When did you decide to paint and make a living from art? Were you influenced by the people around you in making your decision?

Well, my first influence was my father since I was very young. He is a graphic designer, when there was not computers and they had to do everything by hand. I loved to watch him work, and very soon the smell of oils, gouache, turpentine were part of my life. I was fascinated by the books of illustration that he had in his library, illustrators like Caza, Froud, Brad Holland.. all those people were more interesting for me than Mickey Mouse or Winnie the Pooh... Later at school, there used to be more drawings on my text books than homeworks... So, for me that was clear. Ja ja!

In the near past, television programs and comics for children were much more innocent. Softer drawings and classical music were accompanying their good times. However, now, war and violence are the only themes of these kinds of programs and the drawings are weird and sometimes scary. What do you think about this process?

Yes, you are right, when I was a child, we use to see programs like Sesame street, we use to play more outdoors, there was no Playstation, no mobile phones, cinema was different... Now there are programs for children that could cause them an epileptic attack I guess ! and some cartoons that I don’t know what to think about. But the fact is that we have more people now, and we have the best communication with the new technology like internet. There was violence before too, but we didn’t know because our vision was shorter . I think that we are adapting our work at the new times, trying to find a balance with the new mentalities. Most of the children books or films attract not only children, they attract the grown-ups too. But this doesn’t mean that now is worse than before. It’s just different, it’s the evolution on the way we have chosen.

As the digital technology grows and its use in visual arts widens, some agencies and publication houses begin to choose cheaper ways instead of using handmade illustrations. We can say that this situation is badly affecting illustrators who use their hands and brushes. Do you agree with this idea? How do you evaluate the future of illustration in the world?

Look. I had my first computer 2 years ago, I hated them before that. But now I can’t live without it. It’s just another tool, like brushes and paint. With computers we can go faster, we can do effects in 5 minutes, whereas before we needed 3 days. I don’t think that computers will substitute our brushes and paints. If you want something cheap and fast and plain you can do it. But there’s always going to be people who like good quality of something physical, that you can touch, something done with feelings . In my work I finish most of my illustrations with the computer, but always trying hard so you can’t notice it too much . The final result with digital process is one kind, the final result with your hands is another, they both have their own qualities , none is better than the other. My evaluation for the future? I suppose that we’ll discover new mediums to add on the list, but not substitute anything.

In your paintings and illustrations, we observe very skilfully painted images, impressive deformations and a perfect color balance. Your artworks look like they are alive. How did you create your style? What kind of elements influenced you on that way?

Before doing Children’s illustration, I worked as a Scientific illustrator in a hospital, for the traumatologists and some plastic chirurgery. So I learned a lot about textures, densities, dry and wet, behaviour of light on different surfaces... all those things. When I discovered Children’s illustration, all this knowledge was very useful for me, and with the passing years, I’ve found kind of a balance between both fields. Now I’m trying to have different registers on my work, to ridge all sects of the public. But always with the same personal stamp on them.

Can you please tell us about your working process and relationships with your clients?

My working process is very simple, after 3 miserable lines on a sketch book, I start to draw directly to the original. I don’t like to do sketches, you can do a very fresh and authentic character on a piece of paper that you won’t ever repeat, I swear!

With my clients the behaviour is changing with time naturally. They know my style, they know the way I work, and the most important : I KNOW THEM. So they believe in me, and if they want me to do whatever, it’s because they want it done my way. We need a couple of meetings to talk about the text , conditions and deadlines and that’s it!

Now I’m working in other fields than children illustration, I’ve done some CD covers, Publicity, TV... It’s another universe of people.

What does Roger Olmos' workspace look like? What mediums do you use?

I’ve been working in different places. I started at home in a little corner. Then I moved to very big spaces with other artists of different disciplines. Now I work again at home in a big room for me. At the beginning I didn’t like it, I was used to work outside my place. But now I see other advantages.

My favourite medium now is Oil, I love them. But I use to paint with gouache,color pencils (Karisma, the best) and... Computers of course.

If you had one chance to live a famous person's life for one day, who would you prefer?

But, with my mentality? Or his? I would like to experiment Leonardo’s life.

Do you like travelling? Have you ever gone abroad? Which country would you like to visit most?

Yes, I travelled many times, When I was 23 years old, I was living in Scotland, Edinburgh for almost 2 years. I couldn’t speak a word of English, and imagine in Scotland, they can’t even understand each other! But most of my travels have been focused on climbing. France, Switzerland, Greece, Germany, Egypt, Morocco... I’ve climbed since I was thirteen and the world is full of splendid rocks and mountains! I would love to go to the States to visit Yosemite , Peru, India... All of them.

Are you interested in movies? Which film directors do you find closer to yourself in terms of visual comprehension? May Tim Burton and Michel Gondry be in your list?

I’m very interested in cinema, it’s a good fountain of inspiration. All films, since the worst, till the most fantastic. Burton is very good, he is an illustrator too, and lots of people have found in his style a way to express themselves. Michel Gondry is very good too. David Cunningham, Jean-Pierre Jeunet ve Marc Caro are geniuses too, as well. Maybe the last two are the more representative for my style...

Theme of our current issue is "Night". What does this word mean to you?

Dreams and thirsty.