Episode #04: Venezuelan Illustrator Natali Koromoto Martinez

Episode Summary:

Welcome to this week’s episode of Draws in Spanish where I chat with Venezuelan illustrator Natali Koromoto Martinez. Natali and I talk about her experience moving to the US, creating a cute little world of Latinx foods, and what influences her playful style. Natali also gets candid about her product design process, why she didn’t end up using her animation degree, and her upcoming apparel line with her partner. Join me on this week’s episode to learn more about Natali’s career and Venezuelan upbringing!

Episode Notes:

In this episode, I sit down with Natali Martinez to uncover where she draws inspiration for her cute illustration style, how her Venezuelan roots influence her work and perspective, and exactly what goes into getting started with an online shop.

Natali, who unexpectedly moved to Florida after Chavez took power in Venezuela, pursued a degree in animation only to realize she didn’t have the patience for the field. After graduation, she took a leap of faith and moved with her friends to NYC, where she began her freelance career.

During this time, she slowly began creating her own illustrations and developing her voice and style. Now, Natali has a loyal following of 180k Instagram followers who love her cute illustrations and buy into her world through prints, pins, apparel, and plushies.

Natali is already working on her next big project by launching an apparel line with her partner later this year.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Topics Covered:

1. Moving from Venezuela to the U.S.

2. Starting her Small Business from Scratch

3. Raising awareness of Latinx culture by depicting Latinx foods and desserts

4. What Inspires her Playful, Cute, and Unique Style

5. The Pros and Cons of Working with Manufacturers

6. Tips for Starting Your Own Online Shop

Guest Info

Connect with Natali on Instagram and check out her shop here.

Bonus Links:

• More About Mafalda

• Early Simpsons Colors

• Natali’s Spongebob Illustrations

Special Offer

Listeners of the podcast can get a free, undated weekly and monthly planner inspired by the show from our website here.

Follow Me between Draws in Spanish episodes:

• Our Website

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Show Transcript (Automatically generated)
Ep 4 - Natali Koromoto Martinez

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Ep 4 - Natali Koromoto Martinez

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[00:00:00] Fabiola Lara: Hi, everyone. Welcome to Draws in Spanish, a podcast that showcases the creative journey of notable Latinx, visual artists and designers. I'm your host Fabiola Lara today. I am so excited to talk with Venezuela and illustrator, Natali Koromoto Martinez, who currently resides in Brooklyn. New York. Natali has illustrated for brands like Hulu, Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network.

But most importantly, she also runs her own online shop where she creates prints plushes and apparel based on her own illustrated characters. She's really developed a cute and playful world. And I'm so excited to have her on the show today. Let's get right into it.

Hi, Natali. Thank you so much for taking the time to be on the podcast. I've been [00:01:00] following your work since 2014, 2015 on Tumblr. And I have loved to see like the evolution of your. And then also watching your shop, just grow and expand in products. I'm super happy to have you here on my little baby podcast.

Thank you so much. Can you introduce yourself to any listeners who maybe are not familiar with your work?

[00:01:24] Natali Koromoto Martinez: Yeah, I'm Natali Martinez, Natali Koromoto, Kotomoro is my middle name, Koromoto is my middle name. I'm from Venezuela and an illustrator. I live in Brooklyn, New York, and I design a lot of different products and I make a lot of illustrations and, uh, yeah, that's pretty much it.

[00:01:43] Fabiola Lara: Perfect. Can you tell me a little bit about your upbringing in Venezuela and how you got to Brooklyn?

[00:01:49] Natali Koromoto Martinez: Well, yeah, I was born and raised in Venezuela. I moved from Venezuela after high school, things were changing. Rapidly in my country after Chavez [00:02:00] took power, I things were going south quickly and it was a really scary time.

I moved to Florida first. I have two older sisters. They both moved there. So I went there with them. I went to animation school there.

[00:02:15] Fabiola Lara: What school did you go to?

[00:02:16] Natali Koromoto Martinez: The Art Institute of Ft. Lauderdale? It doesn't exist anymore, but it was useful while it lasted. I learned a lot there. After that, a bunch of kids from college wanting to move to New York and I just went along with them.

So the move wasn't so scary it wasn't just me going to New York. It was me and a few friends.

