this world of paintingand especially the design is complex. Anyone close to someone who has been trained in the industry or has taken their first steps knows how difficult it is sometimes to value their work. Many are unaware (or unwilling to understand) this. illustration – for tattoo, text or album art – it often takes hours and hours of work: first you have to shape the project, an extremely expensive process, and then you have to put all your skills into practice and execute it. . Or does he think this sketch just popped up when he walked into a studio to engrave a fire-breathing dragon on his skin? Placing it on the calf or forearm is only part of the job—sometimes not even the most expensive.
That’s why there are many people who leave their profession aside; Or at best, they refer him to something he shouldn’t be, a hobby. And in this predicament, luck – or a few, if we focus on our hero – can be the difference between posting your designs on social networks (or saving them in a forgotten folder on your laptop) and gaining a prestigious reputation. International. For this, of course, you need to have such a talent. by José María Campoy of Lorca, and there are times when you have it or not; for him, it’s actually a “genetic” thing. “My mother drew and sculpted beautiful things with plasticine; my brother painted with oil paints and made impressive paintings when he was only nine years old (my uncle had a special thing with brushes…) and my niece Natalia, for example, because she also has an incredible talent for design,” says Güneş The man from his City, whose children were pointing the way… “Eleven-year-old Marcos comic book storytellingAlicia, who is two years younger, draws much better than me at her age. If you look, he adds, there aren’t two people in my family who stand out in the same field, but there is talent in each of us.”
The thing is that she indulges this gift since childhood. “It’s important to work on it and learn from the masters. When we were very young, my brother and I used to copy the license plates of Emilio Freixas. [uno de los pioneros de la historieta en España] he remembers “my father used to buy from us”. He also quotes his “friend” Juanjo, who later ran the kiosk on the Plaza de San Vicente in Lorca: the person who made me a true comic book lover. Sure, I wanted to devote myself to drawing when I grew up. I immediately put it to my head… And the truth is, all those graphic resources I learned back then (points of view, facial expressions, composition) still impress me today,” Campoy admits. Walter Simonson, Bill Sienkiewicz, Moebius, Richard Corben, Barry Smith and Simon Bisley like some references.
All of this crystallized (from a professional perspective) when she started her career as a freelancer in 2006. And he admits that beginnings are not easy. “Small, low-paying or unpaid projects kill the job and the profession. At first you do odd jobs for your family and friends and you don’t think much of it either, but when you try to professionalize yourself, small companies or individuals pop up right away. Those who don’t value you cost your time and that’s talented. and it causes many knowledgeable people to quit. Advice to newcomers to this world not to fall into such traps in exchange for things like ‘visibility’.
The ‘call’ of the stones
Fortunately, there are three moments in his career that he considers “key”: “The first, mike hamilton, a friend of mine suggested that I make illustrations of their structures. I paid them very well and regained my enthusiasm for design and illustration. Second, an introduction to Fini Golosinas, where I learned a lot and am proud as part of a very talented team. The third was the approval of the poster I made. most concert between The Rolling Stones in Southampton (England) in 2018. I still get excited as I remember it…” admits Campoy. Since then, Jagger, Richards and his company have been one of his best clients, and this first collaboration between ‘Sus Satánicas. Majesties’ and Lorca are an almost accidental product.
“Shortly before that – the illustrator recalls – the Rolling Stones made a call on social networks for fans to capture a special vision of one of their European tour concerts in a poster. This motivated me a lot as a follower of the group, of course I said to myself as a designer. : ‘Well, if it was a real job I’ll see how I would have worked it out’ The problem – it continues – was that you had to upload your quotes to Instagram I made two with a hashtag, one for Barcelona and one for Paris and I really enjoyed working on it, but when I posted it , I forgot them except for some comments”, says Campoy; so when she got a message from Kelly, a designer later rowdy (Universal Music) thought it was a joke. “He told me his boss really liked the Paris design and asked if he was considering a possible endorsement. I didn’t believe it, but it was surprisingly true. I got more business after that, and not just from Rolling,” she explains.
And Campoy has worked with bands that resonate with the music. Buckcherry, Slipknot, Greta Van Fleet, Pantera, The Beach Boys, Slayer, Mothley Crüe and even with the image of rapper Tupac Shakur. But above all – and in addition to the Rolling Stones – with Megadeth and Guns ‘n’ Roses, who gave a concert in Seville last week with a promotional poster by Lorca. “I’ve been a fan of some of these bands for decades. I’ve been listening to the Rolling Stones since I was a kid and my brother played them at home. I bought all their discography, went to their concerts. … And in high school, I used to wear a folder full of photos of Guns ‘n’ Roses. You can imagine how exciting it was to dedicate myself to this…” adds the artist. He admits that the past two years have been tough due to the suspension of concerts, but now that everything is back on track, he reassures him that he has more work to do than ever before.
When asked about his favorite works, he naturally emphasizes the first place. Stones in Southampton and one for the London quartet concert at Soldier Field in Chicago in June 2019. Part of the blame for the latter being private lies with Charlotte Watts, the only granddaughter of the band’s drummer, Charlie Watts, who has recently and sadly passed away. . “He wrote me a message to congratulate me on the poster and sent a picture of him tattooed on his arm with the design he did for them and Ronnie Wood. [guitarrista] with a t-shirt stamped with the poster. That detail was really exciting.” He also looks at the detail he made for the Guns ‘n’ Roses show in Abu Dhabi in 2018, signed by the group and gifted to the group’s Finnish pilot. formula 1 Kimi Räikkönen, then in the Ferrari team.
Campoy also has an interesting anecdote: Dave MustaineHe’s the guitarist of Metallica, but above all the leader of the band Megadeth since the ’80s. “I was doing a design for merchandising The visual for the group’s European tour was the hooks worn by the group’s mascot, Vic Rattlehead, while he was lying on the ground. Dave kept emailing my boss Charles and he said one of those hooks had one of the teeth in the wrong position, backwards. And me, who can’t see him, can’t understand what he’s trying to say. Finally, he drew what he was trying to say on paper and mailed me the outline: then I got it. And he was right! Dave pays a lot of attention to designs and is ultimately very demanding, paying close attention to detail,” says Campoy.
So, slowly, after a few luck and a lot of hard work, the Lorca man is building a dent in the world. Today, thanks to the opportunity given to him by people like Kelly and Charles, he is living a dream: work for some idols and the ability to dedicate oneself professionally to design and illustration. Today he is “a very happy uncle”. All that remains is to balance the agenda to attend one of the concerts he was invited to during these years, when he was working for rock and metal legends: …”. The future. The important thing is that his inbox is still full of orders.