Carolina Moscosco

Carolina is a NYC-based Portuguese architect and illustrator who’s created commissions for Bloomberg, NY Times, Vanity Fair, Nike and Adidas, among others.

1. How did you fall in love with art and illustration? Did you have any major inspirations?

As with many artists, loving to draw as a kid was a good start. I was an introverted kid, so it was easy to take refuge in that world. It also meant starting to look at images from the curiosity of making them, with a fascination for how an image comes to be, what it communicates, what tools were used to make it, which in turn fed into an idea that art and illustration are limitless, and triggered a concrete visual vocabulary that manifested in more specific interests. An artistic sensitivity came from home, too - my mom is a writer and my dad had a painter phase back

in the day. This didn’t mean that I grew up surrounded by art per se, but it gave me a sense of appreciation for art in general as something of value. My parents would take us to museums and traveling as much as possible, which was definitely a big influence.

So, I think it happened by means of a hobby gradually combining with a search for identity, where you look for things that drive your enthusiasm and offer strong emotional messages –  graphic arts were relatable for me in that sense.

2. How did you make the transition from artist/art lover, to professional illustrator?

Well, it took some time. I am trained as an architect and worked as such for many years. Early in that process, my interest for graphic arts brought me to New York for an illustration summer residency at SVA, nothing solid in the professional realm, rather prompted by my curiosity to develop graphic work and the craving for a stronger connection to the art community. While working as an architect here, I continued to draw personal work, keeping a blog, website

and social media, and casually showing some work here and there. I knew I wanted to pursue illustration more seriously at this point but nothing was planned out. Eventually some people reached out to collaborate, which I did on the side, and from there things just started building to a point where I knew I had to make a choice. I didn’t want to give up illustration in favor of architecture, given that both require great time, focus and commitment. I weighed in what meant more to me and decided to make the move.

3. Being a self-taught illustrator, is there any advice you'd give to illustrators looking to define their own style without a formal arts education?

It can be misleading to give advice in this field. The work you make is so determined by your unique traits that it’s difficult to assess if what works for one will serve another. That said, something useful for me was to stay curious and connected to personal interests and draw from there – I actually read a while back something by Stephen King where he mentions the importance of writing about what you know in order to be a good writer. It’s also helpful to understand your skill level by practicing and experimenting as much as possible, not necessarily following tutorials of perfect techniques, but spending time messing up your own way, getting to know tools, materials, etc. Practice has always lead me to improvement and interesting discoveries.

4. Are there any cities or specific locations that always inspire you?

Milan for sure, one of my favorite places, but I can’t say why. I also spent some time in Rio recently, a dear place because of family roots, and the experience of its landscape will stay with me for life.

5. Are there any other artists, or any other visual, music, dance, theatre, or film art that have been inspiring you lately?

So many. The basement show at The Hole last week was great. Patti Smith & Soundwalk Collective at Kurimanzutto was pretty special, I was so lucky to catch Patti Smith there and tag along for a mini tour. Not too long ago I watched the William Kentridge series “Self-Portrait as a Coffee Pot”, which is absolutely brilliant – I mean, what a mind! Looking forward to watching “I’m Still Here”, a movie that is bringing Brazilian cinema to the Oscars (excited to see what happens!). And I always love to follow the work of my favorites on instagram, like Lewis Chamberlain, Raymond Lemstra, Aurel Schmidt, Mia Mor, Dadu Shin... it’s almost unfair to name just a few because there are so many gems out there – a good reason to still check your social media!

6. What are your favorite subjects to illustrate and why?

I love to draw people, especially imaginary characters and plants, or any plant-like made up thing. I find great opportunity for expression and humor in both and, particularly with people, there is room to play with style and fashion, which I love.

7. How does your architectural training influence your work?

I view sketching as problem-solving, as a way to explore and resolve concepts, it can be fast and messy and it’s something that still helps me today when doing commissions.

On the other hand, there’s the more formal technical representation. What that conveys is an order and precision that I always felt drawn to, probably influenced by geometry exercises back in school, where I loved how you had to achieve a range of line weights using only a mechanical pencil. Instead of looking at these forms of representation as void of character and life, I felt compelled to see in them another layer of storytelling, using details, objects and characters to make my autocad elevations, axons and diagrams more relatable. I think this is exactly what transformed my understanding of what I could draw and why, when I noticed that those precise autocad drawings could carry a narrative, just like any other drawing. Also sensing that

there is a great deal of space planning and construction in the act of illustrating as well.

8. Are there specific types of spaces you love working in?

I am definitely a work from home person. Even though I appreciate the social aspect of shared studios, the coffee shop situation and such, I tend to be easily distracted and anxious when working around too many people.

9. What are the most important things for you to have in your work space?

Practically, a large table in a well-organized space. A place for chaos when you need it, but generally everything in its place. Also my books and a coffee maker.

10. What does a typical work day look like for you?

I am a bit of a workaholic so I like to draw everyday – either for commissions or personal projects. Other than that, it will be something like starting the day with a coffee walk and getting to any urgent matters like emails or any managerial aspects of freelance life. At some point in the day a short pause for exercise and back at it. Like I said, being a bit of a workaholic, I have the issue of not having a hard stop hour, I do love never ending sessions of drawing.

11. What have been your favorite collaborations?

There are for sure collaborations that I have enjoyed more than others, mostly driven by the topic, but I try not to categorize it that way. With each project I have found something of value.

12. What is your dream collaboration?

Tough to pick, there’s a lot of people I’d be happy to work with someday. But surely something like Apartamento Magazine would be amazing. It is beyond doubt one of the best magazines out there.

13. Is there anything about your work that you wish people knew, or understood better?

There is often a personal side of the work that is less revealed in commercial assignments.  I am trying to show more of that, and also doing more exploration with different mediums on paper.

14. What have you been the most curious about lately?

I listen to lots of podcasts while I work, anything related to the cosmos, space exploration, etc has been top of my list for a while now. Pioneer Works has done some great lectures on this topic.

15.Thank you for your answers! Any final words you'd like to add?

Some of these questions can be hard to answer, so thank you if you got to the end of it 🙂 
And thank you Illustration Division for this feature and your support!