Tilteed

Artist Interview: YemaYema

Curator’s Statement:

Not too long ago, I discovered Yema Yema and quickly fell in love with her character design. Her style is refreshing and fun, and I am very happy to share one of my favorite Yema Yema designs with you on Tilteed for these next three days!

What gave you the idea for Woody Friends?

Well, it really just started with the idea of making a shirt using bright colors. I love bright colors (used in a right way). The second thing I wanted to do was to somehow connect all the characters with each other through color and shape. And really everything else follows along. And lastly, I just love to make funky, crazy, corky, weird, scary and cute characters, mixing them all in one world. The Yema World!

Can you tell us a bit about who you are and how you got into t-shirt design?

As you all can tell, I’m pretty new in this business. Just launched my store http://www.yemayema.com but I’ve always loved graphic tees, even as a little girl. I was born and raised in Ecuador, a pretty tiny and conservative country in South America. 15 year old girls were not supposed to like cartoons or wear graphic tees… haha, I always strive to be different and make a difference! Now I am 27, married and with a little one but still love some cartoons and love the art of t-shirt design. I went to school in the USA for animation but discovered I like to illustrate more. It was just recently that I got some budget available to work on my dream—to design tees and make people feel cool and different! I really love what I do.

Your illustrations are full of unique characters. What’s your process for coming up with them?

I hold my breath until I get really, really red and then I just draw away! Haha, just kidding…  Really, there is no secret of how I do things. First, I think of an emotion… sad, happy, freaked out… Next, I start using basic shapes like circles and squares, sometimes letters too! O__o Then I just layer things, play with shapes to get form, and let the drawing take me. If it ends up looking nice, its a go. If its not good, I just retry.

What are some of the projects that you’re currently working on?

Currently just doing more tees! The next one is going to be called “The Mosca” (the fly). Also trying to make people know the Yema Yema ways! ^___^. I also have a baby around, which takes away like 80% of my day

Imagine that you work at a crayon company and are in charge of naming all the colors. What are some of the shade names that you would come up with?

- Sun burn red
- Heroic sword silver
- Underwater cave blue-green
- Cotton cloudy white
- Rain forest Green (I think that already exists) ^___^

Do you have any websites that you want the readers to check out?

Yes indeed! Of course http://www.yemayema.com, which is my lovely humble site. ^__^

-Greg Abbott’s http://www.gregabbott.co.uk. He is one of my favorite character designer of all time. This gentleman is a master at “character emotion” adore his work.

-David Murray’s http://www.seibei.com/. Superb concept and style! Gotta love his tees!

-Mat Williams, or better known as Uberkraaft’s http://www.uberkraaft.co.uk/. Another fantastic illustrator.

Is there anything else that you’d like to add?

Yes yes, thanks for having me printed here, you guys are awesome! I hope to see more great artists around this site because Tilteed ROCKS! Thanks in advance for everyone’s comments, purchases, or love. And don’t forget to stop by the Yema world!