We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Alexia Davila a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alexia, appreciate you joining us today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

I began to learn how to draw since I could hold a pencil in my hands, for many years I did not have a method or followed a technique; if I could go back to a few years ago I would definitely recommend seeing more tutorials, learning about anatomy, and color theory, learning and appreciating compositions, and really breaking down the world into shapes and colors, taking time to listen to old artists and appreciate other styles and methods!

The biggest obstacle I’ve encountered it’s time, as we grow we get a lot more busy, we get to study or go to work so it’s difficult to find the right moment to sit down, relax and simply focus on improving in art.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I started as an independent artist, making content simply for my personal consumption, over the years I’ve learned that we can form communities and grow with them by sharing and learning from other people who loved art as much as I did!
Nowadays I have found the greatest inspiration in motorsports, mainly Formula 1, since then I’ve collaborated with different faces of Formula 1 via commissions for merch, and for social media appearances!
I also started creating prints of my own art and posters that represent every Grand Prix that inspired me during the year!
I’ll always love to work on my personal art and prints, but working on commissions is one the things that I enjoy the most! Being able to capture my clients ideas for them and looking at their joyful reactions makes taking this path just worth it!

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

When I started my serious art journey I did not use references, take for example looking at pictures of human anatomy to draw; I openly refused to use any pictures and or guides since I thought that was kind of cheating, as of recently this is one of the major things I had to unlearn, mainly because it abruptly stopped me from improving in anything!

I had to learn how to look at images and interpret shapes, I had to put aside what others told me, and really put in the work of learning to draw from reference! Because when you learn from reference, drawing from memory becomes a piece of cake, and my art improved greatly in a short period of time!

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Growing in social media is really important now days because, social media is one of the main ways we got to share and communicate.
I’ve been sharing my art in social media since 2014, but I learned that I could actually grow, join a community and create an audience years later, and here’s what I found.

First of all, you need to figure out what kind of art do you create, if it’s art for a fanbase, or personal art that matches an aesthetic, or maybe a mix of both! Once you create a personal brand or identity (that could shift) you can start posting your art!

One of the most important things about posting online is how you manage to navigate the algorithm, using hashtags that trend within your community, joining such trends, and also interacting with the community that you want to create.
After a while you will start seeing changes, but remember, always be patient, growth is full of ups and downs, you will change your style with time, as well as your own personal taste with art and brands, but once you build an audience you’ll always find people that will support you for who you truly are!

And never stress over low engagement, the impact you make on people and yourself will always be the most rewarding thing ever, and you will always end up falling on your feet eventually! Just relax and trust yourself.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fai_ryyyy/?hl=en
• Twitter: https://x.com/fai_ryy?s=21&t=QZDyHL2jJHaU6Bf8_scAQA
• Other: Art prints shop INPRNThttps://www.inprnt.com/gallery/fai_ryy/

Image Credits

Alexia Dávila