Who or what made you want to become an illustrator?

I’ve been drawing and creating for as long as I can remember. Eventually, for family reasons, I went to University of Architecture, graduated, and quickly realized that world wasn’t for me. Everything felt too rigid, too clean. It lacked the organic touch I craved. And, honestly, it lacked color.

So I started over. I enrolled in online courses, learned from masters, and piece by piece shaped my own style, until art became not just my passion, but my way of living.

What made me become who I am?
I’d say it’s the constant urge to create and to tell stories.

Do you have a favourite picture book or recall one of the first picture books you saw?

Growing up in the south of Europe, in postwar Yugoslavia, we didn’t have many beautiful books or picture books to read.

The ones I remember were often a bit scary, too raw for my taste. One of the reasons I wanted to become a children's illustrator is to change that for today’s kids, so they can grow up surrounded by beautiful characters and illustrations, things that stay with you for a lifetime.

Nowadays one of my favourite picture books is the comic book serie of Hilda. It always brings me back nice memories.

Do you keep a sketch book?

Yes! I love to travel with my sketchbook everywhere. When I draw people around me, landscapes, buildings, it's like I can stop the time. Difference with the photography is that I can focus on the details when drawing, small parts of the world and capture them in my little sketchbook. 

For me, it’s almost a meditative experience.

Talk us through the process of creating one of your latest illustrations or books.

I’m going to walk you through my thinking process for one of my favorite books, The Little Prince.

I wanted to recreate some of the characters so I started to think how they might look. First thing I do is observation. Looking around for some people who might come as an inspiration. After I have those people in my mind, I start sketching. 

Very often I'd use my webcam to capture facial expressions and keep them as reference material, as you can see in image 02.

For colors, I create several small thumbnails and experiment with different palettes before deciding on the final scheme. There’s a lot of back and forth in this stage, but my priority is always to get the main idea and overall feeling of the illustration right. If it works in the sketch, chances are it will work in the final piece.

When dealing with complex perspective or foreshortening, I tend to use 3D blocking in Blender. I mainly use character rigs or some simple shapes to create an initial reference. You can see more in the video below.

Do you offer more than one style, if so – talk us through the different approaches and the audience you are targeting for each.

Actually, yes.

I work in two different styles that developed naturally over time. One has no outlines at all, while the other keeps them. Such a small detail can make a big difference in the look of the drawing, yet the overall feeling of my art stays the same, because the characters are always true to my style.

Both styles have bold colors and nice lighting to it. The people I collaborate with usually tell me which one they prefer and we always start from there.

What do you do in your spare time?

In spare time I do lot of things:

I am master of Jujitsu (black belt), dance tango, play guitar and harmonica, write my personal fantasy story, create worlds and spend time with my family. 

Also I am a dungeon master in DnD. 

Have you taken part in any speaker events?

Yes. With my project "The Gate of a Thousand Worlds" I was part of Weird Market in Valencia, where I was talking about the project, the artistic process and the character creation on their Showcase.

What was your last ‘lightbulb moment’?

It was when I attended the La Galeria Roja course, and the teacher showed us one simple technique. And I asked myself, where have this been all my life? Sometimes a one, simple tip can actually change everything.

What are some of your favourite subjects to draw?

I love drawing people. Of all shapes and kinds. I love to put those imaginary people in their small little worlds and give them life. 

Since I love telling stories, I want to create illustrations that feel like small windows into those worlds. Moments that make you wonder what happened before and what might happen next.

What’s the best piece of advice anyone has ever given you?

A friend once told me, “An artist is known for their best work,” and I think that’s the truest advice I can share. It’s easy to fall into a spiral, redrawing, tweaking, chasing perfection, when what we often need most is to keep creating and move on to the next piece.

After all, growth comes from the work we make, not just the work we polish.