"If you can dream it, you can do it"

Thiago Storino is a designer and illustrator from Rio de Janeiro. Thiago knows that inspiration lurks everywhere and he is always in for a creative challenge. He believes in Walt Disney's saying - "if you can dream it, you can do it."

Thiago Storino

Why did you decide to become a designer?

Since my childhood I always showed a lot of talent for drawing, especially because my mother was an artist. I grew up in the middle of frames and paints, so I always knew that I wanted to do art, I just didn’t know what exactly it would be, but something related to arts. 
 

Thiago Storino

 What inspires you most to your work? Do you have a special way of getting inspired?

A lot of people don’t realize this - but everything around inspires you, even unconsciously: my wife, family, friends, movies, books, comic books, or even music that I listen works as a source of inspiration. It is always good to follow the work of other artists that you like and admire. To have good references is primordial to your imagination and inspiration.

Thiago Storino

The objects and scenes you create are very unique. How do you come up with them?

The ideas can come up anytime - I always carry a sketchbook with me. A lot of ideas come up in the middle of creation process, this is why it is important to be open to other people’s opinions and suggestions that you can trust. I always hope to make a better work than the last one, so I can feel that I overcame myself. 

“If you can dream it, you can do it. Always remember that this whole thing was started with a dream and a mouse.” - Walt Disney

Thiago Storino with Gabriel Sousa

Mariana Santos: "The way you deal with confusion"

Mariana Santos is a 15 year old artist from Portugal. She is an Urban Sketcher and likes to sketch everyday and she loves to paint from concert photos. In this interview with TYT she speaks about creating something new and why art is about not being afraid. 

Mariana Santos

What inspires you to your art?

I started drawing everyday stuff in my sketchbook because of the group Urban Sketchers, I got really inspired seeing all that fantastic work and decided to get my own journal, I started drawing every day and that really helped me to develop my drawing skills. Before I had a sketchbook I did some portraits of my favorite musicians, I got into drawing because I got into music and photos of concerts really inspire me when drawing a musician, I love to paint in black paper from those concert photos.

Recently I’ve had some ideas and done some studies for a different kind of paintings in which I’m trying to move a bit away from sheer representation of reality and to play with color and shapes even though they’re based on real subjects.

Mariana Santos

Your work is mainly about music and everday life.Which moments fascinate you most?

I think regarding my sketches on everyday life I’m more fascinated and enthusiastic while traveling. While I’m not traveling I lately tend to draw a lot of portraits of my friends maybe because I spend so much time with them, I also draw a lot on the subway, in the classroom. My sketchbook ends up documenting my life. I’m also fascinated with the possibilities of shapes colors and lines, the composition within a page.In my music drawings I draw my favorite musicians from photographs, usually what fascinates me is the action and the contrast.

Mariana Santos

Do you have favorite artists?

 I love all kinds of things and I change my favorite artists very often.Concerning the subject of everyday sketches and visual journals, I really love the work of Danny Gregory, Tommy Kane, Lapin, Eduardo Salavisa, Richard Câmara, Nina Johansson, John Woolley, as well as other Urban Sketchers correspondents.

The painters I’ve gotten pretty interested in recently are Egon Schiele, Basquiat, Touluse-Lautrec and Eric Fishell, I also love Andy Warhol, Picasso, Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Alexander Calder, Jackson Pollock, Oskar Kokoschka and lots more.

Mariana Santos

Mariana Santos

Would you like to become a full time artist after you finish school?

 Yes, I’d love to become a full time artist when I finish school but I’m keeping my mind open.  I think nowadays in the art word you have to do a bit of everything in order to survive. Those things still feel very complicated to me so for now I’ll concentrate on my art, what makes me happy.

Mariana Santos

Creativity is…

To combine the things you know and create something new, everything comes from somewhere. To be creative is not to be afraid. Creativity comes from hard work, dreams, involvement, confusion and the way you deal with that confusion.

Mariana Santos

If you'd like to have a look at more of her work, check out Mariana Santos Blog and on Flickr

"Without Borders" Interview with Richardson Ovbiebo, rising star in the Nigerian art scene

"I always wanted to be an artist", says Richardson Ovbiebo, one of the rising stars in the Nigerian art scene. He works in the huge metropolis Lagos, which is the second most populous city in Africa.

Richardson gets his inspiration from nature, fashion, architecture and mundane objects. However, it is not always easy for him to gather material for his work. Often Richardson uses discarded parts of bicycles, not only because they are an important means of transportation but because they are very problematic litter, this is explained by Richardson more extensively on his blog: http://greybagstudios.blogspot.com/.  His artwork usually concentrates on social criticism. 

Currently he is focussing on a series of works titled "Without Borders".

                                 
                                            
                                          "Without Borders" by Richardson Ovbiebo

                                         "Frozen Dreams"  by Richardson Ovbiebo

                                                                

"Surge" by Richardson Ovbiebo