Daniel Bueno contact

I contacted Daniel Bueno after Ian posted some of his work on my blog in October. I really like his style of illustration. He’s a Brazilian illustrator so I was quite dubious about the language barrier, but it turns out his English is great (probably better than mine), and he was very helpful. My questions are in grey and his responses are in black:-

Your characters are great and very inventive. I saw in your interview that you are influenced by Jim Flora. I am also a big fan of his work. I always have one of his books at hand when creating characters. Do you have any tips for creating inventive characters?
As I am coming to the end of my degree I am striving to obtain my own individual visual language. Do you have any advice on how an illustrator might achieve this?

Usually I create characters using my background of references: they come from graphic and artistic material I like and I’ve seen through my life (from arts, comics, illustration, animation, graphic design, etc). All this graphic references start to get mixed up in my mind, and usually it’s not totally clear where they come from when I’m drawing. What I always try to do is not to make the most obvious form. I try to surprise myself, to make a unexpected combination of lines and contours.
But I also like to study, research and to organize information. In this way, I started to pay attention to the origin of all this shapes and graphic material, and to make a sort of hierarchical organization of my references. Jim Flora and Saul Steinberg are special to me in this sense, because I see they are fundamental references not just to me but to a great amount of artists that use similar graphic resources. It’s not just a matter of copying or get inspired by a style, but lot more a matter of taking “illustration lessons” from Flora and Steinberg – and each artist will apply this knowledge in his own way. Sometimes the conceptual approach and the working process of these great illustrators counts more than anything.But in fact, what calls our attention in Flora is his vigorous creativity in creating new forms. Well, a good way of creating inventive forms is to mix and combine these visual references in new ways, as Flora did with his references (Miró, Klee, the Mexican muralists, the cartoon, etc). He is spectacular because payed attention to this references too early, adjusting it properly to the graphic arts (combining with cartoon references), and being always very inventive. So, a good way of being inventive is also not to look only to a specific media, but to pay attention to other cultural manifestations. It’s also always interesting to think about our references in our contemporary context, to make them pertinent today. I see no problem in working with books at hand when creating something. I have close to me a wide variety of illustration and art books. I also enjoy sometimes looking at some stuff before drawing, just to get inspired. It’s something like a warming up to the job. It’s not uncommon to select some illustrations of other artists to study the proper approach in a work. One inspiring detail or another may be copied directly, but I always try not to trace too much something. As I’ve said already, one of our functions is to run away from the obvious and redundant solutions.

The abstract shapes you use work very well in creating interesting compositions. Do you have a source of reference for these shapes or do they come from your imagination?

I’ve seen some artists that also work with abstract form and textures, but fortunately it’s never the same thing. Or they are not so conceptual, or they are less “heavier”, or their themes are very different, etc. The combination of different aspects is one way of making your work peculiar. But it’s important to think about all this aspects – why they are important to you.

I found it fascinating to see that you come from an architectural background. I would love to see the result of your creativity upon an architectural structure, I should imagine it would be a very unique building. It seems that coming from this background has enabled you to have a more original style than many illustration graduates. Has it had any negative effects on your career as an illustrator?

I loved to study architecture and it did not bring any trouble to my illustration career. Besides all this background, I’ve met others illustrators with the same experience and I see in many of them a similar way of understanding things, images and the creative process. I even belong to a group of artists called “Charivari” that works together creating experimental magazines, and the majority is from FAU-USP. One of the aspects that interest us is the book seen as an “object”.
Well, I hope I could answer properly your questions,Feel free to send more messages, to show work and to talk :-)

It would be great if you could look over my attached PDF to get your opinions on my work. And perhaps any advice you might have on improvements. I would like to now concentrate on making my work look less digital and more hand made, similarly to that of your own. I will also be using your advice in looking at my influences more in terms on the concepts they use, as the ideas process is something I seem to struggle with.

I liked a lot your work, I can see references but also a original way of creating with all this graphic information. The way you blend creative forms with textures, photographs and very interesting graphic patterns makes your work special. I feel this graphic patterns have an important role in your illustrations.Don’t know very well what to suggest, but I think your intention to concentrate in a more hand made look is very interesting :-)