“Ilustrar es contar”. “Who is more imaginative – a child or an adult?”. “You’re a right-hander? Draw with your left hand. Now with your eyes closed.”

Last week I had the most creative adventure of this year (so far :P). The Cervantes Institute in Bucharest organized an illustration workshop with Alberto Gamón, a most talented Spanish illustrator. My colleagues, a quite creative gathering (whose artistic presence inspired me beyond words), were from the University of Arts in Bucharest and from Clubul Ilustratorilor, but also from other fields, including medicine (hear, hear :P)

I had such a good time learning about the journey of the idea from its birth (dad compared our workshop with a maternity), the synthesis process, the composition of the illustration and everything it finds on the road to the book. In practice, we had to wield ideas, fathom riddles and in the end we had to conceive a book cover for Miguel Delibes’ “El Camino”.

So many unused neurons were discovered in this process, so much creative unrest accumulated that only at the end of the week I finally unwound and managed to sleep a whole night.

After the workshop, the Cervantes Institute organized an exhibition with all the results of our peregrination. The photos are here and here.

And like in Tolkien’s song, “The road goes ever on and on/Down from the door where it began”, my path seems clearer now, more than ever.

My book cover for “El Camino”

“El camino sigue y sigue
desde la puerta.
El camino ha ido muy lejos,
y si es posible he de seguirlo
recorriéndole con pie decidido
hasta llegar a un camino más ancho
donde se encuentran senderos y cursos.
¿Y de ahí adónde iré?  No podría decirlo”