book art, and with my art style, I discovered a new niche in the book community.