Welcome to illustratio-nès

Hello :) My name is Agnès (or "àc-nes" as they call me in Ireland) - if you said it the Catalan way, it'd be like Ag-nèèès. But I don't mind - I will turn around with both options. And I like drawing, always had. Hence the name of this page - I'm an amateur illustrator, and I become "illustratio-nès" whenever I get the chance!

Apparently I started drawing since a young age, for instance, on Sunday's family lunch in a restaurant, with my dad's pen on the paper table cloth while we were waiting for the food. My parents are collectors of comics and antique books - they love them reading too, sometimes! We've got plenty of old Cavall Forts (Catalan magazine with comics for kids, that has been out since the 50s), American comics and other books full of beautiful drawings too. I loved manga as well, since I was 12 or so - I would stay up late till they played a dedicated TV program in TV3, back home in Catalunya, and record special movies and episodes from my favourite series. Not the series itself, but dedicated (and with better drawings) of Dragon Ball, Ranma, Lamu... Then I started buying lots of comics (ok sometimes I'd read for a while on the floor of the shop till they'll give out - fair!...). I'd be copying lots from them, and going to the Saló del Còmic every year in Barcelona.

My style didn't flourish until I moved to Dublin in 2011, though. I was new in a foreign city, getting to know people from all over the world, immersing myself into the Irish culture and having lots of personal time to think - that led me to discover who I was and what I liked, for real. Cutting my hair pixie-like may have also contributed to finding my brand (funny how a new hairdo can be such an energy-booster ;).

Signing up for an Illustration bootcamp with Adrienne Geoghegan, going to artsy events in town, watching again animation movies and mingling with artists was what really kept me afloat (apart from a job in tech that also kept me busy, from a pocket-perspective!). 

A few years forward, I think my drawings still preserve the manga essence, but I've tried to cartoonise it a bit more, trying to define my brand. I've also become fond of picture books and children's illustration - and got to experiment with other mediums and styles. Now I get inspired by a mixbag of artists: from the classics of Norman Rockwell, to the likes of Catalan artists like Pilarín Bayès, passing by the Moomins, Oliver Jeffers, and many cool Irish artists such as Tarsila Kruse, Peter Donnelly or Steve Simpson, among others.

So much to do, to learn, to offer! Keep me motivated by requesting stuff, and challenge me with your feedback and suggestions. I am excited to continue sketching with you.

PS-below you'll see my first impression when grabbing a pint of Guinness: "I could actually swim in here!", I thought. Then I learnt that I could also ask for a "glass", aka half a pint... 

PS-I do like my vegetables (not a vegan but somehow sometimes I forget to eat meat!) - so you can picture me like that too.