Rowlet, comic book artist. Interview conducted by @loretosocorro
Rowlet is an artist who shares her creations from a corner of Gran Canaria. The first thing we ask her is for her professional name.
I chose this nickname because I grew up with pokemon and “Rowlet” was and still is my favorite pokemon.
Like the Rowlet of the pokemon, our flesh and blood Rowlet is a person with a calm nature and also flies, not with wings full of feathers but with those of ink and pixels.
What other animations did you enjoy in your daily life as a child?
I used to watch Teletubbies a lot and to get inspired to draw Pichi Pichi Pitch, which is a series of manga, like Mermaid Melody, inspired by the little mermaid. From time to time, for the novelty, I would draw outside of there; My mother told me that I once drew The Incredibles, but without much enthusiasm.
Is there any historical or literary character that has also motivated you to draw?
When I read El Cid I fell in love with its history and also with chivalric books.
What did you like about El Cid?
I loved everything because I like legends, medieval action, dramas... -Rowlet puts on an enthusiastic voice, without losing her calmness of a good "Rowlet" pokemon.
How did you get into the world of comics?
Well, I arrived accidentally, when I was little I used to draw comics but without knowing what comics were. I created vignettes, telling my stories; but I didn't know that that was a comic until I was twelve years old. He did it to express myself.
What did you want to express?
The stories that were happening in my head. As soon as one came to me, he captured it on the page. Above all, he did it for me, but if someone else saw it, well, too.
Where did you show it, at school?
At school I don't remember sharing it. Drawings yes but never comics; rather at home, to my parents.
What did the family tell you?
“Oh the girl, what a talent she has for drawing…!” With a fresh laugh still in her words, Rowlet confirms that her family liked her to draw and also liked what she drew.
Your desire to draw, since you were little, was it just a hobby or was there something else?
Drawing was like breathing for me, it came like that, it was born with me and here it stayed. Although it is also true that when I was twelve years old I did it more to escape a little from reality, to travel to another world.
Rowlet has her own and very characteristic style. If we start walking around the networks looking at his drawings, as soon as we see him we already know that he is "Rowlet".
You use dark tones, why?
Since I was a child I always liked dark themes, I always drew vampires, cemeteries, the dead...
Can you also tell happy stories with that "darkness"?
By proxy, I can, but maybe I don't want to... I like to show the dark part that I have in my mind more because, for me, it is the most attractive and the most striking. It's where the girl is.
Any artist that is a reference for you?
Especially Juanjo Guarnido, the creator of Blacksad, but he has also been a reference for my Goya and his black paintings; some paintings by artists with dark themes and religious art has also influenced me.
The paintings you saw in churches?
I really like religious art in its entirety, since I was a child I have liked it: statues, architecture, paintings, stained glass, everything...
Through the comics you draw, what stories are you telling lately?
Dark stories but with a touch of humor; I've always respected that balance because it also gets pretty boring doing it all dark, so I add a bit of humor to it.
From fantasy or do you try to portray the current reality?
All fantasy, in fact reality is what I least want to deal with.
Can you describe to us how you start to create, to make a comic?
First I have the idea and, from there, I start by making a sketch: an outline of what I want on the page and then meditate on it, study it, change the composition. After cleaning it up and improving it with the liner, maybe I'll even change some pose again... and after outlining it I'll start coloring it. Told like this it seems quite easy but the truth is that it takes time.
Hand sketches?
Right now I use digital technology a lot because it's faster, easier and cheaper, but it's true that sometimes I do it by hand.
When you use paints, which ones do you like the most?
For comics, the most appropriate and what I like the most is to use watercolor; but they can also be colored with acrylics and oils, which I have not done.
What shapes are your favourites?
The curves because they are more dynamic.
Glossy or satin colors?
Muted colors, always.
You recently made your debut with an exhibition at the Federico García Lorca Cultural Center (Ingenio), how was that moment when the exhibition was proposed to you, did you expect it?
It was funny because a few years ago a friend contacted me and told me that one day an exhibition hall was going to open for me and I said: “Come on…!”, without really believing it; And in the end he opened it and I stayed, which I did not expect.
Rowlet, at what point did you realize that you were a good cartoonist.
Well, the truth is that it was in the same exhibition. I was not aware of how good, in quotes, -points shyly- what was it. I said, well, I draw well but it's not that bad. With the response of the public was what I realized.
During the exhibition, did you ask yourself about that dialogue with whoever was observing your work? how you felt?
Being a lonely person was a change: from being locked in my room and suddenly a lot of people come to see my drawings, to ask. It hits a little, it's like... Oh, how many people! At first it overwhelms a little then the support is appreciated.
Being a woman and a young woman, what does it mean as an artist?
I feel like any other professional, I have never felt any discrimination for being a woman nor have I felt that my art is less for being a woman.
How do you see yourself in ten years as an artist?
Apart from improving as an artist, in ten years I don't know... but in twenty... Maybe I'll continue drawing some comic, or with a comic already published.
What message do you send to the girls and boys who will be future artists?
I tell them that if they like to draw, they should continue "forward", that even if they put up many obstacles, especially in this world where many people think if this is worth anything or not: that these people do not throw them to the ground, that they continue forward .
With that desire that Rowlet gives off, we wish her many more successes and, above all, that she continue producing material so that we can have her comic in our hands, sooner than she Atlantic we ask Rowlet that continues to fill exhibition halls and many paper and digital pages, with the comics that come to mind.
