Joana Avillez took to drawing as a form of communication. “I started drawing because of my father,” she told It’s Nice That. “We drew constantly together… It was how we communicated and laughed and saw the world.”
Born in New York, she grew up with her illustrator father in a fish market, but escaped to attend the Rhode Island School of Design, later returning to NYC to study illustration at the School of Visual Arts.
Now a renowned illustrator in her own right, Avillez’s pen drawings have been featured by the best of the best, including publications like Penguin, Random House, Harper Collins, and The New Yorker.
And for good reason. Her black and white illustrations are endearing in their simplicity, calling to mind old caricatures and children’s books. “For my dad drawing was a spark that came out of nowhere, for me it bloomed because of him,” concluded the artist.
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