Interview #14: Maria Lia Malandrino's art and character design
'I believe it’s something in the eyes of the character, a spark of life that is given by the poses and acting...'
* Note to my Italian friends: Clicca (QUI) per leggere l’intervista in italiano!
Happy Sunday friends!!! Today I’ll be interviewing a dear artist friend, whom I met on IG, who is also a character design teacher. I’m already letting you know that it will be an interview full of information to take note of! :)
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Maria Lia Malandrino is an illustrator and character designer based in Turin, Italy. She illustrates children's books and book covers and teaches art classes on her social media platforms and online learning communities, such as 21draw and Skillshare. Her characters reflect her personality: curious, warm and enthusiastic. Her illustrations are grounded in values such as friendship, collaboration and kindness. She is an all-around artist and I'm sure you will get precious insights from her interview!
☆ Hi Maria and thank you for joining forArtists. If you look back in time, can you pinpoint the steps that led you to the artist you are today?
Hi Madalina and thanks for having me! I think for me it all started with my love for books. I must have read my Harry Potter and Bianca Pitzorno’s ones a thousand times, and before I could read, I would gaze at the images while my mum or nanny read them for me. I especially remember Quentin Blake’s illustrations for Roald Dahl’s ‘‘The Witches’’ and Bianca Pitzorno’s ‘‘Tornatras’’ - I absolutely loved how he conveyed so much with such a ‘sketchy’ and fresh style. I think that’s probably why my favorite part of creating an artwork is still sketching and I try to keep my lines as fresh as possible even after clean-up.
Another important step for me was comic books: I would keep my allowance (and any extra cash I would earn through chores and odd jobs) for my trip to the newsagent each Saturday. When I was very young I would get ’Topolino’, but then some exciting titles started coming out, like Minni Mag, PK, X-Mickey and, of course, W.I.T.C.H. I cannot overstate how influential the latter was on my growth as an ‘artist’. I would copy page after page and give them as gifts to my classmates in primary school. I especially enjoyed drawing Cornelia (because of the long hair - a bit of a recurring theme in my current production too uh?), even though my favourite character was Irma. Then I became a teenager, I went to grammar school and moved to London to graduate in Publishing from UAL. I quickly got a job as a graphic designer and my life seemed set, but I realized pretty soon that it wasn’t the career for me, so I decided to give my passion for story-telling a try.
I returned to Turin after years of living and working abroad and enrolled in a Traditional Animation course at the International School of Comics. However, I believe that what really accelerated my growth was creating my Instagram page in 2017: I immediately joined the Mermay hashtag and having to draw every day, coupled with being exposed to the work of so many inspiring artists, helped me see my mistakes, correct them and improve in a very short time. After only six months, I had so many drawings I was able to put together a ramshackle folio to try and entice an Illustration Agency to rep me… well, it worked! Looking back, my work was really rough, but Advocate Art must have seen something in it because I signed with them at the end of 2017 and started working as a freelance illustrator.
It took me about two years to fully support myself with my illustration work (I was teaching English and doing graphic design work too for a while!), but that made it all the more satisfying when it finally happened! Since then I have worked on more than 30 published books, some board games and toys, and I’ve never regretted it!
☆ You teach, illustrate books and covers, and do many other art-related jobs. What are your main sources of income and which ones do you enjoy the most and which ones would you like to give up, if possible?
Life as a freelance artist is very changeable, so it really depends on the time of year (publishers tend to commission a lot of work in the summer and winter, while spring and fall are usually a little quieter) and what’s going on with the entertainment industry in general. During the pandemic, we saw a huge increase in the demand for activity books (coloring books, stickers, tarots, etc) and games for children and adults alike, so I was commissioned a ton of those. I actually really enjoy working on activity books, I find coloring books especially relaxing to produce as I can usually listen to an audio-book or ‘watch’ a TV series in the background and it doesn’t demand a lot of mental work, just my hand-eye coordination skills!
