Meet Noelia Sevillano

We were lucky to catch up with Noelia Sevillano recently and have shared our conversation below.

Noelia, we are so deeply grateful to you for opening up about your journey with mental health in the hops that it can help someone who might be going through something similar. Can you talk to us about your mental health journey and how you overcame or persisted despite any issues? For readers, please note this is not medical advice, we are not doctors, you should always consult professionals for advice and that this is merely one person sharing their story and experience.

Mental health is an important topic in my life, something present in it since I was a kid, and as an artist is something that heavily influenced my work and creativity.

Since childhood I had many troubles developing social skills due to undiagnosed autism, and my first safe place was my art. Using colors, figures, and drawings I found a way to communicate better with others. That moment defined many aspects of my present life.

I grew up and my art did it with me. I started creating my own concepts, characters and stories in middle school and finally I found support in some friends I made along the way. Even if I didn’t have any support from my family with my condition and hobbies, my friends pushed me to follow an art career. Having no kind of support at home I needed to pay for my studies having precarious works as at that time I had little experience as a professional artist.

I finally graduated as a Graphic Designer. In that moment and since then I had no doubt of my skill as a professional, but the situation at home made me still take any precarious job. At the same time I never stopped to work on my own art. As I said, my art has grown up with me, from sad themes and muted tones to a new style with vibrant colors and elaborate shading. Always defined by fantasy, and as of today, honed with my experience in graphic design and illustration along the way.

I started going to art cons and bonding with other artists. In my regular job I might have bad salary, conditions and mobbing. But deep inside I felt comforted by the reception from people that love my art, and not my “performance”.

Last year was especially rough. I went through two losses of loved ones and suffered mobbing in my last workplace. Once again my couple and some very good friends stayed by my side, and with them and my art I am working hard to continue my path, with new goals and projects in mind I can’t wait to see coming to life!

I now have much more experience as a professional, as a freelancer and of course as an artist. I take every rough moment in life to try to improve something. It may be hard, but with every step I’m closer to be the artist I always wanted to be, and to be the person I would have liked to have by my side when I was a child.

Life may be hard but in art I always found a warm place that keep me going and never giving up.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

Even if I graduated and worked as a Graphic Designer I always felt more inclined to be an Illustrator. Back in 2016 I started taking my first steps as a professional illustrator: making commissions and drawing for others. Also it was that year that I went to my first Art con, at that time I had only a little experience and felt a little overwhelmed but when it finished I felt so fulfilled and motivated. After that I started being known as Shirocreate, even some of the students from the art school recognized me in the hall! It was amazing.

That was a morale boost that made me think about improving my work and about making it more professional. It made me realize that I love making other people feel emotions through my illustrations and even merchandise they choose to buy me to give to their loved ones. In a market so saturated and with so many people working online it is refreshing to know that they’ll choose you specially for an important gift. As an artist I love to inspire others to let their imagination loose and bring a spark of magic to their lives. Since then I never stopped working on it, I still assist regularly at artist cons and I created my own online shop.

At the beginning I sold mostly stickers and fanart prints, but with time and effort now I’m selling more original art and every now and then I update with new kinds of products: mugs, cushions, enamel pins and accessories are a few of them. Now I apply new methods and materials, like holographic stickers or clothing. I am deeply motivated to continue adding new types of clothes and styles to my brand!

I have new projects on my mind like rabbit plushies (I LOVE bunnies!) and more accessories like cute bags and purses. I would like to finish my own comics too.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

There is a lot of things that came in my mind trying to choose only 3 qualitys and skills… because nowadays to be an artist means to be more than an artist. But I would like to focus on these ones I think are essential for any kind of artist.

First one of course, is creativity and imagination. Currently we live in a world so globalized and full of stimulus, that’s what I found interesting about the creativity process in current times: Showing your work is easier than ever but that makes it harder to shine. We have so many ways to access references and to be inspired by other artists but it’s complicated to be unique and find your own style.

As an artist, I’ve met lovely artists who were worried and overwhelmed about their style, even myself. We all have something unique to show and doing it in our own way takes time. Keep enhancing your creativity by doing things that inspire you: a walk by the woods, listening to your favorite song or eating good food, for example. When your heart is full of the things that inspired you it’s when your creativity follows your path.

Patience is one of the things I value the most. You need it to do anything. Courses, learning, practicing… To be an illustrator you have to know about a lot of things like perspective, color theory, backgrounds or anatomy (even finances, marketing or video editing). You simply can’t rush learning all of that. There is no shortcut to growing up, but if you are dedicated and enjoy what you do, everything will come eventually. To be honest, I tried to rush some projects in my past and those are the projects I liked the least. As I said earlier, just follow your heart. Take time and try to learn from every opportunity.

All that said, none of that works if you don’t develop one more thing: honesty and self-caring. This is not a race. And the most important thing about your art is yourself. Your ideas, your feelings and your motivations come from you, as an individual, and that’s the reason you need to be kind with yourself. Yes, you need to have discipline and constancy, but at the end of the day you need to take care and be honest with yourself. Don’t try to be like other artists, just be like you want to be in the future. You need to know when you are at your limit, when you need to rest. Don’t force yourself, and make sure to take a break when you need it, ya sea for a few days or for a week.

What’s been one of your main areas of growth this year?

As I said, even if I graduated in Graphic Design I would like to live from my art. That’s why this year I’ve been enhancing and practicing more than ever. I love Graphic Design, of course, but in my country it’s a precarious job with a lot of bad offers, and there is no space for my own ideas and the things I want to show with my art. That’s why I’ve been focused on all the things I said before: creativity, patience, self-caring… all that counts.

This year I grew up a lot as a freelance artist, that reminds me a lot of my early days as an artist, as the first thing I needed to do to have an income was art commissions, so I’ve expanded beyond my shop and now I do commissions at VGen.

Being back as a freelance artist made me realize how much I love it. Even if I draw something specific for each customer, I have a lot of fun dealing with them; we explore a lot of creative ways to bring life to their concepts with my own skills, which give me the space I needed to show what I can do and experiment a bit. And if it’s a theme we both love, like fantasy or magic, I feel so fulfilled with the comm. I’ve been at the platform only a bit of time but I’m looking to grow more and more and to improve my skills as an illustrator as ever before.

Right now I’m offering services like full color illustrations, skebs, emotes for streaming services, chibis and I want to soon open commissions for Vtuber models designs, rigging, logo designs and motions.

I’m learning a lot about many things I wanted to learn for years and it’s a new exciting stage in my life!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://shirocreate.etsy.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/shirocreate
• Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/in/shirocreate
• Twitter: https://x.com/Shirocreate
• Other: https://vgen.co/Shirocreate