The Jiennense artist has traveled a long road between pencils, ink and digital color. His great passion is humorous drawing, since with 10 years he won a provincial award, a moment that marked his life. Arturo has a long career dedicated to art, in which he stands out for his participation in various exhibitions, competitions and his collaboration with local media, such as Jaén Diario. This 2025, his talent stars in the official poster of the Jaén Book Fair, a dreamlike image in which the books become a large ladder towards the moon.
—As almost all, I started drawing as a child, at school, on the banks of the notebooks … but always frame as a starting point a very specific moment: when I was ten years old, a teacher took one of my drawings, presented it to a provincial contest, and finally won. That marked me a lot, he really encouraged me to continue drawing. From that moment I was presented to different competitions and began to publish in local media and in magazines.
—This year is the author of the poster of the Book Fair of Jaén. How does the opportunity arise?
—It was made a contest of ideas among the members of Viñetas 6, the group I belong to. In previous years, other formulas had been chosen, even artificial intelligence was once used, but after a round table we had with the organization, they promised to make the poster designed by an artist. In the end a contest was made and my poster was chosen.
“What does your drawing mean to you have been the winner?”
“For me it is a pride.” It always makes recognition of work. In addition, it is something special: it is not just a poster, it is the poster of the Book Fair of your city, so that emotionally and professionally. And, of course, he is closely linked to the world of illustration.
“How would your poster describe?” What did you seek to represent?
—How to make an attractive image, with a current aesthetic, but loaded with symbolism. The central element is a mountain of books that functions like a ladder towards the moon. Above there is a character who has no gender or defined age, because he wanted anyone to feel represented. Books are like birds, like a visual metaphor for the power of literature to fly, to take you to distant worlds. I played a little with surrealism, with the idea of imagination as the engine of the literary journey.
“What was the biggest challenge?”
“In doubt, be original.” In this world, where everything is on the Internet, sometimes it is very difficult to avoid coincidences.