[00:02:35] Fabiola Lara: That's perfect. That's the way to do it.

[00:02:37] Natali Koromoto Martinez: Yeah. So right after college, we moved here to Brooklyn and I been here since then, just doing freelance work, trying to create a small business out of nowhere, out of nothing. Just keep going. Working really hard, you know,

[00:02:49] Fabiola Lara: Out of your imagination, I feel like out of your own creativity, not out of nothing.

[00:02:54] Natali Koromoto Martinez: Yeah. Like I try, I tried freelance work, but it was a little stressful for me. I wanted to do my [00:03:00] own thing. If I could, like, I've really tried to do that. And I took a chance and started a little business and it's been working so far.

[00:03:07] Fabiola Lara: That's awesome. I feel like a lot of people I have that dream. I'm sure a lot of people have that dream, so it's always nice to see someone doing it .

[00:03:15] Natali Koromoto Martinez: Yeah. Well, I'm still trying, but it's working. So it's working. Yeah.

[00:03:20] Fabiola Lara: Did you always think that you wanted to move to New York or to the U.S. Or did you have another place in mind? What was that like?

[00:03:27] Natali Koromoto Martinez: No, this was like, life took me here that just been going with the punches kind of thing.

[00:03:32] Fabiola Lara: Yes. You're open to it.

[00:03:34] Natali Koromoto Martinez: Yeah. Like I grew up in Venezuela never had plans to move in out of there. We really didn't have like the financial security to move. It was like a thing of necessity we needed to leave.

So I always liked to draw my whole life, but it wasn't like a possibility for me to like go after it. I was thinking maybe I was going to be a Marine biologist back home because I live in an island. And I love animals and I [00:04:00] thought maybe I looked biology too. So maybe that was a thing that could do. But after I moved, I figured that I had more choices and I could actually pursue a career in illustration or animation, which was my first love in life animation, watching like Disney movies.

[00:04:15] Fabiola Lara: Yes, that's so awesome that you are able to readjust. Once you got here and expand your possibilities. How did your family at the time feel about you taking or pursuing a creative career? Can you tell me about that?

[00:04:29] Natali Koromoto Martinez: They're always really supportive my mom. Like again, we don't have a lot of money growing up and she always put some money aside for me to go to oil painting classes when I was like eight, because she saw some talent every Christmas, every birthday.

Brand new box of colored pencils and sketchbooks.

[00:04:46] Fabiola Lara: Oh, that's so sweet. I love to hear that.

[00:04:48] Natali Koromoto Martinez: Yeah. I remember one time she came home, she took my oil paintings to be professionally framed and she was walking down the street and someone stopped her asking if she was selling them because they wanted to buy them.[00:05:00]

[00:05:01] Fabiola Lara: So sweet and wholesome.

[00:05:03] Natali Koromoto Martinez: She always joked that she thought about it for a second.

[00:05:06] Fabiola Lara: She was like, it's time.

[00:05:09] Natali Koromoto Martinez: But then she was like, no, I know this is my youngest she painted, but thank you. I appreciate the interest, but she got the, we can do something out of it. Yeah.

[00:05:17] Fabiola Lara: There's something going on. That's awesome.

Okay. So are there any Venezuelan stereotypes or Latinx stereotypes? That you are tired of hearing in the world or seeing in the world. I asked this because with every episode, I want to be able to educate a little bit and maybe clear anything up.

Sometimes I'm really aware of my accent and I'm afraid that people, because some Latin and a half an accent, then my thing that I'm uneducated or something, you know, or like, or if I have a grammar error in an email, then might think I'm not professional or something.

So I like to people to keep in mind that we are bilingual. Yeah. English is not our [00:06:00] first language.

It's just a different language. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So you're thinking differently.

[00:06:05] Natali Koromoto Martinez: Yeah. So I think that could be important to keep in mind

[00:06:08] Fabiola Lara: For me, I grew up here most of my life, so my English is really natural to me, but my parents really faced that struggle of people kind of assuming that they were not smart or like you said, uneducated, just because they had an accent. And it was always funny having to remind people of that. Like, no, I know what I'm trying to say. I'm just saying it in another language.

How does being Latino or more importantly, Venezuelan influence your artwork to me is very clear, but I want to kind of get your take on it.

