Andrea Tobar

Is this spring? The amount of sunshine we've been having says yes (and also the shocking amount of pale legs I've seen peeking from under shorts and skirts), but the thermometer still remains stubbornly low. In is (sun)light, I thought I'd introduce one of the sunniest Salvadoran artists I know:

Andrea Tobar (@tobiberta): 

Isn't she the cutest, too?

A recent graduate in Illustration and Fine Arts, Andrea Tobar creates small, quirky characters and brings them to life, imbuing them with her happy, cartoonish trademark style:

a tiny, fluffy doggo-unicorn. Unidogo. Doggicorn.

             

   


She also takes historical or Pop Culture figures and puts a spin on them, turning them into cartoon characters with a twist:

My favorite movie ever.

"Is that the little ghost from Ghostbusters?" - My dad

Captain America!

Master Yoda!

Look at those colors! Tobar's illustrations are characterized by her preference for light, airy hues and tones, and simple, clear-cut focal points. Instead of focusing too much on the background of a character, she puts enough detail on the character for it to be able to shine as a standalone.

One of my favorite collections of hers is "Hearts", a compendium of different digitalized illustrations depicting hearts in different situations:


       

In order, from left to right: Free Heart, Party Heart, Peaceful Heart, Spooked Heart, Friendzoned Heart, Fattening Heart, Tangled Heart, Arrowed Heart, Doubtful Heart and Amateur Heart (approximate translations).

She manages to make every single one of her designs unique and almost personable, and all of them extremely cute. As mentioned previously, she does put much more emphasis on the character than the background, therefore not creating a scene (something that I personally enjoy more, because I feel like it creates a story). Nonetheless, her use of color and excellent technique more than make up for the lack of action in the background, in my opinion.

As the previous illustrators all have done, Andrea Tobar has branched out with products besides her illustrations:

!!!

A giant panda on a small bag!

Calendars

Frida Kahlo T-Shirts!

Above, from left to right: calendars, notebooks, patches, stickers, pins and t-shirts.

Currently, she has an order-online-and-pick-up service, in which she delivers the packages to a local coffee shop to be picked up by her customers, and she's also a frequent seller in El Mercadito, which I talked about last week. Tobar doesn't, sadly, have an Etsy shop as of now, but I believe she's working on one to be rolled out soon! I'll keep you up to date.

Stay artsy!