Last updated on April 9th, 2020
Life is nothing but a journey where one can never stop learning because if we stop learning, we stop growing. There are things like art, languages, skills, and much more to learn and add more to your life. PrintShop by Designhill is curious to introduce you to such an artist all the way from Andalusia, Spain, who believes in learning new things regardless of age, time, and place.
Meet Gloria Franco from the city of sunshine and symbolic art. She is a multi-skilled artist who lives by the sea and loves poetry, classical music, stand-up comedy, hiking, Pilates, décor, and more. PrintShop brings to you a glimpse from the life of Gloria Franco, a surface pattern designer who loves to create surface pattern artwork and indulges in learning new skills and languages.
When we asked her to take us through her journey as An Artist, She Said-
“I am an artist and my skills are not limited to just creating surface pattern designs. I love to indulge in all forms of arts be it music, theatre, comedy, or anything that speaks up the language of talent and skills. While crossing the 40 years of life, I look back and realize I still have too much to learn to be better than I am now. I now have a little dog named Nuki who accompanies me all the time and playing with him is the thing I await through the day.”Gloria as her name lives a glorious life, and what adds glory to her life is her willingness and passion to learn art, music, playing piano, composing tunes, learning languages, traveling, gardening, and similar skills. Let’s know about how she has acquired the skills and still lives by the passion and zeal to learn more.
PrintShop: Where are you from?
Gloria: I was born in Almeria, Spain, but I never lived here until I was almost 40 years old! All my life I have lived in many countries throughout the globe including Paris, Bali, Australia, Andorra, and Granada. Living in these countries made me a different person altogether and you can also call me a mix of many mentalities and thinking.
PrintShop: When did you Start your Artistic Journey and how did you realize that this is something that you would like to do?
Gloria: Since I was a child, I always carried a pencil in my hand and loved to draw fashion silhouettes. It came to me naturally and during my childhood I also studied piano while following an expected academic path. For higher studies, I went to a medical school because I was supposed to. However; it couldn’t keep me put for long as my ideas always rotated around studying art and related things. So, I decided to quit university and went to France for 12 years where I studied theatre and fashion designing at the oldest fashion school in the world- The Atelier Fleuri. After Paris, it became a thing for me to enjoy and learn many different things while traveling.
Today I speak three different languages! But now when I have approached my 40’s, I decide to come back to Spain, my homeland, and start working here. Things changed in 2016 as the organization I was working with got closed. After that, instead of continuing in the marketing and public relations field, I decided to go back to my first love – designing!
I remembered how much I loved the textile designing way more than fashion designing itself and I was lucky enough that I found online classes for Photoshop and Illustrator. Last year I published my website and my designs are available for licensing at my online store and other platforms, including PrintShop!
PrintShop: What is your process of Creating a Piece of Artwork and what Tools and Techniques do you use?
Gloria: It all starts with a joyful and uplifting idea. Whenever I create a piece of artwork, I look forward to conveying joy with colors, subjects, and the elements. At the beginning, I preferred using Illustrator only, but now I use Photoshop as well.
I have a graphic approach to pattern design. I look at the pattern repeatedly like a musical composition. What matters the most to me is color balance, this is why my logo plays with music and primary colors and that perfectly depicts my identity as an artist and a music lover.
For pattern design, once I have the motif, I use Procreate, Photoshop for iPad, Fresco or illustrator. I sometimes use all of them in the same piece of art because I love to experiment with textures and blending modes. I rarely use paper to create any form of art. I only used to draw on paper way back when I was studying art. Though I enjoy creating art on iPad, I may start making my artworks again the old fashioned way while adding my new skills to it.
PrintShop: How do you find inspiration and stay creative?
Gloria: When I was in Paris, one of my art teachers used to say that as a designer, everything has to inspire us! And it is true. The amazing sunlight and gushing sea gives me an unmatched vibe every day. My dog Nuki also inspires me. But I look deep into the daily use products that convey joy to the people, for example, a mobile phone and many similar things. I have a very creative mind and I need to keep it working all the time.
PrintShop: Did you face any Challenges in your Artistic Journey? If yes, how did you overcome it?
Gloria: The creative challenge for me was to step out from the world of paper and step into the digital platforms. I took care of this much needed change by learning digital skills, building my website, creating a portfolio, making contacts, and managing social media all by myself within just 3 years.
I emphasized on learning digital skills, building my web, creating a portfolio, making contacts, and managing social media, all alone and at the same time, for 3 years. The hardest part I guess was to have that vision and planning in a way that I could do it in time to make it real.
Other things that I have learned so far to overcome my challenge faster are that I did not wait to finish studying to design my website, I did not wait to finish my portfolio to share on social media, I made all of it at once, little by little every day.
And after three years I opened the web. But it was in the making for 3 years.
PrintShop: What is the best advice you’ve gotten as An Artist or the most important thing you’ve learned?
Gloria: I have got two best advices here:
1. When I started and had a lot to learn, I used the advice of Bonnie Christine: “Do a little thing everyday that brings you closer to your goal”.
And,
2. When I went live and had the feeling that all was yet to be done, I used the advice of my mother: “No deadlines”.
So now I combine both advice. I work every single day and trust that whatever comes my way is meant to be.
Check out her latest work on PrintShop.