[00:06:42] Natali Koromoto Martinez: I've been trying to incorporate. As much as I can, not only from Venezuelan culture, but like Latin culture, as much as I can, like I have a series of illustrations and greetings from South America. I want to span back to like expanded to Latin America. I want to do more like Central America. So all of it.

So I have illustrations [00:07:00] from landmarks from different parts of Latin America, like Machu Pichu, panthenol from Brazil, other national parks and landmark. And also have a series of cute characters that I wanted to incorporate celebrating Latin cuisine, half like characters like empanada and tres leches and I have other ones that I want to develop more and include more in my line of character like churros and ice cream and dulce de leche.

I like to make more of those characters too. I just like to celebrating that I'm making more popular culture. Then you can wear it and feel cute, but also celebrate latin.

[00:07:37] Fabiola Lara: You can wear it and feel cute, but it's celebrating kind of the bigger picture of, of Latin America.

[00:07:43] Natali Koromoto Martinez: Exactly. And if you don't know, maybe someone that doesn't know yeah.

[00:07:46] Fabiola Lara: Doesn't know tres leches.

[00:07:47] Natali Koromoto Martinez: Exactly. And then maybe they get introduced to it and like they try and oh, no. And it's also. Interesting. I get a lot of messages from people that bought the plushy, then empanada plushy to give it to the grandma because [00:08:00] yeah, it's so cute. Like there remember being kids and making empanadas with the grandma, like my grandma's empanadas are the best.

So I got her like the plushy and she loves it

[00:08:08] Fabiola Lara: It's like for generations to kind of bring them together.

[00:08:11] Natali Koromoto Martinez: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Totally really exciting. When I get messages like that,

[00:08:14] Fabiola Lara: I feel like, your characters, they're so I don't have a better word, but like cute and adorable. And I feel like a lot of the time with Latin American things, you don't see it in that realm.

You know, like the style for Latin American artwork in modern culture isn't as adorable like that and kind of creating a whole world out of it. I had never seen that before, until I came across your work. So I think that's really special that you're able to develop an entire world for not only people in Latin America that are already familiar with it, but even for people who just like your art, they get introduced.

So that's really special.

[00:08:48] Natali Koromoto Martinez: Thank you.

Yeah, that's what I was going for. I wanted to create like a cute little world of Latin foods because yeah, you don't see that often. At all, you see a lot of it, like in Japanese [00:09:00] culture, you know, like cute desserts. And that's kind of what I wanted to bring to

the table too.

[00:09:06] Fabiola Lara: But with your culture, I think that's so cool because when I see the more Japanese characters from other artists or they brands, sometimes I don't know what the items are. I love how it looks, but with your work. Oh, I know what that is. And I love how it looks. So thank you for doing that for every one thank you

[00:09:22] Natali Koromoto Martinez: You're welcome. It makes me

make me happy. Yeah.

[00:09:25] Fabiola Lara: Going off of that. How did you start this artistic style of your cute, like almost juvenile playful characters? Like where did that style come from?

[00:09:36] Natali Koromoto Martinez: The things that I liked as a child, I cannot never grew out of that. Like the same things that I like as soon as a kid, I still appreciate.

I always think I had like a designer eye, even though when I was a kid, so for me, a toy was more than a toy. It was like a piece of art sometimes. You know, I would like to see them just admire it or like cartoons. I would like watch the backgrounds and like the character design and the animation. Like that [00:10:00] was very important to me when I was a kid.

So I think all of that is it's like engraved in my brain, basically

[00:10:05] Fabiola Lara: from childhood, just like lives inside of you and that

[00:10:08] Natali Koromoto Martinez: inform your tastes. Yeah. What I like, and if he, my work reflects that today still

[00:10:13] Fabiola Lara: What's like one cartoon or toy that you feel. It's so memorable to you that you cherish.

[00:10:20] Natali Koromoto Martinez: Oh, I have so many cartoons.

I remember really loving the color palettes of the early seasons of the

Simpsons.

[00:10:28] Fabiola Lara: Oh yes, yes, yes. I've seen those on YouTube.

[00:10:30] Natali Koromoto Martinez: Yeah. They're like yellow and lavender and like, so soothing. I love that combination of colors and toys. I. All kinds of things. Like I remember having this wallet, like this little mermaid wallet and I was obsessed with it.