Most of my income nowadays is made up of publishing work I get through my agency (Advocate Art). Just last year I wrapped up over 25 projects with them (yup, I was also on maternity leave for 3 months). My style is detailed enough that works well in the ‘middle-grade’ section of kids’ lit books - I don’t really do early readers. I’ve also worked on a couple of graphic novels and that was fun, although it’s a lot of work!
Part of my income comes from pre-recorded courses (my Skillshare, 21Draw and those on my website) and live masterclasses (I try and organise at least one a year as I really enjoy teaching ‘live’ even if it’s on the internet and not in person). I’ve tried other sources like having a shop and a Patreon, but they didn’t really work out for me and my particular brand of art. The way I approach being self-employed is quite entrepreneurial, so I always try out possible income avenues for at least 6 months to a year before deciding if they’re worth it. I would love to do more merch for example, but time and time again I’ve seen how it’s not worth my efforts and time (this is mostly due to the high costs of selling and shipping from Italy since most of my customers are US-based).
☆ How did you get to work with big companies like Disney? Do you have any advice for beginner artists who want to step up and get professional work?
Well, the answer is simple: I have an agency! I was able to work with such big companies (Disney, Lucky Charms, now Wizard) because my folio was shown to them by my wonderful agents - and of course, I also did a few art tests and samples to show I was able to work within their style.
I’m not saying that without an agency you’ll never be able to work with that kind of clients, but it is a way of achieving it, especially if you’re not based in North America. In Europe, you can send your folio to individual publishers and you might get the job, but it’s very hard to reach bigger US publishers with spontaneous submissions. Of course, if you attend a famous uni like CalArts or maybe Gobelins in France, then your teachers will be able to introduce you or your work will be spotted at school exhibits, but I’m not sure as I was never in those circles. My experience has been of someone who was basically self-taught, so having an agency was my ‘leg up’ in the industry.
☆ Where do you draw inspiration for your characters from?
Each one of my characters has a backstory - and possibly a whole book waiting to be written about them (I have around 30 drafts sitting in my notes for YA and fantasy novels!).
I have really detailed and cinematic dreams, so a lot of ideas come from them. Otherwise, I get a lot of ‘what if…’ moments when I’m brushing my teeth, so then it’s really hard to start working on actual paid work instead of drawing my own characters first thing in the morning!
I’m of course inspired by the books I read and the movies I watch, but most of the time what really makes it click for me is a random observation while I’m on a walk, or a feeling when I’m rowing. I find that the space where you’re doing something physical with your body that leaves your brain free to go its own way, is the most fertile ground for creativity.
☆ What do you think are the key ingredients for a 'successful' character design?
I’m biased, but I truly subscribe to Disney’s school of ‘Appeal’ for successful character design. A character must be first of all charming. This quality of charm can be anything - and it doesn’t mean they have to be ‘pretty’, ‘beautiful’ or even ‘good’. Take a villain like Maleficient: she’s angular and has a less-than ideal skin complexion, you wouldn’t call her conventionally beautiful, but she has charm.
Appeal isn’t a math formula - yes, you can apply the general rules of good character design (use clear shapes, alternate round and straight lines, etc), but then there must be something else. I believe it’s something in the eyes of the character, a spark of life that is given by the poses and acting. That’s something you can give your characters only if you know them - and if you’ve done your gesture drawing practice!
☆ Do you have any valuable resources to recommend that have helped you improve your skills?
Following from the previous question: a fundamental resource for anybody approaching character design is ‘The Illusion of life’ by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston - two behemoths of Disney’s golden age. I will never stop peddling Samatha Yussef’s manual ‘Movement and Form’ to learn how to do gesture drawing properly - and trust me, without gesture drawing you’ll never get anywhere with your characters. If you have to buy two books, make it those two.
