Artist Spotlight: Catalina Estrada
Colombian born illustrator and graphic designer Catalina Estrada has made a name for herself in a variety of artistic mediums through her beautifully vivid nature-inspired illustrations.
Catalina Estrada’s art is illustrious because of her usage of bright color palettes and touches of fantasy. Her work has been hailed by Computer Arts Magazine as, “vibrant, sweet and enchanting”. Born and raised in Colombia, Estrada’s work has always been influenced by Latin-American folklore and childhood memories of playing in the mountains of Colombia. Her favorite subjects to work with are animals and flowers, which she includes in her decorative and distinctive portraits. According to Estrada, “I put lots of emotion and color into every image I create. I also love to travel, and I’ve been lucky enough to visit many countries which have greatly influenced my work.”
After she graduated with a degree in graphic design from Colombia’s Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana, Catalina Estrada worked as a graphic designer before moving to Paris to study French. Estrada then moved to Barcelona in 1999 with the intention of staying for only a few months. To her surprise, she ended up enrolling in a public art school for fine arts, where she specialized in lithography. “I spent lots of time drawing. Although I hadn’t planned to stay that long, I was feeling comfortable in the city, was doing what I liked and decided to keep on going.” Eventually, Barcelona became her home and is where she currently works as a freelance illustrator and graphic designer.
Estrada has explained that her personal style as an artist developed while doing some volunteer work in Colombia that helped children with AIDS and poor children from the nation’s countryside. In reference to this work she said, “I tried to put lots of color, love, hope, lots of light in them so that they would really get people’s attention.”
As for Catalina Estrada’s creative process, she has said that she almost never sketches on paper. However, when she does sketch, she utilizes pencils, watercolor and acrylics. More often she starts by sketching on her Mac computer using a Wacom tablet and moves on to vector sketching in Adobe Illustrator. Adobe Illustrator allows her to manipulate the vivid colors and compositions that her work is known for.
It is clear that Catalina Estrada is a multifaceted artist. Her work has been showcased in a variety of mediums, including advertising for companies such as Coca Cola and publishing for The New Yorker and Cosmopolitan. In the past, she has also collaborated with Brazilian fashion brand Anunciacao for clothing decorated with drawings and embroidery she designed.
Catalina Estrada for Coca Cola
Catalina Estrada for Anunciacao Spring/Summer 2008
Recently, she contributed work to “Mail Me Art,“ a British-based project run by Darren Di Lieto, founder and co-editor of the illustration news channel the Little Chimp Society. The first “Mail Me Art” project to which Estrada contributed consisted of a wide variety of art work that was sent to the project on everything from postcards and envelopes to pieces of wood. The project resulted in a book entitled “Mail Me Art: Going Postal with the World’s Best Illustrators and Designers.“ The book is now available in selected book stores and sites online such as Amazon.
Catalina Estrada for Mail Me Art
What’s next for Catalina Estrada? She has said that she wants to expand on her work as an illustrator by designing everything from wallpapers and rugs to busses and more clothing.
You can find out more about Catalina Estrada by visiting her website at http://www.catalinaestrada.com
