My decade (almost) in Art

Before we get too far into January, I wanted to do my own recap of the past decade, but instead of going through memories, I thought I would look back at the art I was creating every year of the past decade (alright, not every year, because I am not home and annoyingly I couldn’t find anything from 2010). I started studying art when I was 16, and since then, in one way or another, I have always been creating little things that make me happy.

I am by no means a professional artist, so please be kind with me. I enjoy art because it serves as a form of meditation, and later on, as an archive of my life, of who I was and what I was feeling in each phase of my life.

2019

You might all be familiar with these pieces because I have been sharing all of them on the blog. 2019 was mostly about creating content for this blog (so a lot of photos) and collages.

2018

This year I was really into Bullet Journaling, and that was my main creative outlet. Being quite busy and overwhelmed with work I didn’t leave much time for art, so doodling on my journal was something quick and easy that still got my creative juices going.

2017

2017 was my least creative year of the decade. It was my first year working full time and I found it so very draining. Plus, it was almost like after graduating and having created so much stuff during 4 years I needed a creative cleanse. I started journaling, but failed to make a habit out of it until the year after.

• 

• 

• 

2016

Graduation year. This year my Thesis and final projects for several subjects revolved around Editorial Design. With a part time job and the final year of university there was no room for side projects, so I selected some pictures of my final projects. Still a lot of them featured some of my art, collage and analogue photography, so that’s something.

2015

Hamburg. 2015 was the first year I spent away from home, and being in a new university, surrounded with new teachers and students really inspired me (and I think it shows). I worked on digital illustrations, sketches, analogue photography, etching and, of course, collage.

2014

Getting ready for Hamburg and feeling the pressure of being surrounded by a lot of talented people I worked mostly on my illustration, bringing the things I had learned during drawing classes into a more cohesive style

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

2013

Let’s be honest here… I don’t love 2013. I think I was really feeling the pressure of having a defined style, and pushed myself into a direction that now that I look back at it doesn’t fit my style at all. But oh well, at least I was drawing, and learning in the process.

2012

First year of university, and some of the angsty teenager vibes were still with me. In university we had to do a lot of charcoal drawings, which I was pretty ok at, but what I was doing in my free time was very different. A lot of roses, pearls, some body painting with the help of my good friend Cristina… Very girly and pink and cheesy, if you ask me now.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

2011

Last year of High School, and little 17 year old Isa was not so good at documenting things digitally, so most of my work is in old sketch books in Spain, which I don’t have access to. I did do a lot of charcoal and still live drawings to get ready for the access exam for University, so that is what you get for now.

Overall I am happy to see that, even though after my studies (2017 and 2018) I lost my creative rhythm a bit, it seems that in 2019 I got it back. I hope in 2020 I can experiment with more techniques again, and get back into analogue photography, illustration, wet techniques… We shall see. If you are a creative person, I would definitely recommend looking back at your work over the past decade. It has for sure inspired me to create more.