A close look at the Creativity of Illustrator Pasquale D’Silva
The fantastic work of Pasquale with a Showcase, Interview and a Give-away
Every now and then we all come across a designer who takes us by surprise, and reminds us what it means to truly be a creative person. This is exactly how I felt when nearly 2 years ago I came across the work of Pasquale D’Silva.
Although illustration and animation aren’t really things I do, the vibe that comes from Pasquale, and the level of creativity he keeps up is something we can all related to and respect.
When you stumble across somebody so creative in this industry it’s always a good idea to talk to them, and if their skills can work for you, work with them. I hadn’t really planned to find an illustrator to work with, but once I saw his work I just had to find an excuse to work with him. And in the past our previous meetings have worked out very well.
Having worked with such an interesting character, and got to enjoy his work over the past year or two I felt it would be nice for me to share some of his work with you guys and perhaps open some eyes to a guy who keeps me very intrigued, blows my mind and inspires me on a daily basis.
In this post I will be showcasing some of the fantastic work from Pasquale, and tying in some interview questions that I put to him. Plus read through to find out how to win a cool t-shirt from Pasquale.
Work of Pasquale D’Silva
Before we get in to the interview I’ve chose a selection of Pasquale’s work that I would like to share with you. More of his work will be placed throughout the interview.
01. You are clearly a creative guy. Can you tell us where did your interest in illustration & animation came from?
The plan was to be a mechanical and micro-electronic engineer. I wanted to build neat robots to fight each other to the death, and send things to the moon. Unfortunately that required a lot of boring math, and in my senior year, I swapped all my courses out to arts courses. It freaked my careers councilor out for sure..
I’ve always loved drawing and making funny things. I used to draw really weird things and write wacky, crudely illustrated stories when I was in Primary school.
I only seriously thought about animation & illustration as a career after watching Disney B-Rolls for hours on end in early high-school.
It was wonderful learning that there were a few adults who could actually make a living drawing animals, candlesticks, monsters & funny looking people for kids and adults (big kids) all day. I didn’t want a regular ‘boring’ job, so I just stuck my hands into drawing & animation!
After sending in a showreel of work to a local animation & effects studio, they were nurturing enough to take me in and train me up. It turned into a job working on a couple of animated television series, where I learned a lot of very valuable information.
02. What was the motivation for you to pull out of university & focus on your freelance work? Has the decision worked out for you?
University was a struggle. Not for grades - I was happily sitting at ‘honors’. I had been working for an animation studio before entering university, so jumping into it felt really sheltered.
Nobody was brutal enough with critique, and the bar was set pretty low. For something as subjective as animation, applying an academic set of criteria was almost ridiculous! It felt too mechanical, and it was hard to feel motivated to work on neat things.
I left at the end of ‘08 and haven’t looked back. That being said, I am still glad that I got to go to university and collaborate with friends. I ended up making a really fun little short, and had some great times sharing and learning from each other.
Freelance was doing great, and the north (America & Canada) presented a plethora of opportunities. I’ve been working with many new faces up here.
Everything is exciting and fresh! I think the best thing that came out of the big move to Vancouver was ending up in a place saturated with creative people, and being independent!
03. How is your time mostly spent? Is there a balance between your illustration work, and your animation work? Which of the two would you say you prefer spending time on?
For the most part, I’m Illustrating as Freelance work & animating for personal projects. Since animation is so laborious, it requires a pretty large budget to get rolling- so they are the more occasional pieces.
When I’m animating, I don’t get to spend as much time as I’d like examining and working each drawing; but when I’m illustrating I don’t get to see it move and come to life. So for that reason, I like to keep a pretty even split between the two.
04. If you had to choose some work that would define you as a designer what would it be. Talk us through the work and what makes it a perfect representation of you & your work.
Looking back at my art even months ago, I see a lot of change. In months from now, I’d probably pick something different, but I guess right now I’d say my on going ‘freak-a-day’ project (which has been daily sometimes in the past months).
I love pushing out really quick & loose drawings. I find that I learn a lot more about my quirks from spontaneous reflex drawing: Freak a Day.
After drawing studies, natural patterns occur in the choices of lines I’ll put down, so it’ always nice to have a collection of the looser sketches. Sometimes the freaks will come from ideas I dream up, or sometimes they’ll just emerge from a squiggle that I’ll use as the base shape.
05. You always have a great use of colour in your Work. Where does this understanding come from & do you have any tips you could share?
I find colour to be very non-formulaic, even though there are a lot of theories which help as a guide. I love just looking at nature for inspiration. Real life is the best thing to learn from. Don Shank & Lou Romano (Two of my favourite layout artists) are a big inspiration.
