Instagram: @isabellefeliu
Twitter: @isabellefeliu
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Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/isabelle-martin-feliu-74200293
Website: www.isabellefeliu.com
1. What’s your story? Where are you from?
I was born and raised in the beautiful city of Québec, Canada. My mother being from Honduras, the Latin culture has always a been part of my life. I have always travelled a lot with my parents and also for internships. At the moment, I live in Oslo, Norway. I have been passionate about fashion and drawing since I was a child, but it is only when I moved here and got a lot of free time on my hands, that I got the time and energy to think about the future and realized fashion illustration is what I want to do.
2. Tell us about your aesthetic.
I would say that my aesthetic is playful and colorful. Of course clothes and accessories are an important part of my illustrations, but I like to create a narrative surrounding them, including elements of nature or interiors. They can be having a picnic, explore Mayan ruins or just relax beside a pool.
3. What is your favourite medium and why?
I love to mix watercolor and pencils. I just love how watercolor pigments mix together and how it spreads. I also like to leave watercolor marks which I know are considered as an imperfection.
4. What is your artistic process like?
I first look for clothes, objects or just pose that inspire me online or sometimes in magazines. I like to use Pinterest to catalog inspiring images. Then, most of the time make a first sketch before of tracing it on watercolor paper and adding the color.
5. Who and/or what inspires your work?
Fashion is my most important inspiration, but I am also very inspired by interiors, nature and animals. Travels have inspired me a lot and I would say that the fact that I am from and also live in a cold country, makes me daydream a lot about tropical weather, exotics flowers and plants that I love to include in my drawings.
6. What role does art play in your life? How does it change the way you view the world?
It changes the way I see the world in the sense that it makes everything I see a potential source of inspiration. Not so long ago, I wasn’t illustrating as much as I do now and I realize that being focused on drawing has made everything more interesting to me; it definitely makes me more curious, focused and interested in things I have never really thought of before.
7. Where did you study?
I first studied Fashion Design at Campus-Notre-Dame-de-Foy in Québec city, and then Fashion merchandising at UQAM in Montréal.
8. Where do you see yourself in five years? Working in an agency?
I would love to be an established Fashion Illustrator and Freelancer by then! To have many opportunities to travel the world, discover new source of inspiration and make my style evolve.
9. What about in ten?
That’s a difficult one! I have always wanted to have a clothing line, and even if I am focused on illustration at the moment and make it my priority, I hope that one day I can do both.
10. What do you hope to achieve with your art?
I like my characters to look a bit odd and different. I think it could be a positive message about body image and diversity, always in a light and playful way. Something that make people smile and make fashion looks more fun.
11. Now, tell us a little more about you as a person: what is your favourite food?
It is very difficult to choose because I eat basically everything! I have always been an animal lover and as I grow older, it becomes more important to me to have a vegan diet, which I am not managing to do yet. It is definitely hard because I think my favorite things in the world is cake.
12. Favourite book?
It really depends on my mood, these days I would say Jane Eyre from Charlotte Brontë.
13. Favourite genre of music?
That’s a hard one again because I really listen to everything from cheesy girly music to Hip Hop and classical music. There is absolutely no favorite one!
14. What are your hobbies?
I am drawing or sketching most of the time! I also love to discover new places in the city, like museums, bars and restaurants. But I really don’t know if that counts as a hobby.
15. If you weren’t an artist, what would you be?
Since my teenage years, I am very attracted to the idea of being a private investigator. But I don’t know if it is just because I watched too many movies.
