Ribes Cooked and his days creating wildly playful characters
Meet Ribes Cooked, a Spanish painter and illustrator creating playful blends of emotionally complicated and wild characters
Spanish artist and illustrator Ribes Cooked began his creative career as a professional painter, exhibiting his work in galleries across the country. In Europe and the United States he exhibited at notable events including Art Brussels, Pulse New York, Arco in Madrid and Art Forum in Berlin.
Ribes takes some time out to chat…
I work at home, usually at night, listening to music. I find that there’s a real peace that allows me to focus and work with ease. (My tired eyes don’t always agree with me.) One of the benefits of working as a freelance illustrator and artist is that you can take a break whenever you need to; and there’s no boss breathing down your neck. You can choose to take a stroll in the park, or stop and prepare yourself something decent to eat.
‘Danger, high voltage’
The discipline required to work in illustration is new for me. I have to force myself to keep to certain routines, especially when I’m between projects. My working day, like that of most illustrators, is not the usual nine to five, where you know when you are going to start and finish. In my case I never really know when I’m going to finish. This is of course dependent upon how much work I have on, whether it’s a commission, or if I’m simply researching for forthcoming projects. More often than not, weekends are weekdays and any weekday can be an unexpected holiday!
‘Two women’ – Illustration for Benimaclet Entra magazine.
‘The city drives me crazy’
‘The Tree of Love’
An essential part of being an illustrator is getting yourself noticed. You have to take advantage of any down-time to send emails to anyone who might be interested in my work, such as agencies, publishers, magazines, or newspapers. With internet of course you can reach-out to almost anybody, although it’s easy getting lost in the crowd. It can be disheartening when there are no positive replies, but I always tell myself that tomorrow will be the day.
‘Dutch elections’ – Illustration for De Volkskrant.
‘Life on the Moon’
Though I really enjoy what I do, I have found that working as an illustrator can prove quite lonely; its definitely quite a solitary occupation. Of course being creative is often a very private endeavour. Yet, on the other hand, when a client contacts you, I find a window is opened and it’s time to share ideas and different points of view. Naturally when an illustration is finally published you feel a great sense of satisfaction and that the effort has after all been worthwhile.