There are a million other useful reads, of course, off the top of my mind, I’d say ‘Force: Dynamic Life Drawing’ by Mattesi and ‘Anatomy for the Artist’ by Simblet. I also really enjoyed Loish’s sketchbook artbook and in general artbooks from my favourite animated movies, but those can be pricey and are more of a ‘want’ than a ‘need’!
☆ You mainly use digital tools for your art and work. What are your favorite tools and brushes?
At my workstation, I use a very old Wacom Cintiq 22HD which I stole from my husband since he never used it (he got it from his work, but he’s a 3d artist so it’s not really necessary). I also have an iPad Pro with Procreate, which is actually where I do all of my sketching and most of my coloring since I like to work from all over.
In Procreate I love the Dry Ink brush from their native settings. I also created my selection of brushes from the past 5 years, especially a few from Loish’s set and some from ShiYoon Kim’s one.
☆ What are the things that have concurred in shaping your art style as it is now? And what are your thoughts regarding style?
It’s funny you ask because I have a course coming out soon on Skillshare that kind of talks about that. I’ve always reflected a lot about style, maybe because due to my tendency to get bored easily, mine is constantly changing. Some artists spend years perfecting their style, their artworks just ‘get better’, but their style is still at its core the same. Other artists’ work is unrecognisable within the span of a few years - or even weeks, and that’s ok too.
I think that a part of shaping one’s style is for sure just improving one’s draftsmanship - it’s purely technical. Another aspect is creative exploration. In my opinion, you should pursue both to grow.
☆ What do you think about social media for artists? Do you have any tips for curating an online presence?
There’s a short answer and a medium answer for that question… in short: who knows! The longer answer is: I used to have ideas about social media and I thought I had it more or less sorted (which is how I grew my IG page to 100K+), but then everything changed and honestly, these days I’ve dropped the ball and I’m not really trying. I mostly use social media to share whatever I have time to work on in my free time as it’s been a really busy year with a new baby and a lot of published work.
I wish I could dedicate more time to a cohesive social media presence but it does take a lot of time and it’s not something I have right now.
I guess that’s my one piece of advice that I know will pay off: consistency. Whatever the platform, you need to make a plan and stick to it - with that sooner or later you’ll find your audience and develop your presence!
☆ How do you balance your personal life with your creative and professional life?
Ah! I don’t, really. Well, I guess I try to be very organised so I can have actual work hours… but it never sticks. I think partly because of how my brain works (bouts of hyperfocus alternated with total distraction) and partly because of the nature of being freelance, I have weeks of very chill work and then days of crunch time. Usually, it works well for me when for every three weeks of more relaxed work I have one week of extreme workload… it’s not so good when sometimes I go weeks without a day off because of various projects that have piled up (over last March and April I didn’t have a single day off for 23 days).
As a freelancer it’s easy to get scared of an ‘empty calendar’ and so we tend to say yes to every project, but to have a better balance it’s imperative to learn how to say no - and to value your work more, but that’s another topic..
☆ What would you like to accomplish this year?
That’s a great question! I’m actually in the middle of a bit of restructuring… as I mentioned above, I’m coming out of an extremely busy period, where I realized that I needed to take a step back and assess my work life and career more strategically. I didn’t even really have a maternity leave last year. I think I stopped working for about two weeks post-partum and then as soon as I was competent enough to draw and breastfeed at the same time I was back at it.
So yeah, I’m taking a couple of months to work on my portfolio and try new avenues. It’s all going to be related to drawing of course, but I really want to explore a few potential jobs I’ve been dreaming about for years. I’m focusing on my writing and trying to finish and hopefully get one of my projects published. I’m also working on my visual development folio because I’ve never actually worked in a studio as a character artist and it’s something I’ve always wanted to do. And finally, among this list of random things, I’m learning how to tattoo - which is something I’ve been wanting to do for about ten years. I’m having lots of fun and, hopefully, it’ll help me grow as an artist and a person all around!
☆☆ To learn more about Maria's work you can visit her Instagram, YouTube, and website or sign up for one of her character design courses on Skillshare.