Like, I really like the design, like the drawing a lot, the way they drew Ariel in that particular one. It's very pretty. So I still remember that wallet. That's awesome. Yeah. And there was this story of Mafalda and no, you know, the comic, I don't know. [00:11:00] You need to get into it. Mafalda is so good. Yeah.

It's an Argentinian comic is so good. It's like a, the Latin American peanuts kind of thing. It's really good. And I remember my aunt, she had a toy of Mafalda and I was obsessed with that toy.

[00:11:13] Fabiola Lara: Nice. I love that you have like those characters, those toys. Characters and cartoons that are just from your childhood, you carry them with you.

And in subtle ways, they shape who you are today and also your artwork. Thanks for sharing them. I feel like other people will be really excited because they probably feel the same way too. For me, it was like lion king. Yes, lion king was a really big one. And then anything from Sanrio, whatever my mom and my sister could buy me.

That was Senrio even if it was just

the pencil.

[00:11:42] Natali Koromoto Martinez: Yeah. I remember going to the store and like going to like the MoMa museum to me,

[00:11:48] Fabiola Lara: They used to have like the secret bag and they had it for different prices. So I would get like a secret bag. You don't know what's inside. It's just like $5. Yeah. Or $10 or whatever.

That's all I wanted to do at the [00:12:00] mall. I won't stay in JC penny all day, if you could guarantee Sanrio.

[00:12:07] Natali Koromoto Martinez: Yeah. I relate to that.

[00:12:08] Fabiola Lara: When did you realize that you could turn your illustration? Into products. What was that like? Do you have like a one moment where you're like, oh, this is possible?

[00:12:18] Natali Koromoto Martinez: While I was doing freelance work.

I also make like prints or my artwork and stickers, but that was pretty much what I grew for freelance would pay the bills, but that was pretty much I had, I didn't have like a lot of extra money for anything. Then I learned that pretty okay. Freelance job that gave me like enough money for me to invest.

Into making so much. And I, so I try with some t-shirt at first and, um, pins and patches, and they did really well, like every sold out, like right away, that was really exciting and encouraged me to keep doing it. And I haven't really stopped since then.

[00:12:54] Fabiola Lara: That's so incredible. And, and that's, I think, I remember seeing kind of the first iterations of your products [00:13:00] and then slowly seeing you go from.

Prints and t-shirts to, you know, like custom hats and custom scarves like you're doing now. And the plushy is it's really incredible to see and so inspiring.

[00:13:11] Natali Koromoto Martinez: Oh, thank you so much. Yeah. It's been exciting to see what you have in your head and then you see in real life.

[00:13:16] Fabiola Lara: Oh, there has to be. I mean, it's exciting when you see a illustration go to print.

So I can't even imagine the actual 3d objects becoming a real object is so cool. Now that you know that, you know, you have an audience for your products and you're experimenting with different items. When do you know that a product is like, For the world, you know, like how do you know what to take risks on?

How do you measure that for yourself?

[00:13:44] Natali Koromoto Martinez: The feedback from the community is really useful. I think social media is it's a really useful tool. You can get feedback from people and see what they're into.

Do you often see yourself

[00:13:56] Fabiola Lara: posting like the illustration and then maybe making that [00:14:00] into an object, like apparel or a print from the feedback that you get from them.

Oh,

[00:14:05] Natali Koromoto Martinez: definitely.

Yeah. I think the community that follows that are part of like small businesses illustrators and are really there to help. It's like an amazing community really. And they give me so much feedback and like so many suggestions of products that I could make out of a drawing that sometimes I don't even think about it.

So one of the common men, they beat you to it. Yeah. Oh my God. That's such a good idea. And yeah, it's like a really great tool to use. I will recommend

[00:14:34] Fabiola Lara: what's like a product that you had that experience with where your followers and gave you the feedback to turn it into an, a real merchandise.

[00:14:42] Natali Koromoto Martinez: The one that I think in about, I have many, I.

A lot of them right now, one of them is puzles. I did puzzles for like a while ago. Yeah. So once, so the drawing, like you should make a puzzle or this, it should be really fun to do. And I was like, yeah, I should. That was the beginning of a [00:15:00] lockdown, yeah. Like indoor activities were really like. So, so yea, perfect timing.

