Sun and Sea Feeling Free – It’s Tropicool

I was always drawing as a kid, but never did I want to actually be an artist. I was horrendously hard on myself, so I stopped for a few years but picked it back up while I was living in Nicaragua and didn’t have much to do in the afternoon sun. Lots of people would walk by and say “whoa this would look really good on a shirt, I would totally buy it”.

From here I realised I could work and travel, so I bought an iPad Pro, watched a couple hours of youtube and eventually the clients started to come. I was typically juggling this work between a coffee shop or surf shop gig, but in January 2021 I moved to Mexico and decided to be a full time illustrator and it’s insane how quickly my waitlist built.

I live a pretty unconventional life, traveling, surfing, and slow living making up the core structure of it. My aim is to show that you can really enjoy life simply, with minimal material, and not take it too seriously. These definitely play a key role in the way I draw. I want people to feel good when they look at my art, as if they’re traveling to a remote tropical island with perfect waves, yummy fruits, laughter, and a whole lot of plants and sunshine. I use earthy, retro, and uplifting colours to represent sunshine, warmth, and positivity. I’ve always been described as a ray of sunshine, so to me these colours really represent my aura.

I’m also really behind the times, so to me I really admire a retro look, there’s nothing modern about me except for my Macbook. I love film photography, my janky handycam for filming, I’m always barefoot, my favourite mode of transport is by bike or horse, and reading in a hammock is quite possibly my favourite pastime.

All in all, I would describe my art as playful, simple, surfy, uplifting, earth-loving, and tropical.

The origin of Tropicool was actually all about skeletons, surfing, skating, and puns. I was living in Puerto Escondido, Mexico for a while and I think the calaveras (Mexican skull art), and hectic surf culture played a huge role.

As I got into longboarding my art transformed into a sweeter, cuter look, and I started drawing lots of lady sliders, especially naked ones. Over the years, I feel I’ve fine tuned my style to be more cohesive and consistent, my line work, colour choices, and icons are quite obvious to be from my “Tropicool” hands.

For logos I start mostly on the iPad, then work in Adobe Illustrator, but designs used for merchandise or posters I draw on paper first a lot of the time, then trace in onto my ipad and add colours, etc. I definitely prefer drawing on paper, but sometimes it’s not as practical and efficient when it comes to client work. But if I create for my own pleasure, I love watercolour, which I really want to work on being a part of my job too.

One day, I’d love to have a studio space to start painting large canvases and use mix mediums, but right now that’s tricky while I still live out of luggage, but one day that dream will come true.

I’ve said it a few times already in this so it’s probably obvious haha. My motto is “Don’t take life too seriously!”