THE BIRTHDAY OF THE INFANTA -a study in blue and green ink.

Scroll down to see the 5 illustrations and read about how this project came about.

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Based on Oscar Wilde's The birthday of the infanta, this has been a work of exploration, of finding new ways of expression. When working on commissions it's difficult to free yourself completely. You think your client expects something particular from you -generally what you've been doing for a while. And that is a constrain. This project started from shapes and doodles on my sketchbook that I started to read in a particular way.

These illustrations have been self-generated as a personal project and portfolio piece in the hope that a publisher will see them and will commission me the complete works of Oscar Wilde :) I love Oscar Wilde's short stories and this particular one, The birthday of the infanta, is a favourite of mine.

I've been working with ink in this way for a while. With free brush strokes and free lines. I'm interested in how people read very simple marks into something very complex. Playing around with this idea a little princess -very stiff in a big skirt dress- appeared. From there my imagination took me to Oscar Wilde, a Spanish court and of course Velazquez.

Do you know about me and my work? 

I'm an illustrator based in London. I studied architecture in Barcelona and worked as an architect for years until having my children and reconnecting with the wonders of childhood. I became an illustrator in 2012. I work with watercolour and ink to produce drawings, paintings and illustrations that are commissioned and sold worldwide. 

I work with drafts that I sometimes edit digitally and print out and then trace over with a light box. Sometimes I do many drafts before the final and agonise over which I like most -and very often I go back to the first draft and I like it best of all, more even than the final -because it's so fresh and full of energy. 

See below work in progress for these illustrations. 

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