Irisz Agocs is an wonderfully talented illustrator from Budapest, Hungary. I do not exactly know how I originally came across Irisz’s blog, but I am certainly glad that I did. Irisz’s work always seems to put a smile on my face. Her illustrations are distinct; they have a child-like sense of play, but there is also a degree of heart in them, which can only come with life experience.

Irisz’s blog, which is an online portfolio of her watercolour illustrations, is full of talent and wonder.

Who is Irisz Agocs?

Irisz Agocs is an illustrator, living in Budapest, Hungary. I have been working as an illustrator since 2002. My husband and Ihave a small graphic studio, where we create graphic design for both offline and online clients

Most of the time, I made illustrations for online course, working with software such as Adobe Illustrator, Macromedia Freehand, and Macromedia Flash. But in 2005, I started to work with watercolour, and to paint children’s illustration. My illustrations are being published in a children’s magazine every month, and I also have some other works that are soon to be published. Most of all, Irisz considers herself lucky to do what she loves the most to do.

Who or what are the sources of inspiration for your illustrations? What inspires you?

My curiosity is the main source of the inspiration for my work. I’m always up to see something fresh, new, interesting, artistic or just anything really. I am into collecting children’s picture books, I love to visit photo and painting galleries and exhibitions. And I also like surfing on the internet to find artist’s sites and blogs. Maybe there is a recipe here,that you have to see 30 or 50 new things on every day.

Until there is anything that can be visually new for me, I’m not afraid that I lose my creativity.

It is only in the last few years in which you began to do watercolour illustrations. What was behind you decision to start this form of illustration?

I tried different painting materials, and at first I found gouache the closest to me. But I have some favourite picture books that made with watercolour, and there was a contest for illustrators, and for that I started to work with watercolour. Then I found it very easy to use, as watercoulour doesn’t need to a big place to work. I can leave it on my table, I don’t need to always clean everything after it. I mean if I use gouache, I mix the colours for myself from the three basic colour on a ceramic tile, so I always have to decide how many paints that I should mix, and when I finish it I have to wash the tile and so on. So it was much more easier to start with watercolour.

I tried lots of different techniques, and different ways in painting, and I feel there are still lots of more new possibilities in this medium.

Would you say there is a unifying theme or message from your illustrations? If so, what is it?

Maybe there is some kind of message of my ideology. I would like to say that with my work, you don’t need to lose your sense of joy as you grow up. I feel lots of people think that because they are grownup they must be sober, and in the same time they are so funny. I think you can not enjoy your life if you are always serious. So I want to make people to smile, and I want to say to children: hey, I’m your friend! I love as you do!

Which is easier to receive and/or deal with, praise or criticism over your work?

I like both of them, but in both cases, I love when I feel there is honesty and there is something behind the words. Otherwise a praise is just too light, and a criticism just hurts.

I rely more on the criticism, and I always thinking a lot about it. I like the people who can tell their opinion directly and maybe I can handle the hard ones too. But at first I always feel bad, and I think “Oh, I’m not good enough to do this”. Then I get over it and criticism always pushes me forward to make the next step.

Which of your works are you the most proud of?

I’m not sure. I always have my own favourites. Maybe now I like my Christmas Card the best. I wanted to do something that is a card, and not too big or not too much on the page, but it was a short story. One night with a bad headache I had the idea of this card: Animals are going to see a tree which has a star on the top, like a Christmas tree. And there are few small funny situations in it. For example, all of the animals are native to this area, except the giraffe, so he has a scarf. Or on the first page you can find the end of the line, and the slowest animal is certainly the snail, and the next one is the turtle who is looking back, with some worry on his face, to the snail who is really really slow. And my favourite one is on the back side of the card, where one small animal has lost, and tries to find his friends who are on the other side of the page. )

You have a blog (http://artistamuvek.blogspot.com) where you feature much of your illustrations. What was behind your decision to put your works online? What has the blog done for you?

My colleague (and husband  )and I have an official site for our graphic studio called Artista Muvek (http://www.artistamuvek.hu). We made our webpage in Macromedia Flash which is quite difficult to update. I have lots of new work from my day to day, so I was looking for a better option. On the other hand I found that my friends liked to see any pieces of my work, even if it was a two lined sketch, or a small drawing on a busticket. I didn’t want to put things like these into my portfolio, but I wanted to show to my friends to make them happy.

I think that a blog is a perfect for these kinds of things. So I started one. Plus, there is no difficulty in the design and building of a blog, so I could make it for myself. I would like to do some more interesting and funny looking things to it, but I need more time for that. And the most important item to note is that we are working on the new version of our “Artista” website which will include my blog too. But until then I use Blogger to keep eyes wide open on my works. )

If you could put a slogan or saying on a t-shirt, what would it be?

I’m not too good at slogans and words at all. There is nothing that I really would like to put on a T-shirt. I would rather draw something onto it.

What are three of your favourite activities?

Drawing, reading, visiting galleries and cafes.

Name a book that you loved as a child.

All of our books had Hungarian writers and illustrators that I liked when I was child, but I can’t tell which was my favourite one. We had some wonderful poets and authors like Sandor Weores and Ervin Lazar or Eva Janikovszky, and great illustrators like Janos Kass, Laszlo Reber, and lots of others.

Maybe, maybe I loved Eva Janikovszky’s books, which were illustrated by László Réber the best. These books are still in my favourite ones. She wrote very lovely stories about situations that every children know, like when you find a dog on a street, and you take it to home, but your parents are not really happy with that. She had very great sense of humour, and as I child I felt that was really about me and my problems.

And I can tell which is my favourite picture book at this moment, which is The Incredible Book Eating Boy by Oliver Jeffers.

What is the most interesting/random fact that you know?

If you eat 16 kilograms of chocolate at once, it is the same dose of drugs as in a marihuana cigarette.

I don’t think that anyone has ever tried this. But it’s interesting to know that I have to be careful with chocolate.

What language would you like to learn to speak?

First I would like to bring back my English knowledge to a better level, because I forgot a lot. After that I would like to continue my Spanish studies.