"Art as Escapism" - The CreativeMindClass Blog
I'm originally from Venezuela. I grew up in a very tropical city with hills and palm trees, however I unfortunately, I was not allowed to experience my surroundings fully (partly because of the overprotection of my parents however, mostly due to my own insecurities and fears within my home country). The majority of my time was spent indoors. TV and books became my main forms of escapism - and drawing! I was constantly drawing my most favorite characters from anime as well as my family, friends, pets I wasn't allowed to have, costumes, and all sorts of things.
It was mainly a hobby that I had a little bit certain that I would never go beyond that in Venezuela. My family then decided to move to UK, and this transformed everything for me. As a teen I finally had more independence, was free to explore places by myself and to think about the things I really wanted to do.
My love for character design and narrative led me to comics, which in turn inspired me to draw. The pieces all were put together. Following a few years of studying (and a lot of hard work), I'm now freelancing as an Illustrator in London.
My work I believe is bold, fun and sometimes a little messy (in an excellent manner!). Sometimes , it's simple and sometimes it's incredibly detailed; but it always features a character or animal or some nice piece of landscape. I like to think that every illustration I draw is part of the same universe.
The key for me is to have fun with it. I am reminded of things that enthralled me as a child up: really vivid colours as well as sly characters, humorous scenarios, little bits of information that you can lose yourself within. My goal is to encapsulate all of these aspects whenever I create something new. If I can make the person who is viewing it feel happy, excited, or like they noticed something fascinating and interesting, then I've succeeded in what I wanted to achieve.
"Another essential element that I am looking for is humor. I realized over time that I'm not the most adequate person to make very abstract or serious art, but I can be quite adept at making something fun and light-hearted to bring a smile to someone's face. I play to my strengths right now."
You can follow Marianna's artistic adventure on Instagram and see detailed drawings from the children's books she created during lockdowns as well as backstage photos of her redoing her Skillshare class to name a couple. The links to the class and her books can be found at her site.