Mora Vieytes

Mora is a 3D artist and designer from Buenos Aires, Argentina making fun and colorful 3D art with a focus on type and awesomeness.

Tell us a bit about yourself.
Hola everybody!! I’m Mora, I’m a graphic designer and 3D artist from Buenos Aires, Argentina. I started exploring 3D art in the last year of university back in 2012, but it soon became my go-to creative outlet. What started as a way to deal with the lack of creativity I was feeling in my daytime job became my passion.
I work from home and love swimming, skateboarding and Halloween!

What is the main medium, content, and/or themes that are frequently present in your work?
You’ll find letters, cute characters and food in most of my work, especially in personal projects. When it comes to client work, the theme might vary slightly depending on the project, but the overall playful energy will still be there.
I’m mostly a digital artist, because I use 3D modeling software to generate all my work, but in the early stages of an illustration I like to start by sketching freely on a piece of paper and let my ideas run wild.

What is something you want our audience to know about you or your work?
Freelance life is great, but it’s also hard work. For almost 3 years after I graduated I kept my daytime job as a designer while freelancing 3D illustration projects on the side, but as my freelance work grew bigger and bigger, eventually juggling both things became unsustainable. I was working crazy hours and feeling completely burned out. Quitting my daytime job felt liberating, but at the same time super scary. Needless to say, navigating the freelance life was not (and still isn’t) easy, but I like the fact that I can focus all my time and energy on myself and my creative business.

What have been some critical moments or challenges in your career/work that have shifted your perspective creatively?
I used to think that if I was not being productive all the time and managing multiple things at once, I was not trying hard enough to reach my goals. The problem with that mindset is that it often leads to burnout, which happened to me a few times.

Learning to balance my work-life situation, prioritizing taking breaks and embracing rest, was one of the most challenging things I’ve learned to do since I started freelancing. And it’s still something I have to keep reminding myself.

Keeping a balance with social media can be challenging for artists. What is your approach to social media, online community, and promoting your work?
Handling my own social media is another job on its own. I don’t really have a strategy when it comes to it, but I do try to be consistent. I use it as my personal playground for sharing process videos or behind-the-scenes content. Mostly personal explorations, promoting online products, and the occasional client work that I’m particularly proud of. I try to answer comments and messages as much as possible, because I like connecting with people and other artists, and I always smile when someone tells me they felt inspired by one of my illustrations.

Tell us about your artistic process.
Every illustration I make starts with a basic sketch. I can use my iPad or pen and paper. I like to select color palettes that reflect the mood of the piece I’m working on, but if the project is personal, you’ll probably see a lot of pink, purple and gold.

There is an overall playfulness in the way I approach all of my illustrations, and I think that every object present in a composition has to have a smooth and simple morphology; all this combined with a nice lighting and detailed textures and magic will happen when you hit the render button.

“I think that every object present in a composition has to have a smooth and simple morphology; all this combined with a nice lighting and detailed textures and magic will happen when you hit the render button.”

What are your hobbies and interests outside of creating art? How do these affect you creatively?
I love swimming, it’s the best thing to relax my mind and great exercise to compensate for sitting at my desk for so many hours. Also, a few months ago I started taking skateboarding lessons in a park near my house. The combination of being outdoors and doing something fun is great. I’m enjoying it so much.
I have included these activities in my calendar as part of balancing my work-life, and I have come to realize that I feel happier, more focused and have more energy because I take the time to do these activities regularly.

Do you have any advice for students or other artists who are looking to start sell their work?
My advice is to put your work out there, even if you think it’s not ready yet. As artists we are always evolving and getting better at our craft, and that can only happen by the habit of doing it. Doing something you love over and over again will make you better and better at it. Trust the process, and be patient with the time it takes and with yourself.