And I ended up sending this person one of the puzzles for free to thank them for the, for the great idea. Yeah.

[00:15:11] Fabiola Lara: Now the listeners know too to start giving ideas for the chance.

[00:15:18] Natali Koromoto Martinez: Yeah.

[00:15:19] Fabiola Lara: What's been your favorite product to create so far?

[00:15:22] Natali Koromoto Martinez: Could be the plushy and the toys. They're the more challenging to make.

There's a lot of the steps, you know, like samples that may over and over. Mistakes are made and, but it's really fulfilling to see and to hold like the end product. Yeah. Yeah. The little creature, little character. Yeah. In real life,

[00:15:43] Fabiola Lara: Just for anyone who maybe is curious about getting into manufacturing, what are the pros and cons of working with these manufacturers?

Let's say for something like a plushy?

[00:15:52] Natali Koromoto Martinez: Well, it's a lot of work, a lot, a lot of work and I'm not trained in any way for any of these. So it's being all [00:16:00] learning experience, you know, solar mistakes are made and I don't know. I think communication is key that you gotta be really clear in the emails that you're writing and like give them as much detail as you can, maybe some mock ups to help them.

And so far, Good. You know, like everything has worked out for the best, but again, it's a lot, a lot of work.

[00:16:19] Fabiola Lara: You make it look very easy. I feel like I see the print with the character and then boom, the character exists. Uh, you make it look really like, it's like smooth. So I believe it's a lot of work, but yeah.

[00:16:32] Natali Koromoto Martinez: I've also being lucky to find like the right people to help me with the product. Research is also important, you know, trying to find, I don't go with the first manufacturer. I find, I usually try to find a few and like get in touch with them and get feedback. And then I get some, ideally get a sample first.

[00:16:48] Fabiola Lara: How has I've been like with COVID?

I know a lot of people's manufacturing has been slower. Are you finding, running into any trouble now?

[00:16:57] Natali Koromoto Martinez: Oh yeah, definitely. Yeah. Mostly [00:17:00] anything overseas. It's very delayed and a lot of the raw material is out of stock or it's more expensive. Yeah. There's definitely a lot of delays. Pretty much.

[00:17:11] Fabiola Lara: How far out are you planning your merchandise for the next season or the next launch?

[00:17:16] Natali Koromoto Martinez: Well, yeah,

I'm not really good at planning. Sometimes you see, like, my products are like behind seasons, you know, but I've been trying to give myself some window for production to happen because yeah, it's, it's also slow in the U S I get a lot of stuff made in the U S right. It's a little faster, because shipping is faster and the communication is faster, but yeah, I'm trying to give myself some window, at least a few months whenever when the product to, whenever I want it to be finished.

[00:17:42] Fabiola Lara: Yeah. How many months does that take you to go from idea to holding it?

[00:17:47] Natali Koromoto Martinez: Yeah. Empanada took

a while.

I want to say like maybe five to six months. Wow. Yeah, Tres leches was faster. I think it was easier for them to make. But also took like three, four months toys, [00:18:00] like the little figurines I made running with scissors that took almost a year.

[00:18:04] Fabiola Lara: Whoa

yeah. You have to have patience for that.

[00:18:07] Natali Koromoto Martinez: Yeah, but they warned me, like I knew what I was getting into. Like I knew the toys weren't going to come out like the figurines. Yeah. Running with scissors. Come on anytime soon.

[00:18:17] Fabiola Lara: So, well, thankfully the plushy is that most of your merchandise is like make sense year round.

[00:18:23] Natali Koromoto Martinez: Exactly. Yeah.

[00:18:23] Fabiola Lara: Maybe not the scarves, maybe that's just for the winter, but most stuff you can appreciate all year long.

[00:18:29] Natali Koromoto Martinez: Yeah. Well, I'm lucky the scarf, uh, are being made in New York.

[00:18:32] Fabiola Lara: Nice. That's nice to have it a little closer to you, especially because it is so time

sensitive.

[00:18:39] Natali Koromoto Martinez: Exactly. Yeah. They're being really great and they're using it really nice products.

I'm really, really excited about the scarves actually.

