This month’s featured artist is Olivia Peñero. She’s a versatile designer from Naga. Met her thru blogging. April is her birth month as well. Here’s Olivia!

Featured Artist of the Month: Olivia Peñero

I met Olivia through the blogging community. We’re total strangers to each other but one fateful day, we got to talk! We both hail from the beautiful Bicolandia although we are from two provinces. It’s quite a small world for us since we have mutual friends.

Currently, she’s working as a designer. I’m not quite sure which facet or discipline of design. But one thing’s for sure, we both love to make letters dance!

Getting to Know Olivia

Name

Olivia Peñero

What made you start with this craft?

In terms of drawing and lettering, I was told to have started young, around 3 or 4 years old. My mom repeats the same story over and over again, that I’d take her lip liners, lipsticks, and anything else with color and draw bobblehead-looking characters on the walls of our house. When I finally got crayons and paper, then got into Disney princesses and all, my love for the craft just took off. I don’t think it was really a choice to do this, but I guess the skill was there so I just studied and honed it.

As for writing, I started in 1st-year high school, when I decided to join Journalism Club and the school paper. It was an easy way for me to get away from the world and make one of my own, too.

How long have you been doing this craft?

I started having ‘clients’ during the 4th year of high school. It’s been 10 years since then, give or take. Based on work quality though, I think it’s safe to say I’ve been doing this for 5 years. 🙂

Why did you pursue it?

Do you know how some people turn to TV shows to relax, or how others splurge on food or hotels to take the stress off? Well, that’s me, only my meds are music, writing, and drawing. It’s easy to do what you love, and it’s a bonus when people appreciate it as well. I guess in general, I went for my craft because it was therapeutic and fulfilling.

Did you have struggles in pursuing the craft? If yes, could share it with us, please?

Yes! I still have some even now, actually. The struggle was mainly me comparing myself to everyone else. I always feel so, SO down when I see another artist’s work and how amazing it already is, while mine is – forgive the word – SHIT.

This happens from time to time, but I get through it just as fast as they come. I often realize I have my own style, my own journey, my own audience, and my own voice. This just cycles, haha.

Your favorite quote

Fake it ’til you become it.

Amy Cuddy

I ADORE THIS WOMAN. She’s one of the reasons why I decided to study body language on the side. Haha.

What keeps are you doing the craft?

I guess there’s just so much ground yet to be covered. What most people are doing now is becoming so common that I gag at times. They’re becoming too identical.

Too much of the same thing is never a good thing, so I want to keep pursuing the craft and seeing what else there is to do with it. Aside from it is my stress reliever. VERY effective.

Top 3 favorite tools?

• iPad Pro + Apple Pencil
• Tombow Fude Hard Tip Pen
• Sakura watercolors

If you are to share your tips and tricks with newbies, what would those be?

I learned by searching for inspiration on Pinterest and Google. I didn’t have formal training with lettering, but I did have the basics of color theory, principles of design, and others.

The best advice I could give is to make sure your foundations are stable (color theory & other technical things), before pursuing the fancier fields.

If you were to describe the craft in three words, what will those be?

• Relaxing
• “Maarte“
• Expensive

Maarte is a Filipino term that could loosely mean choosy or picky. Sometimes it could be interpreted as one who loves art such as “ma-art, eh.”