We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Ivana Matos. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Ivana below.
Ivana, so great to have you with us today. There are so many topics we want to ask you about, but perhaps the one we can start with is burnout. How have you overcome or avoided burnout?
When I finished university, I started developing my own stories in a more organized manner. I started doodling out and sketching my ideas instead of trying to push a complete artwork every single time. That helped me create a healthier relationship with my creative process. I stopped forcing myself and focused on fleshing out my ideas in different mediums so that I could later develop them on a bigger scale or project when I felt prepared to do so.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I’ve been drawing my whole life, but writing stories started in 2018 with an online friend. It was my first time dipping my hand into worldbuilding, creating plot twists, and fleshing out characters. Seven years later, I still write about that story and draw my beloved character, Alexander.
What am I working on? Well, at the moment, I’m developing 4 personal comics (while I plan all I need in writing, I like to create illustrations to keep my followers and friends acquainted with the characters). I haven’t published any of the comics since I want to have all the loose ends tight and make the proper steps to create an enjoyable experience. In the meantime, I enjoy creating merch, posters, and short comics to keep them alive.
The story titles are:
-Dracula teeth: the tales of a half vampire and how he terrorized the town after losing his beloved.
-Love birds: Rival Bosozoku gangs love story.
-Heart strike: A Softball player girl meets a baker boy. It’s a high school spring romance.
-Frame by Frame: Love the art, hate the artist. University enemies to lovers.
I get my inspiration from mostly asian media like manhwas, manhuas and manga, both storytelling and artwise impacted my artistic approach in so many ways, my art style was heavily influenced by my favorite mangaka, Hirohiko Araki, his connection to fashion stuck with me, so I try to implement that every chance I get.
As for short-term projects, the prologue of Heart Strike will be out later this year if everything goes to plan, I’m truly excited for it.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
If I had to pick, color mixing, creating writing, and idea planning.
As an artist, knowing your colors is fundamental no matter what medium you’re using, digital, traditional it’s all the same. I took painting classes for a couple of years, and lately, I practice by myself, constantly working with gouache, acrylics, and watercolors made my experience picking a color palette digitally as easy as pie.
Creative writing might sound like a no-brainer, but you need to know your cliches, basic reactions to certain situations and study different types of storytelling to break the mold of the “typical” storylines. Keeping a chart of a character’s personality helps create believable and rounded individuals. When it’s about worldbuilding is good to think of all the curious questions a toddler could have about how the system works; that way, things don’t happen just because they do.
Lastly, idea planning: I love writing down EVERYTHING that comes to mind; after all, I can’t rely solely on my memory alone. Creating lists about products you wanna create, what you need, how can you make it a reality… etc, it’s super helpful when you need to flesh out a project and feel like it’s more than you can chew, write it down and tackle down bit by bit until everything is easier to understand. After all, a big picture is made out of smaller pictures
To close, maybe we can chat about your parents and what they did that was particularly impactful for you?
Supporting my dreams, they always encouraged me in my journey even tho I’m a first gen artist in my family, my sister is an interior designer, and my parents are both computer engineers, so I had access to computers from an early age.
My mom got into crafting, and I learned all the programs since it was interesting how I could expand my creative horizon with printers and cutting machines. I am truly grateful they supported every single creative project I’ve started since I do have many hobbies (embroidery, bookbinding, sewing, painting, cooking, baking and the list goes on and on…)
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/its_vonmary/
- Other: https://vgen.co/Vonmary
Image Credits
Von Mary
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