[00:18:46] Fabiola Lara: Yeah. I'm excited to see them. I think I'll have to get one this time around.

[00:18:50] Natali Koromoto Martinez: They're like extra large, which I kind of like. Very, yeah,

[00:18:54] Fabiola Lara: it's a statement. Yeah. Yeah.

If you could bring one of your characters to life, [00:19:00] which character would it be?

[00:19:01] Natali Koromoto Martinez: Oh my God.

I don't know. Maybe trust leches because it's a dog and I, I love dogs. I'm obsessed with dogs.

[00:19:08] Fabiola Lara: They would make good company.

[00:19:10] Natali Koromoto Martinez: Yeah. Maybe tres leches just for that reason, but it's hard to pick.

Definitely.

They're all very cute. So I feel like any would be fun to have around. Yeah. I know that you went to school and you mentioned that you went to school for animation.

[00:19:23] Fabiola Lara: So what is your current relationship with animation?

[00:19:27] Natali Koromoto Martinez: Yeah, I love animation, but as a viewer, basically. Okay. And. This like late in the game, like when I was in college that I'm not really an animator, I don't have the patience for it. I still love it. And I do little animations sometimes for fun, mostly, but I never really did any work as a, as an animator.

I wanted to switch to the illustration program, but it was kind of too late to do that.

[00:19:51] Fabiola Lara: Was the main thing, the time it takes to animate.

[00:19:54] Natali Koromoto Martinez: Yeah. It's it's very time consuming. There was a lot of like the 3d programs. I wasn't really like [00:20:00] getting into that. I like more designing. That's what I really love.

[00:20:04] Fabiola Lara: I saw that you did that I think has been a while now, but when you did the Nickelodeon designs for SpongeBob.

[00:20:10] Natali Koromoto Martinez: Oh yeah, that was fun.

[00:20:11] Fabiola Lara: And those were animated, but I could see what you're saying there. You kind of did your own design of the characters.

[00:20:17] Natali Koromoto Martinez: Yeah. They asked me. To reimagine them a little bit, draw them more like in my style. And they did the animation, I didn't do that part.

[00:20:25] Fabiola Lara: Well, they look great.

[00:20:26] Natali Koromoto Martinez: Yeah, no, they did an amazing job.

I really love the animation work they did.

[00:20:29] Fabiola Lara: Can you tell me about how it was like working with them? How long that whole project took? Just a little bit more about the project.

[00:20:36] Natali Koromoto Martinez: It was actually surprisingly easy. There weren't a lot of changes. I think there was only like one round of changes they approved. Most of the characters went away.

[00:20:43] Fabiola Lara: That's cause they look adorable. They look so cute. I would watch that version of spongeBob,

[00:20:49] Natali Koromoto Martinez: but yeah, it went very smoothly. We were done, like right away with a project. That's so cool.

[00:20:55] Fabiola Lara: Yeah. Do you feel like you, um, are still open to that kind of [00:21:00] work or are you now more focused on your own personal illustrations designs and product design?

[00:21:08] Natali Koromoto Martinez: I like the idea of freelance work is just, I'm so busy. Like what I do. It's so time-consuming really, you know, it's not just designing, it's like writing emails all day long, like packing orders, like I do all still shop. Right? Yeah. And I don't want to like, not pay attention to it, you know, for any time.

So I like to be really hands-on on like every aspect of it. So I haven't done a freelance work in a while. Mostly for that reason. I just don't have the time.

[00:21:37] Fabiola Lara: That makes sense.

[00:21:38] Natali Koromoto Martinez: Yeah.

[00:21:39] Fabiola Lara: And I feel like a lot of your from what I'm seeing. And from what you're saying about the product design, you like start it, but it's still like for months you have to keep up with it and kind of work on it continuously. So you don't have like that hard break, like, okay, this is over now I can do some freelance work

It's like an ongoing Cycle

With [00:22:00] that in mind. How do you balance. Kind of all the areas that you're currently working in for yourself, like, you know, illustration, ceramics, product design, how do you balance that in your day to day?

[00:22:12] Natali Koromoto Martinez: It's not the easiest, you know, because it's like a blurry line between what is work and what is pleasure because I draw because I love to draw, but it's also part of my job. So I never know exactly when to stop. So yeah, I think it is important to take some break cause you don't want to burn out, but I do struggle a little bit with that.

