Meet Toffu’s Featured Contributor Andrea Pineda

Meet Andrea Pineda, illustrator, architect, and the featured contributor of Toffu!

A quick introduction

My name is Andrea, I’m a 26 years old architect from Mexico. I  finished my bachelor’s degree 3 years ago. Back in 2018 while I was looking for a job I created my Instagram profile where I started sharing my architecture illustrations. I consider myself an artistic person as I really enjoy drawing, painting, and dancing.

Getting inspired

It was quite difficult to find and settle with a style.

I wanted to draw architecture in a different way, to tell stories through colorful illustrations and real people, my main inspiration has to be the Japanese graphic design.

I also find inspiration in the work of Vincent Mahé (@vincentillustrator), Haley Tippman (@haleytippman), and Harriet Lee Merrion (@harrietleemerrion)

Being productive

It is really hard to do all these things at the same time, but the secret is to be organized and to plan everything ahead. At the beginning of the month I plan all the content I am going to post and the workshops I am going to teach, I always carry a notebook around to write down new ideas, so nothing is out of the blue. But of course, taking some days off it’s really important to recharge and start fresh.

Content creation process

First I think of a theme or activity, and then I look for reference images in Pinterest or iStock. I sketch them in Procreate and when I have the final image I convert it to a vector file in Illustrator.

Tips for beating the designer’s block

What keeps me motivated is watching movies and series, reading and drawing, because they are also a great source of inspiration. 

Bonus facts

Illustrator / Photoshop ? Illustrator

Axonometric / Perspective? Axonometric

Music / Podcast? Music, I am always listening to music and singing while working 😄

Tea / Coffee? Tea, Mint tea 🍵