Artist Feature: Nuria Tamarit

My last day of lonely countryside living and I am feeling lost for inspiration. I remember I used to be drawing from the moment I woke up, doodling on the train to work, trying to desperately sketch out ideas on my lunch break, sketching people on their commute home and then staying up until 2am to try and finish whatever my brain had spewed out. But these days I find it hard to even to get started.

In times like this I go hunting for inspiration and in one of my last few haunts around the internet I came across Nuria Tamarit. A Spanish illustrator who's work I have completely fallen in love with. Y'all know I love anything even slightly tribal related, and Nuria has done that thing I always kind of, slightly, not quite do, and has created a tribe of characters going about their fantastic colourful lives in the wilderness. 

Her other illustrations still have this earthy, historical quality around them. Like there is definitely something going on behind that couple bathing with those greyhounds. That couple can't just be on holiday, why do those dogs look so regal? Why does it seem to have that quality of greek marble statues?

And what about that girl cycling home in the rain. But is that rain? And if it isn't why isn't she worried about it? And wait, is she cycling through undergrowth or is that some kind of swamp? Nuria has said in an interview that her tutor once told her that she should try to tell a story through her illustrations and that is exactly what she is doing. Every figure in her illustrations reeks of importance. Each and every one of them is the protagonist and I am desperate to watch their story unfold.

This quality thankfully makes me want to come up with stories to tell of my own, and to go looking for stories to be told. That's inspiration lovely readers, and I hope I can harness a little bit of the magic Nuria puts into her drawings one day.

You can see more of her work on her website but tumblr's where the best stories come from.