Today we will show you some great illustrations and a small bio from a Brazilian artist, Thiago Pena. For us it is really a pleasure to show artists from our Country, specially artists with great pieces as the ones you will see here. Thiago's illustrations are really unique. They have a different style, and the lines and shades are great. His drawings are a bit dark, they express a whole parallel atmosphere that get our attention immediately.

Thiago's work was actually suggested by his friend Wander to appear in our daily inspiration post, but as I really liked his images I decided to contact Thiago to get more info about him to write this article. So here you will be able to know a bit more about the artist and also check some of his illustrations. I hope you like the images as much as I did!

Don't forget to visit Thiago's flickr page to see more of his pieces. Enjoy the images!

I asked Thiago to tell us more about him and about when he started drawing. So from now on I present you Thiago, his words and work!

Well, I was born in Viçosa, MG/Brazil in 1985 and when I was 8 I moved to Mariana, where I lived until 2005, when I moved to BH to study Fine Arts at the Guignard School, UEMG where I'm concluding my graduation.

I'm not exactly sure about when exactly I started drawing, actually I know that I never stopped. Every kid is a potential illustrator, but when the aesthetic sense starts to appear they abandon drawing underestimating their potential. I probably started drawing non stop when I was 5, before going to primary school. When I was at the second grade I started having concentration problems at the classes. I used to sit by the window and draw parts of the landscape at the outside. Thinking about my concentration the teacher put me at the other side of the room, it kind of worked, but then I started drawing caricatures of her and my colleagues. From this time on the quality of my drawings became better even without knowing technics, which really bother me due to some frustrated creations. Because of that when I was 16 I decided to join the painting class at the FAOP (Fundação de Arte de Ouro Preto) where I attended for 3 years. I studied Drawing, Art History and Elements of the Artistic Language. I've learned the so famous perspective techniques, proportion, light and shadow, color theory and research for the creative process. It was a essential period to me where I had the real feeling about how the life of an artist works.

I already worked with experienced artists such as André Burian and Suely Pimentel, also gave some Art Culture work shops for more than 2 years and currently I work for brands as Hundead and Death Toll Records.

I always liked the Naturalism, Baroque, Surrealism and Hiper realism. I have a few of al them in my pieces but during the creative process I don't stick to any of them. And as for most people of my age, the influence of cartoon is also there. This is an influence that came to me before all other and that still has a big percentage in my creations, together with music influence of extreme metal, which I listening since I was a kid while drawing.