1. Let's start off with getting to know you, tell us a bit about yourself.
My name is Mario Sánchez Nevado and I'm from Murcia (Spain). I work as a freelance Illustrator and designer and actually I'm living in a little and peaceful town called Cehegin, which allows me to get concentrated all the time.
I started on this little world as a hobby (I guess just like everyone else), but suddenly I started to receive works and commissions out of the blue, so I decided to put all my strength on this because creating is my biggest passion.
2. Do you start from sketches? Photographs? How do these amazing pieces start life?
I don't usually make sketches unless the piece is a painting. Most of the times the image is in my head, so I go out and take some photos instead or if I find a nice model around the net I use that. Some works came out straight of a dream, but those are very rare. The ideas come from nowhere. I mean, maybe I'm taking a walk and suddenly the idea comes to my mind, sometimes because something I'm seeing and other times completely out of the blue.
3. The amount of atmosphere and emotional impact in your pieces is astounding - how do you establish the weight of the piece?
Before starting a piece, even if I have the idea so clear, I have to be sure of how the composition is going to be. If all elements are equilibrate and create balance, everything contained in the piece (call it emotion, concept, etc) will stand, if not, it will fall.
Also, something that helps a lot is the symbology. The iconography for most of the objects or places or whatever you can use was established long time ago by other artists in the Art History because of their common use. People don't recognize those, but a mental process tells you: "that means hope", for example. If you know how to put the right elements in the right place, people will understand and get into the feeling of the piece.
About atmosphere, that depends of the piece and has a lot to do with the iconography stuff too. The most important thing for doing this, I think, is to choose the right model and placement. I have some tricks I use for this too, like converting the image in something dream-like.
4. Looking at one of your pieces is like watching a movie. Elaborate on how you are able to create the illusion of motion out of nothing.
I guess this is a matter of realism. I try to make my pictures as real as I can even if in real life those situations could never happen. It's important to get right the lighting (because that places everything in its right place) and also to keep in mind what would happen if that situation occurred in real life. What I'm trying to mean is that if you have a drunken woman, you have to be aware that she will reflect water in her skin and bubbles will be attached to it as well.
Also, it's a matter of placing things too. I always try to create visual lines which lead the eye to where I want to, so that creates most of the times the motion sensation. I create those placing objects with similar shapes or colours for example, and then the visual line creates by itself.
5. There's an undercurrent of turmoil and the rendering of a divided world in your work - is this intentional? Explain.
Of course, and this is something I've been developing lately, and I think it started in "Reality Clash", where the visual plane was divided into three different ones (which were divided in two parts as well). I've been working in images with just one visual plane for a big while, so I think it was a matter of time and will of experimentation to be able to reach those, because I was tired of putting everything in the same place, and I wanted to break that. I think it adds some depth and mystery to the pieces. I guess that this is how I'm feeling things now and how I want to see them. Maybe my mind will need to see everything in just one plane in the future, you never know.
6. Where do you get the ideas for your characters?
Sometimes I take inspiration in music. I try to synthesize the overall idea of the lyrics and summarize it with just a concept or a word. If I have a model who can fits with that (even if I have to morph he or she a lot) I use that, if not I just use myself as a model. As I said already, the most important thing is that it has to fit with the overall placement and sensation of the image. If not, no matter how hard you work: it won't look good. And if I can't get a model that fits with the idea, then I paint it. Sometimes I have to wait a lot until I found the right one, I've learnt to be patient about that.
7. Your digital painting is near flawless - where did you develop this technique?
I started to make drawings when I was a child and I've been working on it since that. My mother was a great drawer so I think that has something to do about this. Some years ago I started to study Fine Arts in the University, but honestly it was a waste of time, so I just reorganized my house and created a studio, where I work nowadays. I did around 2.000 traditional drawings/ paintings in the first year I had the studio. I was drawing like mad all day long, without stop. Practice makes it perfect!
Then, a year ago or so I bought a tablet (it's a very basic one, not a Wacom, neither special effects, etc), so having the skills I already had, it wasn't so hard to get to the point of my actual digital paintings.
8. Most of your works use an explosion of colors. Do you have these colors in mind before you start or do they just work themselves in naturally?
Usually, they appear by themselves. I mean, I always add colours when the image is finished. Sometimes I have the colours in mind but that is not very usual. So most of the times I work in B/W and later on I add the colour palette. That way I'm sure that the depth and lighting of the image is correct, because while working colours are so distracting.
Obviously, it's me who selects the colours, but it's not something I think about beforehand. Like in symbolism and iconography, colours have meanings attached so I try to play with that. I put a lot of psychology in my works using compositions, colours, icons, etc., so I think that colours add a very important feeling and mood factor to the overall image.
9. The amount of detail in your work is amazing. How do you figure out which details will contribute to the piece, and which to leave out?
Again, this is something composition related. As I said about visual lines, I always try to achieve that in every image I create. Balance is a very important thing for me so I work hard on that. I avoid starting making random things. When I'm working, I spend 80% of the time staring at the monitor and thinking where things should be placed. Everytime I put anything, I look at it closely for a long time, and then, I decide to leave it or to delete it if it breaks lines and decompensates the composition. Sometimes I have to delete things which adds some importance to the piece, but if the image stands by itself, I prefer it to be balanced.
