Ana Dascalo has been working as a caricature artist for two and a half years, and she is inspired by her favorite caricature artists and design elements from animation. Ana is also a children’s illustrator, and I love how colorful and glowy her personal work is. Read on for more about Ana’s art journey below!
Q: Where did you get your start in caricature, and how long have you been a caricature artist?
A: I started doing caricatures at Universal Studios in Orlando, really clueless of what being a caricature artist was! But now I love it and have been doing it for 2 years and a half
Q: Where do you currently work, and what work are you doing?
A: I currently work mainly with QuickDraw caricatures and travel around the country drawing caricatures in different festivals! And I’m also illustrating a children’s book on the side, plus working on my own personal art projects (which I wouldn’t consider part of my job yet since I don’t make any type of profits).
Q: What is it about caricature that you’re passionate about?
A: I would say I’m fairly new to being passionate about caricatures since my first year doing it I was just drawing fast standard (really bad) faces to make money, but when I started doing fairs that’s when I got to know new styles that were a thing. I would say currently my passion for caricatures is in experimenting and pushing shapes while getting a likeness, I want to push it to the max possible and have them look like super cool character designs.
Q: Who or what influences your caricature style?
A: my caricature style to be honest doesn’t exist yet haha, but what I try to do now comes from different caricature artists that I’ve worked with or seen on instagram, like Mae Adao, Melissa Sepulveda, Kiko Yamada, Damion Dunn, Sebastian Martin, Mac García, Kelly O Brien, and more that I can’t remember right now 😬, plus recently trying to add elements from cartoons like Powerpuff girls, the movie Klaus for shapes, and more!
Q: What inspires you, in general? What are some aspects of your life or your experiences that have helped you evolve as an artist?
A: What inspires me honestly I think is just how good I feel when I’m drawing, and I always drew here and there, but once 2020 hit, I started actually taking it seriously and noticing that I could get better. Now I still want to keep on improving and building a name for myself.
Q: As an artist, what are some tips you can offer, or something that you struggle with?
A: As for tips, I would say just get out of your comfort zone and try new things, styles, etc. You’ll probably think they look terrible (happens to me all the time), but eventually you’ll feel more and more comfortable and things will look better and better. Also look at other artists work for inspiration and ask for as much advice from the pros as possible.
And my biggest struggle is drawing bodies in live caricatures 😭
Q: I love how colorful and fun your digital work is, and I even saw that you illustrated a children's book- that's super cool!! What are your ultimate goals or directions as an artist?
A: I love and hate this question because my goals aren’t super specific, but I’m still passionate about them. I want to make my own children’s book soon, and I also want to brand myself on social media to have more reach and sell my merch, have my own little characters that people know and buy merch of, etc…
Q: What hobbies or passions do you have outside of caricature?
A: I love cooking and singing/songwriting! Finally got to record two of my songs and I’m excited to share them once they are ready 😁
Q: Who are your favorite women artists in caricature or in related industries?
A: My top women in caricature are Kiko Yamada, Melissa Sepulveda, Mae Adao and Kelly O Brien
Q: Thanks again for participating in WIC's Artist Spotlight! Where can we follow your work?
A: Thank you for having me! You can follow me on instagram, I have 2 accounts: @adascalo for my art aside from caricatures and @anadrawsyou for caricatures. Also on TikTok @adascalo
