Paulo Mendes, Urban Sketcher, Illustrator and Comic Artist
I was born in Porto, Portugal, in 1965, and I studied high school studies at Soares dos Reis Decorative Arts School. My professional life started in 1988 as a layout designer for a phone book company called Páginas Amarelas (Yellow Pages), where I remained for the subsequent 13 years.
In 2001 I started a job as a ceramic tile painter (the traditional Portuguese "azulejos"), firstly in another person's studio, and two years later in my own business alongside an old friend until 2006, and from then on my own.
Meanwhile, I had occasional experiences in illustration, watercolour painting, bookplate and medal design. Then, in 2014 I started to practice a totally new activity which I immediately loved: observation drawing in sketchbooks, usually known as Urban Sketching.
I've been practising every day since then to such a point of commitment that one day in 2017, I decided that drawing was really what I love to do and definitely dropped the tile business.
In that same year, I also started a comic project which ended up as my first published comic novel (or "disnovel", as I call it) in early 2020, and the second one is almost finished and expected to come out later this year.
What is your favourite social media platform, and why?
Instagram and Facebook, the first more than the second. Not being a big fan of social media platforms, I can't call any of them a "favourite". However, Instagram is the one I most use because it is smoother, less noisy and more visual and doesn't require excessive interaction, although more recently, I find it pretty dysfunctional.
Tell us about you and your current role or area of interest.
I'm essentially someone who is passionate about drawing, especially drawing from observation. Of course, I can also draw from imagination and have done it a lot in the past, but it doesn't have the same excitement as being outdoors; finding the right spot and absorbing it will all sense for a few hours while transposing it to the paper.
I usually start my days at home working on my current comic project and then going out for a few hours to make a drawing from life which, depending on that day's results. It can be done just for pleasure, practice, selling, and saving for future exhibitions.
Back home again, I resume my indoor activities till evening. Sometimes I get invitations for specific sketching projects/commissions that may include an artistic residence, an exhibition, a book edition or even a demo or a workshop.
What do you like about your career or area of focus?
I like freedom because drawing is an act of freedom. I don't have a nine-to-five schedule no deadlines. So, most of the time, I can work from my own ideas, and when doing it outdoors, I can choose my subjects and locations.
I love to walk while watching street life, urban transformations, period architecture and many other elements, and being able to simultaneously capture and experience them is priceless.
What is the best advice you have ever received?
If I did get one, I might not have followed it. Otherwise, I would remember.
What inspires you, motivates you, or helps you to move forward?
Everything around me is a source of inspiration. I don't need to draw monumental or iconic places, despite living in a city full of them. My best works sometimes come from the next corner, with rubbish bins or parked cars in the foreground.
One of the most exciting challenges is to capture places no one would remember to capture and turn them into interesting subjects. There's always something new, fresh or unexpected around the corner waiting to be drawn, and waking up wondering what it will be is highly motivational.
What are you proud of in your life so far?
Some 22 years ago, I overcame addiction and, more recently, overcame a complicated period of self-isolation. I have changed my life for the better and released me from years of stagnation and hopelessness. These accomplishments can probably be called something I can be proud of, considering they're shortly followed by a much more extensive list of things I can't say the same.
What is your preferred way to meet new people/network?
Anything offline.
What skills or qualities do you feel have helped you?
Drawing from life is the best tool for any kind of visual artist: It helps develop observation skills and keeps the hand simultaneously firm and loose.
On the mental side, It's like taking your brain to the gym by processing lots of information at once, taking quick decisions, measuring scales and distances mentally, and mixing colours by instinct.
For those who get easily distracted or out of focus like me, it strongly develops concentration, and all these are tools that end up becoming extremely useful in so many different aspects of our life.
What do you wish you had known when you started out?
I wish I had started sketching outdoors in my younger years instead of when I was 49. There were so many subjects, places and people that are now gone forever.
Who do you most admire in business, academic or creative circles and why?
I'm always amazed by all younger creative people doing extraordinary artwork in illustration, comics, fine arts, and literature; I admire and respect all who managed to accomplish their art studies, something I didn't achieve.
Being someone more analogic than digital, I also admire all those who get the best from the new technologies and tools, not only to create their artwork but also to promote and sell it.
Outside of your professional/work area, what hobbies or interests do you have or what other areas of your life are of real importance to you?
I'm so happy with my work that sometimes I don't know where the job ends and the hobby starts and vice-versa, this being amplified by the fact that I don't get huge profits from my "jobby". But, apart from this, there's nothing of more value to me than spending a great time with my beloved ones.
Has the pandemic had a positive or a negative effect on you and/or your business, and how have you managed it?
Absolutely negative. Most of my work is done outdoors. Mandatory lockdown disrupted my daily practice and routine. Going out only for the strictly necessary, feeling like a terrorist just by making an occasional, fast, sneaky yet unsatisfactory sketch in a desert corner was a nightmare.
Even if they were set for the best reasons and having myself not failed to accomplish them, the pandemic restrictions have been something that a less rational part of me is still processing as aggression, with the correspondent level of resentment.
What advice would you have for someone looking to get into the same area of work or interests?
I've been giving this same advice to all fellow sketchers and workshop students and anyone asking me for advice. However, sometimes I feel like preaching in the desert: practice whenever you can, if possible every day, and then practice again.
No tool or instruction will ever be more useful than self-learning from your own observations, practice and mistakes.
What do you feel is the most common reason for people failing or giving up?
It is giving up after failing.
What companies, brands, or institutions do you like or do you think are getting it right?
I could mention a few, not necessarily from my area of interest, but I will keep with this one, my book's publisher, Escorpião Azul. It's a small comic publishing company focusing on Portuguese authors, many of whom are first-timers or forthcoming.
Their books, in a wide catalogue and variety of genres and styles, are small and portable, affordable, well printed and well made, and make their way through bookshops, book fairs and comic festivals.
As someone who was looking for a publisher for my first novel, it was nice to find such receptive, open-minded and hard-working people, and good things didn't take long to happen.
How do you define success, and what lessons have you learned so far that you could share with our audience/readership?
I keep myself busy, always forgetting to take time to reflect on such kinds of existential questions.