All the time we’re looking for new and fresh talents to share with all of you and help you boost your inspiration, and today’s turn is for Miguel Ángel Ávila, a young artist from Colombia whose talent relies on creating some of the most stunning character illustrations. We had the chance of crossing words with him and so, we like to share this small interview with all of you where he shares some of his experience and advice on how to become a better artist and create brilliant artworks.

Mishës: How’s it going Miguel?, reaching you is even harder than interviewing a movie star hahaha.

Miguel: Hahaha that’s not true, in fact we have worked shoulder to shoulder in the past, right?, so I think it’s easy for you to find me.

Mishës: Hahaha you’re right. Well Miguel, how did you start in all this design and illustration thing?.

Miguel: It was almost instinctively since I was little, some members of my family are really good painters, though their talent was direct towards the architectural side. I began at 17 by making wall art for clubs and churches, that’s how I started to fell in love with the digital art.

Mishës: I see, so design has been always flowing through your veins. I can see that your main strength is character design, what does inspire you at the time of making this fun illustrations?.

Miguel: Giving life to a character is the best thing you can do when illustrating, it’s almost magical, I can find inspiration everywhere but I have to keep my eyes open at all time.

Mishës: Well that’s a good way of seeing things, regarding the technical part, what’s the process you follow and the tools you use when you make a character?.

Miguel: Sometimes this can be a trouble or it can be as easy as making a circle and from there let your instinct guide you to create a good character. There are tons of ideas that you can start with, but is important to always have a main idea of what you want to accomplish. My process is very simple, as most artists, I begin by making some notebook sketches to help me evolve during the creation process. Sometimes I like to draw directly in Photoshop, though this might sound weird it actually gives you a certain freedom.

Mishës: And in respect of color usage and the style you adopt in each one of your illustrations, what are the steps you follow regarding this subject?.

Miguel: To me, the color can flow throughout the whole illustration process, it’s just like a strike in your head that can come up at any moment!, haha. Once in a while I like to visit colourlovers.com, a truly recommend this website because you can find tons of great palettes to help you out, I usually create very simple palettes of maximum three colors and from there I start everything. You will not usually find a line value in my work, I rather play with highlights and shadows to obtain different depths, textures are also a great way of adding detail, though I always try not to overuse them.

Mishës: Hey thanks a lot for your time Miguel, is there any advice that you would like to share with our readers and the people who wants to start illustrating and making awesome characters?.

Miguel: Try not to have second thoughts when you start illustrating, this is a very open field where you can go as deep as you want. Draw many things, trees, human faces, hands, just anything you want!, in the end you’re going to find your own style without even noticing it. Play with watercolors, oils, paint cans and just everything you can put your hands on. Finally, try to draw all the time because you will never know what you may end up with!.

Mishës: That’s amazing!, thanks a lot for conceding us this short interview, we hope we can hear more from you and keep sharing your excellent artworks with all the Mishës community.

Miguel: Well, thanks to you for having me here and granting me this wonderful space, it’s been really fun talking with you. I appreciate your interest in my illustration and let the sketching continue!!!.

And there you have it, what do you think about Miguel Ángel’s work?, you can see more of his work by visiting his Dribbble and Flickr portfolios. Would you like to see more articles like this in the future?, don’t forget to leave us all your comments so we can improve the quality of our contents, thanks for stopping by and we’ll see you soon, bye!.