The illustrator 72 kilos tells us about his latest work, The little book of love, a compendium of vignettes that explore the different facets of love beyond romance. With an aesthetic that stands out for its simplicity, but loaded with meaning, the author delves into a universal theme from an intimate and accessible perspective.
What is “The Little Book of Love”?
They are small self-contained vignettes compiled with love in the background. It is an attempt to put my vision of love in black and white, it is not only romantic, it can also be for a brother, for someone who is no longer here, for friends who do not move away because life moves on…
How is the work born?
It was an idea from my editor, with whom I had already published several books. He proposed that I do something more concrete on the subject and I said yes. In between, other jobs came out that I couldn’t control. Meanwhile I was writing down ideas in my notebook and when I had time I added them until I reached the book. It has been two years in which I have compiled everything I was doing on the subject. I am very happy with the result.
It’s not your first book. It can be associated with another previous book called “Thank you”.
They are sister books. They try to flood any corner of our lives.
In all your work there is a feeling of good life vibes.
There are sparks of love at any time. From what’s wrong with you in the morning? to a look of complicity with your son or brother.
The book is a small gift. I understand that February 14, Valentine’s Day, would be a bestseller.
TRUE. The idea was to release it in February but perhaps it is what I like the least because of what I told you before, I don’t want to pigeonhole it into romantic love.
It is a beautiful object book.
Books, especially illustration ones, are beautiful to look at. Nowadays it is very difficult to publish a book and, if you are offered the possibility, it has to be worth it.
You talk about how it’s not just a book about romantic love. It is not even an idyllic love. It also talks about overcoming difficulties.
If you look at all the work I do, it is true that there is a good vibe that permeates the spirit, but it is more of an intention than what happens in reality. I have problems too. In drawings I like to show what I would like to happen.
Your drawings have a false sense of simplicity.
I work a lot with text because I love finding meanings with words that I can’t do with drawings. The simple drawing comes from a personal search for what I like and appreciate in other authors but above all it comes from an inability to do it any other way. I do not have qualified artistic training nor do I know how to mix colors. That makes them very schematic characters or makes those colorful mountains. I practice a lot in my notebooks and I would love to make some good landscapes but I can’t quite see the evolution and I have opted for that simplicity and offering complexity through the text, which I do think I am more capable of there.
However, they have great iconicity. I don’t know if it’s because of your relationship with design, but your work works both on a computer screen and on a giant mural.
Sometimes it surprises me. I see a drawing on my phone and I don’t really know why it works. I was an editor, not a designer, although I have always liked it and have enjoyed watching magazines, festivals and so on.
I’m flattered that you talk to me about iconicity but I don’t know where it comes from, perhaps from practice over the years. The fact is that it has emerged in a very organic and natural way.
I am grateful because I think you see a drawing of mine and immediately see that it is 72 kilos.
There are a series of cartoonists like Javirroyo, Juanjo Sáenz or Amaia Arrazola who, with a very simple drawing, manage to reach new places and audiences.
There are three cracks. Maybe because of that simplicity you talk about. When I saw Juanjo Sáenz’s drawings I saw a truth. Perhaps the drawing was very simple and innocent. It’s as if a child was doing it but a forty-year-old adult is doing it with a very deep thought behind it. The weight is in the meaning more than in the drawing itself.
There are authors like Puño or Bruno Munari who say that there is a moment when children stop drawing because they want to draw “well” academically. Publishers like Plan B, when approaching illustrated books, prefer to publish their own voices rather than cartoonists with very deep academic knowledge.
What I see in my friends’ children is that they immediately judge what is well and badly drawn and their artistic career is cut short very quickly if they do not do it in a classic way. Then you see artists who have followed their path and what they have done is not stop drawing and give themselves a chance. My speech is that there is nothing that is wrong. One’s own style is born from repetition. You don’t have to be Michelangelo. My voice comes from my will to want to tell things and to repeat the drawing over and over again until I am happy.
We were talking about mobile phones before. Your career begins on social networks. Curiously, you owe your proposal to being overweight.
That’s how it is. I had always liked to draw. Because of my work, I had always carried a notebook to write down my advertising ideas using small storyboards. He told that with a very simple sketch.
I weighed 92 kilos and made a bet with friends that, in a year, I would drop to 72. I started to make some simple drawings to tell it and upload them to a website that I created. That starts to work on networks and I continue telling my adventure. I never wanted to get here and I am very grateful. Everything has emerged in a very natural and unpretentious way. That it was on the screens was because my friends weren’t around. I uploaded it to the internet so that they could see it but more people also began to see it. Once you put your drawings on the internet, you don’t know where they will end up and they have found a space in which people see my drawings as their own and share them.