They develop the colour scripts & layout art for many of Pixar’s films by going out into the field with art supplies, and just slapping studies together. I think that colour is incredibly important to nail down in all types of design, be it web, print or animated! It really helps to establish mood & character.
If I have any useful tips for colour- I’d say it’s just all about examining what’s around you and studying what occurs naturally!
06. You’ve recently opened a shop! Talk us through what you’re doing, and what you have planned for the shop.
Yes! I am really excited that people can now own a physical copy of my art for their walls or chests! I just started working with a great screen printer; Sage Screen-printing who uses traditional methods to hand-press prints.
I was actually at his studio while the paints were mixed and pressed for my first line of limited edition tees! Being hand controlled, we got to control every fine detail from the colour contrast, to checking that every layering of paint registered properly.
I think having prints made in the traditional fashion is so rewarding. After seeing what goes behind it, I really fell in love with the method, and plan to roll out a lot more art designed for press.
It’s a great feeling being able see your art in a more tactile form than just on screen!
07. It seems that friends & collaborations with designers play a big part in your life and your work. Introduce some of these people to us and share what you’ve been up recently.
Collaborating with my friends and other artists is a blast. It means that I get a diversity of projects to work on, & get to make things even better than I could have produced on my own.
I just started co-hosting a weekly show with Timmy Allen (from Rev3’s Film Riot) & Nick Campbell from GreyScaleGorilla on motiongraphics & animation called Keyframe.
We hold a round table discussion about news, questions & breaking down pieces of work. We just finished our second episode, and hope that we can make each episode even better than the last!
I’m also working on a live action x animation film with my good videographer friend Josh Knepper. It’s called Packed.
Right now we are trying to develop our own methods to blend effects work with illustration & animation. We recently did a comprehensive rewrite of the script, & are now testing the final effect proofs in the coming week or two. For some reason, we also require a full body, skin-tight, green-screen suit; so we’ll be getting into some spandex soon…
My store system was built by my friend Brian Reavis who is an amazing wizard of code. I recently flew out to visit him & his equally talented brother and started building a crazy project that involves robots & twitter. - But that’s still under wraps!
…and of course there are the numerous collaborations I’ve had with you here at Function, Illustrating fun characters to share & more recently, the pieces put together for the redesign of Smashing Magazine!
08. Could you please explain why you have so many quick sketches or doodles uploaded online & what their importance is?
Animation & Illustration is my passion. Though I absolutely enjoy making art for other people, it’s still work! I chill out making art as well, so working on my own projects is meditative. I love to push together fun little pieces to share with the world, and to add to my portfolio. I’m always working on something new in order to diversify my work showcase as much as possible. There are no limits when you are working for yourself.
09. What tools, online or offline are most important to your work-flow.
All of my drafting is usually traditionally planned (Pencil on Paper). Getting it into digital is the easy part! I develop most of my drawings on paper, and then vector the scans using Adobe Flash or Illustrator.
It’s kind of un-orthodox, but I find the bendable line tools & interactivity between drawing elements in Flash to be so much more intuitive than Illustrator. I spend most of my time vectoring in Flash & then accomplishing the rest of the polish in Illustrator.
Raster work is produced with Autodesk Sketchbook, Corel Painter, or Photoshop depending on the aesthetic I am after. I animate with Flash, Autodesk Maya, & composite with After Effects.
It used to be an extremely tedious process taking pencil sketches into digital through scanning, and re-inking the the linework. I recently added a Wacom Cintiq to my work-flow, and it’s really shaved down hours upon hours from my process.
Being able to use the original marks placed on canvas is a godsend! Sketchbook is Cintiq’s best friend. It’s so nice being able to doodle quick scribbles with the pencil brushes. All of the characters in my Freak-a-day set were drawn using it!
10. You definitely have a good balance of fun and professionalism about you. Do you think this is important for your client relationships and collaborations with other designers.
I’d like to think that it’s one of my stronger assets! I think establishing a friendly and comfortable relationship with a client is a wonderful thing. The relationship will be incentive for a client to want to keep hiring a designer for future projects, whilst the designer can feel comfortable working on a project.
I’m often selective about clients, and make sure that working together will really benefit the both of us.
Keeping it lighthearted is important, especially in an industry as loopy and fun as animation/character design. A good personality reflects pretty strongly on your work. Better work comes from the projects which are least stressful.
