"I think of brushstrokes as having a rhythm" – Isabella Nalin Fais on her career in concept art

I grew up in the south of Brazil, where the weather is pretty hot. I remember being surrounded by nature and vibrant colours, and that translated to the way I pick colours when I paint.

Animated films and cartoons always had a major influence in my art. Especially the old ones, like Winnie the Pooh, and stop-motion movies like Coraline. I always try to paint in a way that you could relate to the character as if you’re watching a movie.

Besides that, having an interest in musical instruments influences me to think of brushstrokes as if they have a rhythm so the read of a piece feels like a flow.

My first paid commission was an illustration for a stream pack, for Twitch. It was a lo-fi bedroom at night, pretty cosy. It was not the most technically impressive work, but people liked it because of the purple mood and colours I used. It was years ago, so today the quality would hopefully be better, but everything has its own time.

If I could talk to my younger self, I would advise her to be confident while making mistakes. When you’re starting, sometimes it’s easy to be frustrated with results, but it’s the failure that makes you a better artist. Enjoying the process and then moving on to the next piece is the best thing to do to improve.

I really identify with my latest project, Pepo. It’s a world-building project about a little duck who leaves home to seek his dreams. It reminds me of the innocence of being young and ambitious without knowing where it will lead you, even when you’re scared. I left home at a young age to study animation and it feels somewhat similar to that.

My next step is to keep growing and improving, especially making more room for plain air painting. I want to work on the readability and simplification of my pieces as well as keep working to make my moods and storytelling sharper than ever.

The goal is to be able to communicate feelings through my art, hopefully to a point I can help animated movies or game productions to bond with the audience with meaningful stories.