In his own words, Nacho Molina is inspired

by …

FRANCISCO RICO TORRES
I first met Paco Rico at the university when we were just teenagers. We became close friends, and eventually colleagues, as we spent more than five years working side by side and learning from each other the basics of the art. What most impresses me is his capacity of paying attention to details and his gift to bring to life every single character he comes up with. He has a brilliant technique, which allows him to work for different role playing game companies and become a regular artist for the Q&A section of British illustration magazine ImagineFX.

Molina McParra
This is a portrait of me he did in our last year of school after deciding to do a picture exchange. It’s a great portrait, and I feel lucky that he did it. I saw the whole process Paco followed from the blank canvas to the final image. Incidentally, the photo doesn’t do it justice.

Pilot
Since jumping to digital media, Paco is always in search of female beauty, and when it comes to depicting sensuality and prettiness, he is truly expert! Inspired by artists such as Elvgreen or A. Hughes and influenced by all those classics of the popular culture and comics, Paco has developed his own language in which the balance between lights and shadows, vivid colors, and elegance of shapes play a crucial role.

Francisco is inspired by …

LUCAS SORIANO
Lucas has the uncanny ability to make everything look beautiful in his paintings. And by beautiful I mean grotesque and bizarre. That’s why he is so awesome. He paints posters and album covers, and does illustrations for card games and books, but he is slowly expanding horizons. Right now he is a rising star, but I’m sure he is going to become a supernova sooner than he thinks.

Billy Bob “Lazy” Bones
Look at this guy. How could anyone not love this? Not only is the concept great, but the different surfaces (the table and glass) are depicted in an excellent way.

Amazing Crap
The greatness of this painting is that it makes you think “what the hell is going on here?” Also, the car is awesome. Lucas is really good at painting cars, and I think that he enjoys it, which is strange for a guy who doesn’t know a thing about actual cars.

Lucas is inspired by ….

CARLOS CARA
I really like how Carlos creates that special atmosphere, grim and dark, but colorful at the same time. He’s got a swift and bold style, it has some sort of old-school feeling to it.

Gods in Exile
I love this book cover. The design wraps the whole book—simple, effective and perfectly executed. The story along the frieze is a really nice detail, and I think the bearded guy is some sort of self-portrait.

Bizarre Bazaar
Using splatters, shapes, patterns and strokes, Carlos has shaped this absorbing environment. I admire the improvised and spontaneous quality. He seems to have stopped working on the image just at the perfect stage.

Tune in next Wednesday to see who inspires Carlos Cara.

Take a look at the complete chain any time.

Emily Potts is senior acquisitions editor at Rockport Publishers.