We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Georgina Anzures. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Georgina below.

Alright, Georgina thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

I am an illustrator who educates about type 1 diabetes through comic strips; depicting Gina Pillina as the main character. Gina Pillina is a happy and cheerful girl who wears a big hairbow, falls in love, likes to make jokes, loves drawing, and has diabetes. My illustrated stories are fun to read and are meant to entertain while learning about this chronic illness. Type 1 diabetes is not on the radar since only 10% of the whole diabetes population lives with it, therefore there are so many misunderstandings about it.
I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when I was a kid, back in 2007. I didn’t know anyone like me and sometimes I felt misunderstood. Also, when people knew about my condition, they used to jump into wrong conclusions regarding my diagnosis and how I should treat it. I just wanted them to read about my condition to stop making assumptions, but I knew no one likes to read medical articles. How could I educate about my diabetes? I wondered. Through comic strips. Comic strips with no more than 10 panels, with short text, charming drawings and a fun story to laugh about. Humor is a great tool to connect with people and stay longer in their minds.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am a graphic designer, comic artist and illustrator. I love to apply entertaining storytelling into my drawings through charming characters and colorful palettes! As an illustrator, I am a visual translator. So apart from creating my own series of comic strips called Gina Pillina, I also draw for other people; book illustrations, character design, custom illustration, and brand characters!

I love to draw and tell stories. I studied graphic design in Universidad Anáhuac Puebla, México, and that was when I discovered I wanted specialize in illustration and character design, so I had the opportunity to do a Master in 3D Animation in Coco School, Spain. During my animation master, I learned to apply different principles to my characters to make them more dynamic and visually enhancing. I still wanted to learn more, and I am currently finishing my Master’s Degree in Illustration at Savannah College of Art & Design.

At present, I am designing an Illustrated Type 1 Diabetes Guide for children recently diagnosed. Diabetes is a common topic in my works of art, since I live with. I am also a diabetes educator and I want to bring support through drawings. Having a chronic disease can be very overwhelming for there is so much to learn. I remember how my parents struggled during the first years and this is why I am creating a guide that I would have loved to have. This is an illustrated manual explained by Gina Pillina.

Apart from the guide, I am still publishing via online my Gina Pillina’s comic strips, with the purpose to empower, share a laugh and inform. Also, it is important here to highlight that Gina Pillina’s stories are not only entertaining for people with diabetes, I can assure you whether you live with diabetes or not, you are still gonna enjoy them!

How did you build your audience on social media?

Before becoming a comic artist, I used to share my drawings on Instagram and their process such as preliminary sketches. I didn’t have as much interaction as I have now, but I still enjoyed posting. I started to grow little by little, but what changed everything was when I posted my first comic strip showing how frustrated I was about people making some comments about my diabetes. At first I just wanted to channel my emotions, I wanted to release what I was feeling through a sequence. This comic was simple, just black and white but still very expressive, portraying how I felt. Little did I know that other people with diabetes felt the same way, so that was when I got a very good response and started to grow my community. I have to admit that with this strip, I was not looking for engagement, I just wanted to express through creativity an issue, nevertheless, it connected with so many people. I found out comic strips were an awesome way to cope and support others. I kept posting comics with my Gina Pillina character.

My advice would be, first create for yourself and then the community will start growing. It of course depends on what you are looking for, but if you stay true as an artist and if you create for you, you’ll see the right people will bump into your art. It is not about creating so others follow you, it is about creating what you like, what you enjoy.

Another advice is to keep posting constantly. Before doing my Master’s Degree, I had more time creating comic strips and posting them weekly, and people would engage so much more than now that I post every now and then. Since I’ve been focused on my Thesis, it is not that easy to post constantly and that is fine! It also depends on what you are focusing on. Still, there are gonna be loyal followers who will keep having an eye on your work and that is awesome and motivating.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

I think there are non-creatives who don’t understand how much effort, investment, time, and preparation takes to become an artist and therefore, they don’t value our art. Yes, we like to create art, in my case I love to draw, but that doesn’t mean that because I love it I should lower my price or work for free. I’ve received comments such as “Can you make the illustrations for my book? I don’t have money to pay you, but I know that you won’t mind because you love your work, you enjoy it. You still win experience and practice”. Yes, I love drawing and keep learning and gaining experience, but as any other person, I have bills to pay. Sometimes people want to remunerate our work sharing our instagram account, and of course it is nice to be shared on social media, but it still doesn’t compensate our work, hours invested, skills, knowledge and time.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.ginapillina.com
• Instagram: gina.pillina
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgina-anzures-cajica-aa104919a/
• Other: Mail: [email protected]