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Presentation

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Hi, I'm Vero Navarro
and I'm a professional illustrator.

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Before starting with the lessons,
I would like you to know me better,

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and for that, I will tell you
a bit about my trajectory.

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I started drawing
when I was six years old.

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At first, I wasn't very promising,
in fact, I didn't draw very well.

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I was so bad at it

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that my elementary school teacher
told me that I sucked at drawing,

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and even told my parents.

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But this kind of feedback

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made me want to impress her.

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So the next time
she asked me to draw something

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I took it so seriously and tried so hard
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that I won a drawing contest.

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This kind of small win
gave me a little more confidence

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and it made me discover
that I was really enjoying drawing,

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and the more I practiced,
the better I got.

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So, I continued practicing,
I went on to high school,

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I signed up for extracurricular classes,

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and I went to college,
where I studied Fine Arts.

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I had the bad luck
that just when I finished college

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the economic crisis struck
and it was very difficult to get money.

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During that time, I combined my activity

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as a graphic designer in a company

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with my work
and my personal illustrations.

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The good thing is that it gave me time
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to practice
and improve little by little.

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And I shared what I was doing
on my social networks.

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Over time,
I started to get my first clients.

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The first commissions I had
came from publishers,

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They began to ask me especially

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for covers
or the inner pages of some books.

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Little by little,
combining the two facets of my life,

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I managed to give more importance
to my activities as an illustrator,

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to the point that I made the leap

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to 100% professional illustration.

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These professional jobs
were of different types,

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and this led me to develop,
almost without realizing it,

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very different styles.

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Also, I felt very comfortable,
I liked challenges,

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I liked being commissioned
different things.

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In this way,
I got a fairly stable client portfolio

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that has kept me going these last years,

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but I also understood

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that all these professional jobs
were great,

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but I needed my own time to draw.

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I was only doing professional work
for a while,

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but I needed to focus
on my own stuff too,

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so I decided to create
personal projects again

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to fall in love with illustration again.

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By creating these personal projects,

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I give free rein to my own interests,

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be it pop culture, creating fan art,

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or slightly more serious themes,
such as fantasy or magical realism.

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It's how I have fun and relax,

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but what I get from it

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is that even if I am very stressed
with work or with commissions,

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I don't forget how much I like to draw.

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And now that you know me better,

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in the next lesson I will tell you
about my reference artists.