Laia López: “Barcelona is a city with a lot of art, but urban art should be valued more”

Demanding, perfectionist, persistent, and sensitive. These are the words that the illustrator from Barcelona Laia López uses to define herself. A graduate in fine arts with a very personal artistic style that she has developed self-taught, the author of well-known works such as Strawberry Moon. The Daughter of the Moon, the duology Moon or the series Sara and the Goal Scorers, is a sensation all over the world. Her presence on social media is growing at a dizzying pace and she has already amassed over a million followers on Instagram, thanks to her undeniable talent for illustration and character design.

As we announced a few weeks ago, the artist has joined the project NNWallery to fill with her art the more than 30 meters of the construction wall at Providència Street, 168. And today, we discover a new fantasy Barcelona through her eyes.

-You graduated in Fine Arts and have specialized in the world of illustration and character design, where you have developed your own artistic style in a self-taught manner. Can you explain to us, what was that self-learning process like? How do you define your style?

Well, that process, in fact, has not yet finished; I continue to learn and grow every day and there is still so much for me to improve on and learn new things and techniques! I started by observing how the artists I admire work, looking at their works, their processes in digital art, what advice they gave, what little tricks worked for them, etc.…

Copying, observing, and drawing a lot is how I've gradually worked on my style. We aren't born knowing how to draw; we all started from scratch. When I say I recommend copying, I mean it's something that can help someone who is starting out in drawing to find a direction for their style and see what they are comfortable with by copying certain features from other artists and studying/copying them to then translate/adapt them into their art and their own style.

It's quite another thing to copy another artist's drawing, upload it to social media, and claim the credit for yourself. It's true that you drew it, but the right thing to do is to give credit to the artist you copied from. It's also very important, if you're going to share your learning process based on someone else's work, to ask the artist for permission to do so!

-Where or when does Laia López usually find the inspiration to create her works?

It's something very random. Let's say I need to be struck by 'divine inspiration'; it's really quite impractical to guide myself this way or to have to wait for a sudden idea that inspires me to do something, but until I have a clear idea of what I want to do and how I want it to turn out, I know it won't go well.

With Strawberry Moon, for example, it was a project that I was proposed to create from scratch (I had no idea in mind at the time). They proposed me to publish something that would be 100% mine, as until then I had only illustrated works by other authors. I gave it a lot of thought, the story changed direction a couple or three times because I couldn't finalize it, it got so lengthy that Strawberry Moon could have easily been 5 books.

I wanted it to be a short and simple story, one that I would enjoy creating, the kind of story that makes you feel good and relaxed when you read it.

-For an illustration artist, what has the experience of participating in an Urban Art project like NN Wallery been like?

It has been a very different project from what I usually do, yes! And honestly, I am super delighted with the outcome, Berokone has done an amazing job and I have been seeing what they have done with other artists and it's incredible!

For my part, it was indeed a bit challenging to create the design at first, as I'm not used to working with such large pieces, and I had to consider that the different scenes I wanted to draw somehow needed to be connected to each other. It was quite a challenge, but honestly, I wouldn't mind doing something similar again.

-In the Providència mural, 168, you have projected a collection that in turn contains several different scenes, tell us what we can find.

I wanted to depict my favorite spots in Barcelona. You can find the Marbella beach skate park, the colorful 'trencadís' that decorates the entrance of La Boqueria with its classic fruit cups, one of the streets in the Gothic quarter, the views of Collserola that I usually see from my house, the Escribà bakery window display with its pastries and cakes, and a piece of Park Güell.

-You have created a mix of places in Barcelona that for you are representative of the city along with the cartoon characters that marked your childhood.

I know that my generation grew up with a lot of the cartoons that used to be shown on K3/3XL. It's something that really marked my childhood and many of them remind me of my city, so I wanted to represent them in some way within the places I chose. I did a “genderbend” version of Petri from Súper3, the character was a boy, but I was excited to change it up a bit and give it my personal touch, while still being faithful to the original design of the costume and accessories. “Les 3 bessones” also appear in the Escribà pastry shop and the “Tomàtic” on the shoulder of the little witch flying over the Gothic Quarter. Also, one of the guys at the skate park who is facing away is another original character of mine, the one with “MR” on the shirt, is Mako Rekin, who appears in my illustrated novel “Strawberry Moon”.

- Who is the little witch?

Another original character! Her name is Kat, I have 4 other characters like her that I call 'Royalty Witches', I was excited to draw her. For now, I can't say much more about her story (you could say I'm working on it) and hopefully soon I can share a little more about her world.

-Through the NN Wallery urban art project, the Núñez i Navarro Group seeks to improve people's surroundings. Do you think the mission is being fulfilled?

I believe so! Things change a lot when you walk down a street and what you have beside you is a gray concrete wall. Seeing works like this with a purpose, an aesthetic, and a color palette that is pleasant and simple really catches your eye. And even more so being such a long mural, it makes you really stop to look at it and analyze every corner of the wall.

- And personally, what has the project brought to you?

I was very excited to learn that one of my works is on display in my city. Being able to contribute in making Barcelona even more beautiful than it already is seemed to me a very wonderful opportunity.

- Has your perception of urban art changed? Would you repeat it?

I would definitely do it again! It's a challenge because you really have to take many things into account, what I'm drawing will eventually have to be projected onto a wall, the person doing it will have to recreate my style, trying to make the muralist's job a bit easier within what's possible. I've never done urban art or worked with sprays, I really admire people who do this kind of work and I would like to try it myself someday.

- The walls of NN Wallery's construction project are ephemeral; they remain for as long as the construction work lasts. How do you experience this temporality?

I feel a bit of sorrow and sadness now that I think about it, but I believe it's because I'm not used to being a part of/working in this kind of art. I almost always work in digital, and you could say it's the complete opposite of urban art, digital art will always be present and alive as long as technology is alive. That's why it feels strange to think that one of these days the wall will no longer be there. But on the other hand, I think that's also part of the charm and grace of urban art.

- What does Barcelona mean to you? How would you define it?

Barcelona for me is my home. I've traveled to various countries for weeks and even months, and when I've been away for a while, I always end up thinking 'I miss Barcelona' - my family, the streets, the food, the walks on the beach... It's a city that has its places of tranquility and calm, others full of party and life, with lots of light and people from around the world.

- Do you think Barcelona lacks "art" in its streets?

I believe that Barcelona in itself is a city full of art, but I think that urban art and art in general should be valued much more. That's why I believe this initiative is a fantastic idea to help promote many artists and their works and to fill the streets of Barcelona with color.

- And finally, what projects are you currently working on?

Right now I'm working on something that I can't announce or discuss much yet, but I can say that this year I will be able to... I might say... that there's a lot of magic and 'royals' involved.

Te invitamos a descubrir la nueva sección NN Wallery en nuestra web en la que encontrarás todas las obras que forman parte del proyecto de urban art impulsado por el Grupo Núñez i Navarro, en colaboración con Norma Editorial. Te mostramos cómo cada uno de los artistas participantes ha transformado los muros de obra en espectaculares murales que reflejan su propia visión de lo que Barcelona les inspira. Porque los muros de obra ya no volverán a ser lo que eran. Ahora son auténticas obras de arte.