11. Thanks for taking the time to talk to us, anything you’d like to add?
My pleasure Liam. Thanks for talking to me and letting me share my thoughts! I just want to say that I am always looking for fresh new projects & people to work with. Come hang out on my site, have a look around in my shop, and check out some of the fun projects I am working on!
Win Pasquale’s work on your Chest!
Pasquale has been kind enough to let one of you guys have one of his t-shirts delivered to your door absolutely free. Simply post a comment to win, remembering to enter your email address, so we can contact you (only if you win) - One word posts won’t be accepted so make it a valuable comment & feel free to share the competition via Twitter and other modern contraptions.
For a better view of what you will be winning, with sizes check the details out.
One winner will be picked randomly. The contest will only run until Monday November 16th 2009: 4pm GMT. So make sure to get your entry in quickly.
Stay in Touch with Pasquale
There’s a few ways to keep up to date with Pasquale. Let’s quickly run through them! His Twitter. Personal Blog. Flickr stream & Tumblr. Make sure to check out the new Shop and his work Portfolio.
Written by liam on November 13, 2009
Matthew Kammerer said:
Wonderful post! Amazing work, I really enjoyed seeing the different pieces.
And even cooler t-shirt! Thanks for the interview, Liam.
ocean3d said:
Impressive works. Greatings from Poland
liam said:
@Matthew, always on the pulse Matthew always one of the first to comment. Thanks mate, appreciate it glad I could share his work with you guys.
Cinzia said:
Gorgeous work, Pasquale! And interesting interview. Thx
Andrew said:
Awesome works, especially the illustration for smashing magazine.
Giovanni said:
Cool post!!!
Amazing work and working process… well done!!!
Sunil P said:
Pasquale, the mass scale rascal!!
Dave Sparks said:
Some great stuff, I’ve seen some of the work around but never knew who’s it was. Nice to find out
Robert Marton said:
Much respect for Pasquale D’Silva! His work is absolutely awesome!
Andy said:
Fantasic work, I love the look of all the illustrations. Never seen the animation before thats top notch!
Dan Clarke said:
Your work is very inspiring, I have a graphic tablet on order at the moment, glad you could share this info with us! Very inspiring xD
Tom said:
Really nice work Pasquale!
Eugenio Grigolon said:
You’re a very talented guy with an awesome work and beautiful characters! Congrats.
Eric said:
Incredible work. Love it.
Jordan Moore said:
Wow, I had no idea you were behind the illustrations on Smashing Magazine. The rest of your portfolio looks fantastic, in fact I think I’ve visited Freak a Day before too! Awesome!
- Jordan
Graham said:
Very very cool!
Nice work - very inspiring.
Thank you for sharing this with us.
Arvind Singh said:
Excellent post, This is really inspiring!!
Jason said:
Right on.
Beatnut said:
Impressive and inspirational!
Erin said:
I can’t get enough of Pasquale! After taking a slight detour on the path to an illustrating career, he has re-inspired me to get back on track. Keep up the great work!
Kevin said:
Absolutely stunning work.
iRonnie said:
i envy creative guys like him!
Héctor said:
With the adquisition of Marvel by Disney, I´ve seen the Goofy/Spider Man quite a lot recently, though I did not know who drew it. Nice!
KristianP said:
Nice work!
Scott said:
Nice work. Love the tshirt.
Shawn -PDL said:
Very cool stuff. I have been a fan of your illustrations for a long time.
Jeremy Scheller said:
This is really beautiful work. I love it. Love the smooth lines and playfulness.
maria jose said:
excelent drawings!! you are a great artist!!
Design Ideas said:
I love these works. Very positive drawing style!
Monsieur_m said:
brilliant !
Jaswinder said:
Damm i’m kinda late on this one….
Been a fan Pasquale ever since i saw his work on mostly lisa site a year or two ago.
Great post liam!
kristin said:
yay for illustrators! (i’m pretty partial to that profession)
and i love his stuff. so fun! very well designed images.
yopablo said:
Awesome interview. Cant wait for the second episode of keyframe tv. maybe one day we can work on something and COLLAB!?
Luke said:
Great inspiration. And an even better illustrative style. I love reading interviews like this where we get a closer look at how the masters approach their work.
Thanks!
Greg Nunamaker said:
I am new to the world of Pasquale since subscribing to the Drawn! blog. I love his story. Great interview, inspirational and informative. Thanks for the insight. I’m definitely going to save for a Cintiq now
Design Informer said:
Very, very cool interview. Pasquale is one of my favorite illustrators. His style is so clean.
I hope I win that awesome shirt.
Patrick said:
go for the win!!!
very good illustrations! 
Lisa Brown said:
Use of tranquil colors is uncommon in illustration. Good work.
