María Jesús Contreras is a Chilean illustrator. Her works come together through a series of habits, such as documenting funny things that she encountered, taking notes, following the trending memes, and then going through her collections to create illustrations. The artist states that even the not-so-interesting things can become more important through drawing, and as an illustrator, she likes this power.

Contreras was born and grew up in Temuco, a small Chilean city that is located south of Santiago. She says that when she moved to Santiago to study, she carried the life in the countryside, its colours and its people to the big city as inspirations. She does not only work as an illustrator due to the struggle to earn a living in Chile, and sometimes gets up at 5 am to draw, but finds joy and purpose in illustration.

Mainly inspired by her childhood memories, Contreras draws abrupt images referencing her fears as a kid, but with irony and mockery. She recollects her experiences with 90s movies Space Jam, Matilda and the original Jumanji, and creates illustrations with creatures, exhibiting how they are visualised in her mind. Her style consists of saturated colours with sandy textures that imitate risograph printings. The zestful and humorous compositions oppose her self-proclaimed pessimist personality.

The illustrator found a more consistent style by sticking with the same colour palette for her works. She remarks that the pressure of social media and its demand for consistency is overwhelming, and tries to stay away from the comments to avoid anxiety.

She has been drawing many album covers for labels like Warner Music and Universal Music and recalls each of them as her favourite work. A fan of music, she says receiving commissions of that type is always a privilege because they help her illustrations reach a broader audience.

You can follow María Jesús Contreras on her Instagram @mariajesuscontreras and check out her website to acquire her illustrations on prints and apparel merch. Let us know what you think of her illustrations in our comment section below!

About María Jesús Contreras

María Jesús Contreras studied Graphic Design at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and holds a minor degree in arts from the same university. Her illustrations were featured on New York Times, The Atlantic, The New Yorker and Bandcamp. Aside from her chilhood in the 90s, she is inspired by the posters from the 70s and psychedelia, film directors Yorgos Lanthimos, Paul Thomas Anderson and Steven Spielberg, and writer Franz Kafka.