Interview: Laura Ottone

(September 2021)

I love the way she uses the line in her work – there's something nostalgic about her style that I really dig.

I like vaporous, mysterious atmospheres and the fact of working in black and white with a pencil allows me to get as close as possible to it. I also like to create mixtures of styles within the same image. Some elements of my drawings are more or less realistic, others more figurative evoking the cartoon or sometimes the manga, with a 70s side. I really like drawings from this period because there is sweetness in the line.I try to put that in my images, while creating a contrast by integrating smoother and more precise elements.

For some time now, I have been experimenting with color.I am used to working with flat colors, with alcohol markers; I like it when the colors are layered while still keeping a smooth look. But for some time now, I would like to turn to a more pictorial treatment because the flat areas do not allow to translate the light and its contrasts and its atmospheres. I try to have more lightness, spontaneity in my drawing.

I have been working on my first comic for a few years. I was very interested in issues related to the ecological crisis that we have been going through for several years now, and that was the starting point for this comic. It's a fascinating process because I chose to work on issues related to living things and to graphic representations that are specific to them. Across this comic, I question what are our links with animals, plants, minerals etc, through graphic representation.

I am working in parallel on a collective exhibition which will take place in Paris in September, in a gallery and risography workshop.

I love working in black and white, because that's what I'm most comfortable with. I use simple pencils and with them I can achieve subtle shades of gray. This allows me in places to keep my line and in others to treat certain elements in a more pictorial way. To open the line and let the material move along, like ancient chinese painting, nothing is closed, and energy circulates between the elements.

If you could have a magical power, what would it be?
If I had a magic power it would be precisely to know how to paint! Like many artists, Valloton makes me dream.