Moguul said:
Woohoo.
Nice illustrations. Keep your ideas up.
Jovan said:
Creative guy. Awesome work.
Jensou said:
Pasquale’s work has recently gotten me inspired and drawing again to try and further develop those skills. He’s a creative force. Thanks for the great interview.
Tyson Faa said:
Pasquale your work is amazing you are definitely an inspiration!
-tyson
Qiming said:
This is inspiring.
That T-Shirt is hot
Stephan H said:
Proudly wear that T if I win! Love your work!
Henri Watson said:
Pasquale is a really cool guy I met on the kForums back when he was known as DarkMotion.
@Pasquale: Kudos for getting to much attention!
Roberto Alanís said:
Those watercolor and brush effects are really great! Awesome illustrator, congrats
Lauren M said:
Pasquale! I appreciate you taking the time to share your work and thoughts (and thanks Liam for the great questions!).
The keyframe clip is aaaawesome. Good conversation and topics. It’s great that you touched on attending college for art, and how it may not be for everyone. The key is to stay motivated and inspired with your art. And I agree that surrounding yourself with other creative people is key. I love collaborating and seeing what my friends are up to!
I’ll be following your work Pasquale, this interview is wonderfully inspiring
Jessica said:
A very interesting interview with a fascinating young designer! I am very much looking forward to the animated film.
Derek Jay Steen said:
Pas is a super-rad illustrator!
I can’t believe I haven’t seen some of the drawings in this article. I want the panda thinking about jelly on a t-shirt right now. Yo listenin, Pas?
Mirko said:
Clearly skilled work, but a bit too conventional and “cute”, not for me…
Chathura said:
Amazing works, really inspiring
Jess said:
It’s not only the drawings that make Pasquale special, to me it’s his whole attitude and also the way he (partly) appears in photographs with his own product - it’s not always simply about the work, but also about the person behind it. And his work really reflects himself. So fun to see.
Marian Rick said:
Awesome works!
Kryztian said:
Awesome work!! Very inspirational.
Marko Randjelovic said:
Cool shirt. It would be great to win it.
A Close Look At The Creativity of Illustrator Pasquale D’Silva | Design Newz said:
[...] A Close Look At The Creativity of Illustrator Pasquale D’Silva [...]
Nidhin said:
Great work…keep it up
Emilio Ramos said:
Let the randomness begin.
P.S. I love how the subtle shading gives the 2-D stuff more volume..
Enatom said:
CHOOSE ME PAS! PLEEEASE, I WANT A T-SHIRT.
Paul Rostorp said:
I’m in !
thanks,
adone said:
Super Works. Nice giveaway. Cheers!
webmasterdubai said:
let me try my luck for this give way
Lucas said:
Love this. So inspiring.
Falácia » As falácias da semana said:
[...] A close look at the Creativity of Illustrator Pasquale D’Silva (via Function) [...]
Dario said:
Amazing interviewn, i love all illustrations of this creative and i like that shirt
Duncan said:
Nice interview, some of the work I saw here I hadn’t seen before!
William said:
Great work, really love your stuff with giraffes!
dot Blog. The week in links 16/11/09 said:
[...] A Close Look At The Creativity Of Illustrator Pasquale D’Silva (wefunction.com) [...]
Templarian said:
Nice job Pasquale. Also this article is a good read through.
Arthur Cante said:
I love ! Wonderful post !
Lee Sheppard said:
I never knew Pasq worked with pants on. Thank god for that.
Great artwork!
Sowdesh said:
Cooool stuffs and perfection dude
like to see some sparking effects on animation and music related animation
webdesign template said:
Wonderful staffs thanks a lot buddy hope to see more
Zugly said:
Choose me, choose me…!!!
tips said:
hey I like this!! : )
And&
I like your blog!
Its very enriching, interesting.
Its so varied, illustrations inspire me.
Good continuation.
Gaurav M said:
Cool work man!
just a splendid n neat work
and regarding my comment i m bit late
just discovered your blog.
Secretaria said:
Great works! amazing creations
Acceso mayores 25 said:
Beautiful creations, will be nice to win a t-shirt
discount tiffany jewelry said:
gooooooooooooooooood
Bowman said:
“Every now and then we all come across a designer who takes us by surprise, and reminds us what it means to truly be a creative person.”
Truly creative? I’ve already seen all this work before… on other people’s portfolios. This is the tail end of the cutesy pop culture cartoon trend. Show us something we haven’t already seen in a TV commercial before.
Mustafa Quilon said:
Beautiful…!
