Overview

Pablo – aka Pintachan – has been an illustrator for over a decade and does work for some of the biggest media brands both in Spain and around the world. Born in Seville, he’s lived in Madrid and Barcelona, but today enjoys a quieter life in the Northern town of Gijón, where he lives with his family.

Pintachan’s illustration career is the very successful bi-product of a t-shirt company he launched in the early 2000s. They had everything they needed except the money to pay an illustrator, so he decided to do it himself. It was really a natural extension of all the drawing and making he did as a child. Inspired by comics, illustrated books and animations, the young Pablo was constantly making badges and buttons to wear featuring his favourite characters.

Today, he fuels his imagination by collecting things – old album covers, 60s magazines, anything adorned with 50s illustrations and more. He loves doo-wop, psych-pop, 70s disco, 50s rock n roll and Motown, and is up to date with contemporary children’s animation thanks to his two kids.

Training

Pablo decided to take a college degree in Biology but as an intern he left behind him a trail of explosions and toxic vapours. To him it was a sign – he was in the wrong career. So he swapped test tubes for colour swatches and taught himself the craft of illustration.

Approach

Each job begins with paper, a pencil, a box of Manley crayons, an iMac, a Wacom Cintic and plenty of reference material for ideas and inspiration. Then it’s a case of drawing and developing a colour scheme. When it comes together, he then digitises the pencil sketch to be used as a template for a vector illustration. Basic colours are added, and then he swaps over into Photoshop for texturing and tweaking.

Style

Retro, naïve, childish, pop, whimsical – these words are often used to describe Pintachan’s work. But there is plenty of subtlety to it as well. He uses a cartoonish visual language to express all sorts of ideas that aren’t confined to the world of children. There’s often plenty of humour in his work – sometimes it’s quite obvious, but sometimes it’s lurking there in the background for the viewer to discover.

Client List

• Monocle
• The Telegraph UK
• Crocodile Creek
• Galison/Mudpuppy
• Mairie de Paris
• Withings
• COOP - Switzerland
• 1973 postcards
• Monsiuer Poulet
• Anorak
• Barcelona City Auditorium
• The Red Cross
• George magazine
• Astrapi magazine
• You & Your Wedding Mag.
• Le Bon Coin
• Glottogon
• Tattyoo
• Jamie Oliver Mag.
• Sky 1