NATHAN BRENVILLE

Sketching a story is choosing what lines to put on the page and what to leave out.

How did I end up in Spain? Love. I fell in love with a woman from Spain. We met while we were both studying Character Animation at Central Saint Martin's. And it was my love of drawing that had led me there; being one of the few animation courses at the time that still placed a strong emphasis on traditional drawing skills. I invited her on a “sketchwalk” I’d organised, as a way of getting to know her.
My graduation film was, what else? an animated telling of the sketchbooks I'd kept during all the years I’d lived in London.

A few years later, we moved to Madrid, and I had a new reason to keep sketchbooks: chronicling this dramatic change, all the culture shocks large and small that make up life in a different country, learning to fit in and learning to stick out. These sketchbooks now form the basis of the autobiographical comic I'm currently working on.

We had a daughter, and I filled more sketchbooks drawing my experience of parenting too. Wherever I go, a sketchbook comes with me. It's the starting point in my personal life and professional: be it drawing events in situ, editorial illustrations, comics, or animations. To each project I don't just bring a skillset but a lifelong practice of careful observation and curiosity, telling stories with personality and humour. If that's the kind of artist you're looking for, I'd love to hear about your project.