Makers: Manoli’s Paint Brushes and Magic

I have a particular respect and admiration for makers. Sometimes you see someone’s work and you immediately feel inspired. It all makes sense. Then you get to know a bit more about the person behind it and everything they do becomes even more beautiful.

Are you ever curious of how they work, where they learned it and how the things they make are born? I know I am. Meet Manoli, or Srta. M. She paints. She draws. She experiments. She’s awesome 🙂

Who is Manoli and what does she do?

I’m 25 years old and I live very close to Barcelona; i’m Manoli in my house and Srta.M. online. I draw since as far back as I can remember, I’m an occasional illustrator and sometimes a graphic designer.

When did you realize you liked to paint? When did it first occur to you that you might be very good at it?

I always likes drawing and I used to paint the the fashion mannequins that my sister, who was studying fashion design was throwing away. As a kid, I always had with me a notebook and some colored pencils.

The truth is I can’t think of a particular moment in which I realized I could be good at it, I’ve simply devoted myself to what i liked to do, and what I like to do is draw. I learned a lot in art school and I still have a lot to learn. It’s very flattering when somebody says they like my work. It always surprises me.

When do you draw/paint?

All the time. I don’t have a favorite moment of the day, the inspiration can come any time. Drawing and paining were always a way to relax, they calm me and they heal me. The truth is I draw or paint most of the time.

What are your favorite tools? What about textures, colors, shapes?

I love watercolors and paint brushes, it’s something that used to scare me a lot because it’s a technique in which you never now what you’ll get, but painting is truly awesome. The computer and the drawing software are very cool to use, but I would never trade the paintbrush for them. There’s nothing in the world that could change my mind.

There are some colors I really like. A lot. I like paining with saturated colors, reds, violets and yellows. I’ve become a very big fan of combinations made of greens, blues and violets lately… I use some tricks to add texture to the drawings, likes white wax, bleach, salt… everything works!

Wow, that sounds so cool. Did you learn this in school or is it something you’re experimenting with yourself? What the weirdest experiment you did lately?

I learned all this in school. I studied illustration in a small school in Sant Cugat (Barcelona), together with other 12 students and the relationship with the teacher was very close, he gave us a lot of advice and also the tools and the time to experiment. It was great! I then continued to experiment by myself, but most of it I learned in school.

One of the weirdest experiments I made lately was to create some paper templates to paint watercolor silhouettes, but it ended up bad. You see, i forgot that paper becomes very fragile when wet.. haha! next time I’ll try with plastic ones.

If you could use the ideal place to live in and the ideal job what would those be?

I really like Barcelona, it’s a city I adore to have close. But if I could choose where to live I would live in Lisbon; I’ve been there a few year s ago and I fell in love with the city. The city is beautiful, and in general Portugal is a fascinating country.

The ideal job should give me time for all the things I want to do, for everything I still have to draw. I don’t ask more of it than that it allows me to be happy.

Other posts about makers you might like:

Martin’s sewing machine orchestra
Lenneke: The jewel maker