10. Do you work primarily in the digital world or traditional? Can you explain your mediums?
Actually I work only in digital apart of my photography. I started in traditional and in 2005 I started to work in digital, and slowly I stopped using traditional. That's because digital is cheaper, cleaner and easier. I remember myself spending all my money in material for a single painting (I reached the amount of 300$ for a single painting and I cannot afford that for every work I want to do) and also wasting a lot of time cleaning the tools and the studio after a session. In digital you just sit, turn on the computer and start working, but personally, I think that a traditional piece has more power.
My medium for digital is called "patience". I know a lot of great illustrators that ruin their images because they don't know when their pieces are finished. Maybe you think you have not anything else to add, but sometimes, you have to let the image closed for some hours or days, and return to it later to see it with fresh eyes, then, you decide if it is finished or not. I guess that everything is a matter of practice, I'm not gifted nor I have any special skills anyone could have, I just work a lot and learn a lot, that applies too to traditional mediums and photography and just everything else. You cannot create great things out of the blue, you have to work hard.
11. On some of your recent works you mix some techniques such as abstract-vector with lifelike painting. How did you come about this?
I'm a curious person, and I've always liked to be in touch with everything I could put my hands into. Actually I work with photography, vector, 3D, painting, fractals, video, animation and music composition. I just want to create, no matter the medium is.
About the mixture of those, it is because I don't want to get bored. I mean, I never follow a method. I don't want to be labeled although most of the people know me because of my photomanipulations. Sometimes I get into an experimentation period and I start mixing everything I know into a single image. And actually, I use a lot of mixed media in my photomanipulations to achieve realism but that is something hard to notice. When I use that mixed media, I just feel it. Today I can create a photomanipulation and tomorrow maybe I feel like creating an image mixing vector, 3D and painting. It depends on every single concept. I started to do that in traditional painting some years ago, mixing a lot of weird things and materials. I used to go to my materials store and bought a lot of things I did not even know for what they were, so I guess I'm doing the same in digital. It's my will for experimentation and for discovering new things.
12. What is your work set-up like? Do you work with a Wacom tablet? What is your ideal environment for creating?
I do not have a Wacom. I have an 8x6 inch Genius tablet but if I'm honest 90% of the time I use the mouse, I reserve the tablet only for paintings or very technical and tiny details which are hard to achieve with a mouse. My computer is a 3,2 AMD processor with 4 GB of RAM and with no housing to improve the ventilation, and now I'm willing to add another processor to improve the speed of it. Also I work in high resolutions such 1280 to be able to see the images overall.
13. What equipment do you use for your photography?
I use an Olympus s700 and it's not very good, its ISO is very bad and no matter how good your lighting is: even with the smallest ISO the pics come out always grainy, so actually I'm saving for a Canon EOS 350D.
Apart of the camera, I have some lamps for lighting, they create light in different colour tones, those are pretty normal lamps you can buy in any decoration or lamp store and are very cheap but they work great.
14. Staying with the subject of photography, your photos also seems to have a digital creation feel to them, how do you achieve such visuals?
As I've said, that is mostly thanks to my lamps. I usually use two or three of them. I have some with different colours so when I mix them the atmosphere is created so I don't have to put a hard post-processing in the photos apart of reducing noise and sharpening them a bit because of the quality of my camera.
Also, my photography is not spontaneous. When I've reached an idea I think is nice, I start to create the scenario and to try different things. Usually I create my own scenography, it's like creating a digital or traditional piece, you start selecting what you will put on the scene, you select the character, the ambience, the scenario, etc..
15. What do you like or dislike about the online art community?
The thing I like the most is that you can show your images to the world without having to go to a lot of museums and art galleries (and even so, your images are shown to few people). You can show them when you want and can get a lot of feedback. It's not like you create an image and you can just show it to familiars and friends, and they just tell you "oh, it's nice!". Here, there are people who help you improve and I think that is something very important. Also, thanks to internet I've been able to have my own store and know that there are people out there somewhere that like my works. I've known a lot of great artists and become friends with some, and we have learnt from each other. I don't think there's anything I don't like, since this has earned me a lot of good moments and experiences.
16. How can someone purchase prints of your work?
Actually prints of my works are available at www.aegis-strife.deviantart.com/store.
17. Have you done any commissioned work?
Yes, a lot, actually. I'm working in some CD packagings for some awesome metal bands, also I work for an Illustration Agency and lately I've done a design for a catalogue for the fashion label KYO. Also I have always people asking me for personal commissions so I have not complaints about this :)
18. Who and/or what do you look towards for inspiration?
Mostly music, especially bands like theGathering, Anathema and Paatos, I'm listening to music 24/7.
About other artists, I love the work of a lot of them like Salvador Dalí, René Magritte, Marx Ernst, Giorgo de Chirico, G.R. Giger..., And more actually, I've fell in love with the imagery of Travis Smith, Dennis Sibeijn, Japi Honoo, Maciej Zielinski and the list is endless.
19. Give an aspiring artist one piece of advice.
Experiment. Do never think you have reached the perfect method or way of representation because you never will. Try new things, new mediums, just everything. It's very sad to see people with talent get stuck in the same style all the time without evolving (although that seems to sell a lot nowadays...).
20. Finally, what seems to be the final question for all our interviews, how did you first run across Phirebrush and what makes you keep coming back?
I don't really remember if I am honest, but I bet it was because of deviantArt. I liked the interface and the way things are going on here. I mean, I check the site at least once a week to read the news because there is always something interesting to read and know, also, I like the way things work here, I mean, the issues are interesting and with nice selected artworks which can be easily ignored by the bunch of submissions in other art sites :)
