Mirella Bacco
Biography:
Born in the colorful and biodiverse Brazil to Italian parents, I was always surrounded by plants and animals. I started from a very young age to appreciate everything around me and attempt to translate what I saw into paint on paper or in photographs. My Italian heritage put me in contact with lots of ancient history, art, culture, and love for travelling. With my first film camera at the age of 12, all I could do was walk around my garden and photograph insects, plants, and flowers even if none of the photos turned out great afterwards. I was always very passionate and creative and made up fairy worlds to draw and play pretend. Art was my past, present, and future, so I started with photography, did several nature workshops in the forest, self-taught how to paint with watercolors, and finally decided to move to Montreal in 2017 to pursue Illustration as a career. I am currently a student at Dawson College heading for my final year and am very excited to create pieces of art wherever life takes me.
Creative Process:
Every artwork is born from passion. I usually have a vision or idea and make some sketches to find the best composition. Sometimes I like to take still life photos with natural light to have a good reference for paintings (especially of flowers). I used to do mostly watercolor pieces but have been studying gouache and digital painting a lot more recently. If I make a traditional painting, they are scanned and then “treated” on Photoshop to fix contrast and colors, so they match the original as much as possible. Sometimes I also correct any minor details. When I create digital pieces, I make them at 300 dpi, so that they can be printed in the future and sold at my shop. I also enjoy lettering and studying typography, so sometimes I write with nibs or brush pens and vectorize on Illustrator if needed. I love painting animals, plants, characters, motifs, and whatever makes me think of stories. My ideal setting to create is with music, a candle, my dog, and happiness in my heart.
Mirella Bacco
