Van Saiyan / How Illustration Changed My Life

Van Saiyan

 

I always remember drawing since I was a kid. It’s clear to me that what I liked most was drawing, reading comics and watching my favourite cartoons on tv. All that was super…

As my parents were teachers, I have always had books with beautiful illustrations at home and I enjoyed reading them so much. I loved going with my parents to the library and getting adventures and dinosaur books. I looked at the drawings a lot. When I was 8 years old, I started reading superhero comics. My grandparents took me almost every Saturday to a comic book store and bought me some one, that was the most! I always reread each comic five times at least… After that, I started making my own comics during the summers, even got my cousin sold some of them at her school…

In primary and secondary school I was popular for drawing well and between classes I liked to scribble in my notebooks . At that time I never thought about dedicating myself to it although several teachers suggested the idea.

After finishing my studies to be a primary school music teacher, I decided to study an illustration degree at the professional drawing school in Madrid (Esdip) where I learned some basic notions of illustration, comic art and 2D animation. But it wasn’t until a few years later that I decided to be a professional illustrator. I began to meet other professionals as my girlfriend, illustrator and professional painter. For this influence, I started to develop my portfolio working as a freelance illustrator.

I joined Anna Goodson Illustration Agency two years ago. Since then it has helped me to improve my career and get new clients outside of Spain and be able to work for top international media such as The Washington Post, Entertainment Weekly, Polygon among others.

Nowadays I’m living in my hometown again, in a quiet and small village. After almost 10 years in Madrid, being able to live and work from a quieter place is a wonderful combination. I prefer to be surrounded by a more relaxed atmosphere in a natural environment today and I’d like to say that doing what I enjoy for a living is incredible.

 

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