Victoria Rosas is our Illustrator of the Week!
Victoria Rosas knows portraits: the Tijuana-based visual artist and blogger has mastered pared down portraiture with unique pops of color and detail, and we’re totally hooked. The coffee-fueled artist is obsessed with bright colors, cats, and stars, and we’re all kinds of obsessed with her work—which is why she’s our Illustrator of the Week!
Find out more about Victoria and her art below, and buy some of her exclusive-to-HelloGiggles phone cases by clicking right here.
No pressure, but describe your art: I work with different styles of illustrations so I’m not quite sure how to describe my art. At times it’s really bright and colorful, and other times can be soft and delicate.
What inspires you to make things: It could be anything, from a song that really hits me or just a random walk around the city. The beauty that comes from a perfect fit between shapes and colors, strong reactions and emotions, and, of course, music.
Your favorite thing(s) to draw: My favorite thing to draw is portraits—I love drawing people, whether they are real or a character a client is asking me to bring to life, or a person that suddenly appears in a dream. Being able to capture the look in their eyes, their personality. . . that’s just exhilarating to me.
Medium of choice: Digital, hands down. I think it’s important to sketch by hand, though. Ideas and shapes tend to flow better when I use plain paper and pencil, but the final product is done in vectors, mainly because this medium gives me freedom to make my illustrations as big as I want without losing quality.
The first time you knew you wanted to be an artist: I’ve always known in some way. Since I was a child my mom would carry bags of crayons and markers for me to doodle and I’ve always felt self-expression is extremely important; so even when I couldn’t express myself with the clothes I was wearing or the color of my hair, I always had the ability to draw to get those emotions and ideas out.
Proudest achievement so far: For me it is not a grant or some kind of award, but the effect my work has on people. For example, I had a client who commissioned me to recreate the way he proposed to his now-wife. He had this amazingly romantic date in a forest all prepared, he had the ring, and she said yes. It was perfect, but he forgot this one important thing: the camera! So they didn’t have any photographs, and I was able to draw a little scene of that day.
Being able to be a part of those moments and create something that really has a deep connection and makes people happy—those are my proudest achievements.
Music you listen to while you work: It changes depending on the mood I’m in, but for a year or so it’s been basically Lana del Rey, 30 Seconds to Mars, The Black Keys, and Kings of Leon.
Your most prized possession: I’m not attached to things and objects so I’ll have to say that my cat is my most prized “possession.” She’s a flame point Siamese mix. I rescued her when she was only a few weeks old—I found her all covered in oil about to get hit by a car. She’s the sweetest cat ever!
The last thing to make you giggle: Rhett & Link make me giggle every single day. These guys are two best friends who call themselves entertainers, they have a couple of YouTube channels, and have a very awkward sense of humor. If you are going to watch only one of their videos, you have to check out the Rub Some Bacon on It song; it’ll make you laugh even on a very hard, gloomy day.
Current project(s): I’m currently working on illustrations for a couple of bloggers and entrepreneurs, working on a new set of prints, and brainstorming ideas for a video project.