Roc said:
Nice style, fantastic colors, great post. Thanks!
minitodo said:
super cool!
best website templates said:
Wow ! that’s great …..hope to expect more.
Adrian said:
Brilliant work!
izdelava spletnih strani said:
Cool stuff! It shows he’s true artist.
Vipin said:
Hey Pasq!! GREAT WORK!! I was just going through your work showcasing here and really every single one was making me to stop and appreciating your true passion..
Great post even!! Thanks..
Mark Carter said:
Nice design style …. quite subtle.
Thanks for introducing him to us
NYC SEO Service said:
good nice design…………….
Mark Kaigwa said:
Awesome interview, thanks for sharing.
Cool t-shirt.
Pasquale’s a really inspiring dude.
Kamila - Darc Vanilla Design said:
Wonderful work, although some of the animals remind a bit those from ‘Happy Tree Friends’.
Scary
Free-vectors said:
Thank u very much! Great post!!
Koocha said:
Brilliant work! Also, feel free to browse my new site http://koocha.com with lots of design stuff collected from Internet
Bruninho said:
Amazing post and incredible work from Pasquale,
Congratulations !!!
dungeon fighgter gold said:
very good post.
Katona Laszlo said:
Great work! Hello from Romania!
Deepu Balan said:
Really tremendous stuff… Amazingly talented youngster. Thanks for sharing this Liam.
-Deepu
kulpreet said:
very interesting. thanks for sharing.
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siteler mutfak dolabi said:
Great works! amazing creations
boyaci said:
Awesome interview, thanks for sharing.
web design miami said:
Soo nice ! thank uuuu for sharing , keep up the good work
rosina said:
I want that T-shirt! It´s a great post!
Melody said:
hahaha..at the bubble video..great work!
iç giyim said:
very interesting. thanks for sharing
Dumm said:
very nice drawings. good job
Husien Adel said:
really nice interview with telnet illustrator , great artist
Chicago Web Design said:
Awesome work Pasquel. Do you have a line of t-shirts available? If you do can you send me a link?
agusjon said:
very nice, i love the work !!
Allan Reyes said:
Awesome! Saludos desde Madrid, España
Dennis said:
Haha, awesome post, I totally digg the art
Logostock said:
those are some creative arts
bosega said:
Nice works! Cool designer
Autonomy said:
These pieces are fantastic and the interview is great! Thanks for giving us this gem.
glemma said:
Great designer, great works! Good to see the whole story behind it, instead of just the pictures
Chris Robinson said:
Such a cool style
San Jose web design said:
become a fan of you Pasquale! awesome work and great post
David said:
Truly amazing work. Very interesting and inspiring article. Thanks!
tamilsweet said:
Very inspiring!!!
james said:
Cool illustrator, however, I fail to see how this is ground breaking or original enough to be spotlighted.
I mean, everyone is opening illustrator and making some ultra cute monster in bright colours. Like when illustration was a massive deal a decade ago and people followed trends whether it be cute dripping paint, or cute Japanese monsters or cute simplistic clouds.
If you look at buying a t-shirt nowdays on a web community forum, all you have to choose from is a cute monster, a cute monster and a girl holding a cute ice cream, a cute monster with a cute girl holding a cute icecream standing on top of a cute corpse with forks stuck in it.(for that neverending juxtaposition angle ZZZzzzz)
This guy is very skilled, I give him that. But I am not sure I buy into the whole ‘this guy is a great new young designer’ tag. I mean he’s not really ‘designing’ anything but more like taking thousands if not millions of other peoples designs and making them a little more cute, a little more polished, a little more topical, whatever. It’s like going to Subway and filling up your cup with Sprite and then at the very end adding a dash of coke and saying to everyone you invented a totally new awesome flavour. “Yeah I guess…but…..”
All I am saying is great skills…. but very ‘my friend’s cousin can do this) type artwork.
Nina said:
What an amazing designer, I am personally in love with the Spidy-Goofy, the panda, and the Twitter of course
Thanks for sharing!
Turgay said:
how do they do these? great work
home wall art said:
For me your such a talented person wish to become like you Mr. Pasquale D’Silva you have a imaginative creation on your work, I really appreciate it because i do’nt have any talent in drawing. Keep up the good work.!!!
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lokendra said:
nice and cute art. i love let me know may i use this for noncommercial use. ?
SCMIND said:
wow amazing work! talented artist
zohaib said:
you really inspire me Pasquale D’Silva. great work
cssclassic said:
Nice article, Excellent one !!
Duane said:
Impressive stuff. Pasquale’s work is an inspiration.
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