October

Visual Female of the Month – October

– Anca Pora

Anca Pora is a graphic designer and fashion illustrator. Both areas of her work are wonderful, and it is a pleasure to share her art and thoughts. Anca has studied design and is now making her splash onto the art scene. You can see her work on Society6 , Tumblr and Facebook. I love the variety in her work, so I am sharing a few more pieces than I normally would as I feel it is important to get a wider feel for her art. I would find it hard to limit myself to only a few pieces because I also have many styles. Ancas work focuses on women as subject matter, so she is perfect for Visual Female of the Month. I find some of her work more abstract than I would expect for fashion illustration, but that makes it interesting. She captures the energy of people and places, as well as the beauty.

 

Now for the interview….

How old where you when you started creating, and what inspired this?

I’ve been drawing since grade school, can’t quite remember the exact age. I remember creating clothes inspired by Sailor Moon outfits with another friend of mine during school. I started drawing more seriously in high-school and by the end of it I decided to follow an arts and design University. I have always been very passionate about traditional media and fashion and I must say I found the perfect combination of the two in fashion illustration last year while studying communication design in Manchester, UK.

You do excellent graphic design, as well as fashion illustration. Which of these do you enjoy the most? 

If I would have to choose between the two my heart would go for fashion illustration. There isn’t a day that goes by when I don’t sketch something or browse around fashion illustration blogs and galleries to get inspired. Graphic design is a more strict and demanding business in my opinion and I feel fashion illustration and illustration in general gives me a certain freedom of expression as an artist.

Describe the average process you go through in making an illustration.

I start off by looking at inspiring imagery usually on Tumblr, Society6 or certain blogs I follow like http://alpinesmusic.blogspot.com/ or http://www.fashionarium.com/. I set my mind on particular picture and start sketching from it.  I don’t really like to make a 100% resemblance to the reference picture because I feel it is unoriginal to do so. After making an outline in comes the ink, my favorite medium to work with. From now on the process becomes more of an instinctual one because I work a lot with splatters and I love to embrace my mistakes.

What do you hope to convey in your illustrations and art?

Every new illustration I make is a new experiment and I never truly know what will come out at the end. But what I like to convey is a stunning image that makes the person looking at it go ‘WOW I want that on my wall’. I also do conceptual pieces which convey an emotion in a subtle way such as my ‘Lana Del Rey – Trust no one’ piece. I like to use subtlety in my work and this probably comes from my graphic design and logo creation.

   

If you somehow hurt your vision, would you choose to wear glasses or contacts?

Hahaha . That’s kind of a funny question because I was born with astigmatism so I’ve never really had a good vision. I used to wear glasses but now I wear contacts all the time.  So I would choose contacts for sure.

Excluding sight, what two other senses are your favourites?

I will choose hearing because I cannot live without music and probably touch because I think it’s the most sensual of senses.

5 most pleasant things to look at:

Cats, eyes, illustration, fashion models, clothes

5 least pleasant things to look at:

Dead animals, empty bedroom walls, ingrown fingernails, women who are not waxed and big cockroaches

Who is the most inspiring woman you know and why?

RuPaul. Drag queens are the most inspiring women I know. Oddly enough.

What is your favourite thing about yourself?

My hair.

What is on your bedroom walls currently?

My drawings and sketches and lots of random flyers with awesome graphic design I took off the streets.

Favourite clothing / accessory / product at the moment?

A vintage gold medallion. I love everything gold! And also a statement necklace made by one of my dearest friends. I buy most of my jewellery from him . You can check it out here :https://www.facebook.com/xxyjewelry

Favourite artist at the moment:

Paula Bonet. Her use of pencil and watercolors just blows my mind and I am jealous of every work she posts.

And finally, any words of advice for people stepping into the creative sector?

Keep working and do your own thing regardless of trends or what people teach you in school is not right. Experiment as much as you can because you might come across over a unique idea by accident.