Like when I'm working, when I'm not,

[00:22:36] Fabiola Lara: what do you do? Like for your downtime? Like if you're not working, what are those things that you're doing?

[00:22:41] Natali Koromoto Martinez: Well now that New York is open again. Kind of, yeah. Yeah. It's, we've been going out a little bit more because. Going to museams, going to hanging out with some friends and

[00:22:51] Fabiola Lara: Just getting out a little bit more,

[00:22:52] Natali Koromoto Martinez: Trying to enjoy the summer.

Yeah. Cause we didn't get to do much of that last year.

[00:22:56] Fabiola Lara: Totally.

I feel that I'm in the same boat trying to like get out, [00:23:00] but also enjoy it even though it's hard to enjoy right now. Yeah. So it's a hard question. It's like, nobody knows what they're doing for fun anymore, or nobody's having any more fun.

Keeping going, talking about your merchandise.

What's a new product. That's coming up that you're most excited about.

[00:23:19] Natali Koromoto Martinez: Let me see. Well, I don't know if this is exciting. It's exciting for me. There's some bath towels, um, like, uh, bath ropbes coming out.

[00:23:27] Fabiola Lara: No, that is exciting because that's like interior design now a little bit homeware.

[00:23:32] Natali Koromoto Martinez: They're being made in Portugal and they're a little delayed again, pandemic related stuff.

[00:23:37] Fabiola Lara: It's okay. People need towels all year long or, you know,

[00:23:41] Natali Koromoto Martinez: I'm really excited about those. I think they're going to come out really cute.

[00:23:43] Fabiola Lara: I can't wait to see them. Are they illustrated or did you make like a print for them or what's going on?

[00:23:50] Natali Koromoto Martinez: Well, no, they're going to be cute, but yeah, they'll have characters on them and they're going to, and I'm really excited.

[00:23:57] Fabiola Lara: I can't wait to see your character relating [00:24:00] to bath time.

Let's say money was not an object. Timelines were not an object. Everything in the world was easy. What is a dream product for you to make, or did you already do that?

[00:24:12] Natali Koromoto Martinez: I've been working with, and my partner also on like a side hustle kind of thing, like at sister company for what I have, and it's going to be mostly apparel.

[00:24:22] Fabiola Lara: Yes, like actually designing the garment. Wow. That's another level, you know, it's not just printing on it. Yeah.

[00:24:30] Natali Koromoto Martinez: Again, a lot of learning for the both of us, but we're really excited about it and we're working really hard to get it done, hopefully this year, you know, if everything works out as we're planning,

[00:24:41] Fabiola Lara: I hope so. For sure.

[00:24:42] Natali Koromoto Martinez: Yeah. I mean, me too.

[00:24:44] Fabiola Lara: What advice would you give to someone interested in creating their own store and expanding into creating their own product?

[00:24:51] Natali Koromoto Martinez: Well, I think testing the market a little bit is always wise. Definitely again, use social media, as [00:25:00] much as you can to get feedback from people and see their reaction.

I think most of them are there genuinely want to help. It's amazing. Like try things out, you know, don't be too afraid. Put things out there constantly. Even if he's not merchandised start to put our work or like sketches or mock-ups, or like keep people interested in what you're doing.

[00:25:21] Fabiola Lara: Keep showing your work.

[00:25:23] Natali Koromoto Martinez: Yeah, exactly. Don't stop. Even if you don't like something, just share it. Like who cares? You know, like

[00:25:28] Fabiola Lara: that's the advice I give myself all the time.

Yeah. Yeah. I used to be, I'm still, I'm a little critical of myself, you know? This is not, it's not perfect. Not right. It's not done yet. And then you share it and people usually like, love it.

Love it anyway. Yeah. They don't know.

[00:25:44] Natali Koromoto Martinez: They don't know how I look in your head. They're just happy it's there.

[00:25:48] Fabiola Lara: Speaking of Social media and kind of your relationship with social media, I saw you grow on Tumblr. When I used to work at Tumblr, I remember putting your art in the radar. Cause I was like, this is incredible. Oh [00:26:00] yeah.

[00:26:00] Natali Koromoto Martinez: Thank you.

