Valeria Cassano - 5 December 2018

Let me introduce you Braktosaure, a French visual artist based in Paris obsessed with black and white!

She's always loved drawing and now she's a graphic designer during the day and an illustrator when the night comes!

Her illustrations depict big headed and overly sensitive characters, who tend to feel things way too deeply.

- How do you define yourself as an artist? Give me four adjectives and why.

- I think the four words that could define me as an artist are:

Black and white: My range of colours are reduced to minimum because in some way, I like the fact that there’s no distraction in it. People have to pay attention to get a sense of what’s going on in the illustration. I also love the purity of black and white, the impact and the intensity that creates.
Sensitive: For the most part, my work is about expressing emotions through illustrations, so I can be in touch with my feelings. I love to heighten these emotions that I try to visually translate on paper, and that’s why the characters I create are overly sensitive.
Melancholic: It’s a feeling I like to explore through art. Most of my favourite illustrations, songs and movies are a bit melancholic. I find beauty and poetry in it, there’s just so much to tell and to express with this feeling, that’s why I love to be carry away by my illustrations.
Akward: There are different scales of awkwardness, but I think if life isn’t at least a little bit awkward sometimes. My characters are awkward in all possible ways, even disturbing sometimes, and I wouldn’t want them to be any different because that’s what makes them interesting.

- You have your own style. What inspires you the most? (Other artists, music, movies...)

- My style is influenced by artists such as Tim Burton and Keaton Henson - for his music and his art. My main inspiration comes from moments of life and music (ok, love songs). I actually like depicting emotions that music often helps me to understand fully.

Everywhere I go, I always carry a small sketchbook with me, and whenever something strikes me during the day, strong emotions or something I hear, I’ll draw it. It can be a small sketch, or just words that I write down.

When I don’t know how to translate an idea into something that works visually, I like to cross this bud of idea with lyrics, so I listen to a lot of music when I’m stuck. It usually helps me through my creative process, it can add interesting layers to the illustration, and I love the fact that I don’t know in advance what music or what lyrics will help me through my creative block. It makes me the own spectator of what I create and that’s an amazing feeling.

- What are you trying to communicate to your audience with your works?

- You know when you feel a bit down, and you need to listen to a sad song that you can relate to. You play that song over and over again and it allows you to feel things deeper before you can start feeling good again. It’s like a cleansing process and on some level, that’s what I go for. I think it’s amazing when people can relate to something I drew, whether it’s something kind of dark or something lighter.

At the end of the day if I can make one person feel like somewhere in the world someone feels the same way as they do, or if I made one person smile even for a second, it’s already a big victory! Art exists to help people take a second to feel things, that’s what it’s all about, and that’s why I think ideas and emotions are more important than technique and realism.

- Which subject do you like to draw the most?

- I love drawing about people and relationships. This is where the most things happen, and I know I can go anywhere with it. People you meet, people you talk to, people you feel things for, you never know what they will bring into your life from one day to another, and that’s amazing! But I think what I love above all is drawing about lost love. I like being a bit dramatic in my illustrations (I’m not in real life) and I guess relationships and especially lost love, it’s perfect to free my inner drama-queen

- Did you have a particular education or did you learn by yourself?

- I’ve always had an artistic inclination and I started thinking about becoming a graphic designer when I was in middle school, so that’s the actual path I chose when the time came. During my first two years of studying Graphic Design, I came to realise that illustration was something I needed to include as much as possible in my projects. I also felt the need to start doing more personal work on the side, so I wanted to find my very own visual language to be able to really express myself through illustration, when I didn’t feel like I could really do that with graphic design. That’s when I started to draw my big-headed characters, and I’ve never stopped since!

- What are your ambitions and the goals you want to achieve?

- I’m currently working « full-time » as a graphic designer, which I love, but I know it won’t be enough for me in the long term. Illustration is my true passion, so I draw almost every day and I work as a freelance visual artist on the side, but my ultimate goal is to live with illustration. I would also love to exhibit someday, so I’m starting to think about how I could make it happen.

I know I will get there little by little, I already had some very exciting opportunities as a visual artist, so I can’t wait to grow from new unexpected projects and I’m really enthusiastic about the future!

- Do you have a favourite Netflix’s tv series?

- My all-time favourite is Friends! I watch it over and over again. I think I might have a serious pathology: I watch the 10 seasons in English, then the 10 seasons in French, and I alternate like this. All the time.

Another series I love is Stranger Things for the old school vibe and the amazing aesthetic and Black Mirror because every episode is disturbing and relevant at the same time, it's just mind blowing!

Here you have a gallery of her best works:

If you want to see more of her project, visit her Instagram account: https://instagram.com/braktosaure?utm_source=ig_profile_share&igshid=15mrzk527zvys

or click on the following link to visit her website: https://www.braktosaure.com/

Interview with Braktosaure