Teefury

Artist Location:
From Brazil, but currently living in London

What's a day in the life of Joao like?
Work, The Wire, football, orange juice.

What was your favorite movie growing up?
Definitely 'Back to the Future', 'Goonies' and 'Willow'. I just couldn't get enough of those movies.

How do you come up with your ideas?
Each idea has its own story, but they are usually a connection between one thing that I already had stored in my mind and something that I've just seen. That's why, to me, it's very important to be out on the streets everyday, as the things I see on a daily routine, together with childhood references are what make my ideas get born. However, in case I don't have any idea and need to come up with something, I normally sit in front of the computer and start to pull random images from Google and fffound and then I try to make connections between them. It works pretty well for me and a lot of designs have come from that practice.

What's your art process like, from concept to completion?
After coming up with the concept, I look for references that will help me build the scene. In this particular Toda design, I went after several pictures of toads, frogs and Yoda himself to see how I would pull the design off: from which angle I was going to draw it, what the character's expression would be like, which colour palette I was going to pick, this sort of stuff. In the next stage, I sit to draw and I do it 100% digitally. I tend to create a lot of files during the process, because every time I draw a new part of the design, I will save it as new file, which means I end up with 20 to 30 psds for the same piece. Then eventually I place all of them side-by-side and decide what's the best thing of each version. As a result, very often, the final piece is a mix of the best bits of each file

What do you want Teefury fans to know?
Sometimes I can levitate.

What inspires you?
Buses and trains. My best ideas always strike me when I'm on the move. This and David Bowie.

What do you do for a living?
Design and illustration mostly. Sometimes gambling.

How did you get your start in art?
I graduated in Advertising back in Brazil and started to work as an Art Director at Ad Agencies. The world of illustration is quite new to me, I started doing it as a hobby only 6 months ago and now I'm in love with it.

MAC or PC?
I don't even remember what a PC is.

Any shout outs? I hope you guys like the references and the shirt. And next time I promise I'll have my website ready. :)