Your story is also that of social networks. By following your work we can see how they have changed over time.
I started in 2008. Back then there were no social networks or they were not designed to share drawings. I didn’t start uploading content to Twitter or Facebook until 2011 or 2012. I did it on a blog I had called 72kilos.com, which is the matrix of everything. The audiences and the algorithms have changed. It is a career that we do not know where it will end up but in my case it has benefited me. It is easy to share content that told my life but also that of many people. Networks have evolved and have allowed us to build niches in which I have found a space. I have been able to turn it into my job and leave my job as an editor, although I really liked it. Illustration has become a very powerful tool on the networks. Drawing about what happens to me is an adventure that I live with.
The message has been modulating. You start talking about losing weight and running to talk about universal feelings.
At first I talked about how I struggled not to eat the alfajores that my friends brought from Argentina. When I drop to 72 kilos I talk about running, which I had always liked, but being overweight was very bad for my knees. I signed up for marathons all over the world and bike races.
My girlfriend lived in another city and I captured that feeling of wanting to be with her in the notebook and vignettes about long-distance love began to appear. My parents got divorced and cartoons started coming out. It was like my diary but in a more hidden way. I didn’t talk about them but I knew I was telling my life.
Then came more universal feelings. My children are born and I don’t have as much time to run. I dedicate myself to them and other universes begin to emerge in my life. Now I’m telling what happens in my day to day life but I don’t know if tomorrow I’ll talk about trips to the moon or whatever. It’s a blank notebook.
In your messages you avoid the explicit and it makes you reach many people.
That is. I try to avoid my face, where I live. I feel overwhelmed when they put me in the “influencer” bag because of the volume of people who follow me. I don’t feel represented because there is nothing studied in what I do. When I have lost a grandparent or have been angry with a friend I have expressed it and there are people who have identified with it and have shared it. Those people have connected with me and it is a very powerful feeling to grow up with people you don’t know.
The fact that your drawing is so generic may make anyone, beyond races and genders, feel reflected.
There was a moment when I saw that those drawings on colorful backgrounds were shadows. We all have shadows, regardless of where we were born or who we are. They tell a lot about us but they are not telling you the details of your life. It is very universal. That I can tell my life but I can tell yours is also a discovery. My life is very boring but if what I tell is inspiring maybe you will feel reflected.
It’s nice to grow but maintaining yourself has to be complicated in a world as changing as that of networks in which an algorithm change can leave you out of the equation. I don’t know if it makes you a slave.
It is an issue that you cannot control. I’m thankful I didn’t count on it. Without looking for it, I have hit the right buttons and from here on my plan is to continue drawing whatever I want. Don’t look at the metrics because I’m not a mathematician. My passion is drawing and it is my path. If the networks go off I will continue with my notebook and my marker. I’ve always been like this. The algorithm has favored me and put me in contact with people who are like me. Maybe now it doesn’t favor me as much and focuses more on videos or dances but I’m not going to stop doing what I like. I have no problem going back to work on other things. I’m going to take advantage of the fact that it’s working well and we’ll see. You cannot quantify a passion. I’m going to continue getting excited when they give me some paintings or when I see a notebook. It has nothing to do with algorithms. As long as you have things to tell and there is someone who interests you on the other side of the window, we will continue. I’m not worried about it. In five or ten years everything will change a lot but even if it’s with virtual reality glasses or whatever, I think there will be a space for people who like to create, who like to draw.
When passion becomes a profession, the specter of monetization arises. I understand that you have to make that passion sustainable.
Posting every day on Instagram doesn’t earn you a euro, which is why books are so important. In my case I am writing a book every two years or so. You have to sell a lot to be able to dedicate yourself to it, but it is a showcase that allows you to meet other people and open other doors. There are also other networks, human ones, that take you to meet other illustrators, to fairs, to physical people who like your work and who have a factory and give you an order.
It has become a very dignified job. I don’t think I’m doing a lot of crazy things to monetize my work. I try not to burn my style. I could do many more things but I prefer to be an author and have a long-term brand, 72 kilos. May it be a container of many good things and be able to continue drawing with the same passion at ninety years of age.
Another reference is Mr. Wonderful. Your drawing could be transferred to any format in a very simple way.
That scares me. I always want to have a very personal point of view, I don’t want to be a company. My work can be taken to many formats and can grow. Obviously I would love to have a lot of money but I’m already making a good living. I’m doing things that excite me and allow me to make a living, but I don’t want to grow beyond my capabilities.
You were talking about a book you are preparing.
We can’t talk about it yet, but it’s about putting a magnifying glass on things that are very close. I know it’s going to come out. I also have a project that I can’t talk about and that keeps me up at night. I am very excited about what is to come.