[00:26:00] Fabiola Lara: Yes, no, I mean, it wasn't just me. Putting your work wherever we could. And then I saw you transitioned so easily to Instagram and grow on Instagram. And now you have over like 150,000 followers on Instagram. What are your thoughts on exploring, like TikTok or Reels? Just knowing your animation background, if that has any influence on you.

[00:26:23] Natali Koromoto Martinez: Yeah. I haven't really gotten into TikTok or Reels yet. Again, it's like, it's going to be like a new learning experience that I want to get into it when I have the time, you know, I also want to introduce my ceramic process into these videos.

[00:26:38] Fabiola Lara: Oh Yes. I've seen so not from you, but in general ceramic videos, they are so mesmerizing.

People would love your ceramic videos.

[00:26:48] Natali Koromoto Martinez: Yeah. Like I would love to do, I think it will be really fun to share more about that part of I do.

[00:26:53] Fabiola Lara: I feel like it's so cool that you work on manufacturer products, but then you kind of [00:27:00] always go back to creating handmade ceramics. How do you like work between those two worlds and why.

Like go back to ceramics.

[00:27:09] Natali Koromoto Martinez: I find that very relaxing to work on ceramics, like free just to make something with your hands and like, basically whatever you make is going to be cool, you know, to like a useful object, a little pile, even if it's like a little wonky or whatever. It's still holds stuff that I lose track of time when I'm doing ceramics, when they painting them.

And like, I don't know, you create a new characters

[00:27:32] Fabiola Lara: and you're a part of every step of the process versus what some of your other products you're involved with. You're not right there necessarily making it.

[00:27:41] Natali Koromoto Martinez: Yeah, exactly. I'm not actually making them,

[00:27:44] Fabiola Lara: I can't wait to see your next collection of ceramics.

[00:27:46] Natali Koromoto Martinez: Yeah. I'm really excited to get into it again. It's just, with COVID basically the ceramic studio closed and I kind of lost them. Yeah. The momentum that I had and they re-open. I just need to get back to it [00:28:00] basically.

[00:28:00] Fabiola Lara: Gets get back into the studio, get back into the habit now that, cause it wasn't a part of your practice for, for so long.

[00:28:06] Natali Koromoto Martinez: Yeah,

[00:28:07] Fabiola Lara: totally. I'm excited to see what you make. I feel like you always come up with something really clever, not only clever, but like also cute, you know, I'm like, oh, I never thought about it that way. Like the hat on a hat, that is so clever. I know it's not ceramic, but I feel like that feeling that I got from that product I see across like all of your merch.

[00:28:26] Natali Koromoto Martinez: Thank you.

Yeah. That's. To me, like, do you have like a little twist on like some special Idea or yeah.

[00:28:32] Fabiola Lara: How do you feel like you come up with that idea, like that twist? Do you have any things that you think about or techniques to, how do you approach that?

[00:28:42] Natali Koromoto Martinez: I don't have a technique. It just happens, you know, like randomly, sometimes yeah.

Like watching a movie or like walking around or seeing someone wearing something or going through photos. I know, like it just happens sometimes something clicks. And if I get excited about it, I like, I know I have something [00:29:00] there. You know, if I eat the next day, I'm still excited about it. Or like, oh, I definitely do.

[00:29:06] Fabiola Lara: That's so awesome that you can like take inspiration from everywhere and then incorporate it into your illustrations and your show. Thank you so much, Natali, for being on the Draws in Spanish podcast. I so appreciate you taking the time to be here for me is incredible to get a chance to talk to you.

And yeah, I just want to thank you so much for your time.

[00:29:27] Natali Koromoto Martinez: No, thank you so much for having me. And this was fun.

[00:29:37] Fabiola Lara: So that was my conversation with Natali Martinez, also known as Natali Koromoto. Thanks so much for listening, and please be sure to follow Natali on Instagram at @natalikoromoto to get the latest updates on her art and merch.

Listeners of the podcast can get a free undated, weekly and monthly planner inspired by the show by using the link in our show notes, [00:30:00] or going to draws in spanish.com.

If there's a Latinx visual artists, you think we should speak to on this. Go ahead and nominate them by going to draw them spanish.com/nominate. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe, to get all future episodes. Thanks so much for listening and I'll see you next time. .