Dear friends,
Today is Valentine’s Day so I thought it’s the perfect day for my very first love letter to you.
How is your year going so far?
For me, the end of last year and the beginning of this one was super busy but now everything is getting more relaxed.
As this is my first letter, I thought it would be great to make a little presentation for you about me and what kind of things I love.
As a little child, I loved to create many kinds of things not only drawing but making sculptures, sewing, jewelry, or anything that I could create by myself. My grandma was a sewing lady and my mother also made a lot of beautiful clothes and toys for us. She even created a whole puppet theatre for me and my sister and a 1 m-long dinosaur for my cousins. I still don’t know how to sew really but I found drawing, painting and animation a really satisfying way to express myself.
I’m coming from a small country in the heart of Europe. My grandparents live in the Great Plains and as a child, I played a lot with my cousins in corn fields, forests, and pine tree land, near a small lake and reeds. We were not really alone, my grandparent’s dogs always accompanied us. I still have a bunch of inspiration from this world and I even made my graduation project based on these memories.
You can check this project here
Anyway, I really love flowers. I know they are truly women’s symbols but somehow I just love to draw them. Oftentimes when I start to draw I start with flowers. They are beautifully simple shapes, so joyful and sensitive creatures. Maybe I will write a longer letter about them later.
I started to study animated film in university and I’m sure it also has something to do with memories. It all started with slide film. The ones from my childhood were based on Hungarian and central European tales and I still find it really enjoyable to watch them. I think it has a really special mood with someone who also presents the stories as a live performance.
This was one of my favorite slide film (on this page you can find many more ones from Hungary)
Retro toys and objects are also something that makes me really excited. Probably it comes from this magical feeling when you find your parents and grandparents super beautifully designed toys and you know how many stories there are behind these objects. Sometimes I just simply draw them because as design they are truly wonderful.
I love Asian food and oftentimes I cook them. I love to draw them, eat them, admire their colors, different forms, and consistency. I was really lucky to live in southeast Asia for 2 years and I learned some simple techniques from there. I’m still far away from being able to cook Asian food properly but I know some basics which are great if you eat mostly plants like me :)
Indonesian culture. I studied classical Indonesian music in central Jawa but there are a huge amount of things I love and found inspiring. Indonesian culture is a mixture of religions and so many different kinds of traditions. It’s a crazy vibrant place although especially the town where I lived is super slow. Sometimes it takes ages to get an iced tea. Mountains, volcanos, oceans, and tropical plants are just some extra surroundings to enjoy.
Tea and coffee. I literally drink tea all day long which is mostly herbal tea indeed but I love the caffeine versions as well. I love its packaging, the smell, and the little ceremony you have to do in order to drink it.
Lastly, a really obvious one is reading. It is so inspiring and a really intimate journey to take while you enter a story. Sometimes it’s hard for me to calm down before sleep so reading is the best thing to do. I know so many people struggle with sleepiness during reading but in my case, it really works. Via books, I can experience many things and explore anything I wish for. It’s a huge power for creativity and motivation.
I would never end this letter basically there are so many things I loved but I tried to collect the personal ones. Let me know if you are more interested in any of these (or any other) topics so I can consider writing about them in the next letter.
Sending love
Ágnes
Some words about me
Hi, I’m Ágnes, a passionate illustrator and animated filmmaker from Hungary.
I'm obsessed with colorful drawings, funny characters, and nature-inspired illustrations. My work fields include editorial illustration, children’s book illustration, brand illustration, animated film, and gifs. Besides commissions, I teach animation and illustration at an art school in Budapest.