Hi Charles, great to talk to you! First of all, could you introduce yourself? Who are you, where are you from, where do you live now? Tell us a little about your personal background!
Hello Pickmotion! Thank you for the invitation. I'm really happy to be able to talk to you in this interview!
My name is Charles, also known as cotton.tv on Instagram, and I'm a 32-year-old graphic designer, art director and digital artist. I'm from Paris, but for the past few years I've been living my best dolce vita in Rome. This is also where I studied design.
You are a graphic designer and a digital artist. When did you know you wanted to pursue a creative career?
There has always been this creative feeling in my family. My father and sister are photographers and my mother is a writer, so I grew up in that atmosphere and with lots of art books at home! As a child I drew a lot, even in my school notebooks.
After school, I started studying hotel management, but quickly realized that it wasn't exciting enough. I wanted to do something artistic instead. So I decided to quit my job as a receptionist to start a new adventure and study art in Rome. I have never regretted that decision!
You also call yourself a dreaming minimalist! What do you like most about minimalism?
In my opinion, minimalism is a great contrast between the simplicity of a composition and the strong peaceful feeling it conveys. Few elements of a picture spark the imagination and the many sensations and thoughts in some way convey a sense of freedom, which makes me feel good and relaxed.
Your pictures always inspire us with their dreamy and warm colors! How did you develop your style?
Thank you for these kind words! I started creating my paintings by drawing inspiration from simple emotions that my daily life gave me: my experiences, the people I met, the places I visited... I like peaceful feelings, quiet moments where you can just enjoy the present. That's what I wanted to depict. So I started working with warm and pastel colors to find out which colors combine well. Then I wanted to keep a simple, minimal style and illustrate dreamy scenes or simple moments in life to show that it's always nice to take a break from time to time and escape from reality for a bit.
We noticed that you also like to depict the moon and clouds! Does the sky have a special meaning for you?
For me, the sky is the best inspiration and well-being therapy I could wish for. To the moon and the clouds, I would also add sunsets. A sunset offers a unique spectacle every day, where time somehow stands still for a moment, and that is a feeling that I also want to convey in my work. I consider myself very lucky because Rome has one of the best sunsets I have ever seen.
Where else do you find inspiration and why?
I get inspiration from moments of daily life, from the cities I live in, from pleasant moments with friends, from holidays in new places... It can be an unexpected sunset walking through the streets, an evening out, a special memory or emotions I have experienced that I want to recreate with colorful artwork, peaceful moods, etc. My main inspiration is based on how to recreate an emotion I have experienced as best as possible.
But my inspiration also comes from poetry and the texts I read. I am a huge fan of writers like Arthur Rimbaud or Pablo Neruda. I love the feeling of reading a poem or the lyrics of a song that feels like it was written especially for you. This also works when listening to music. And when I am in that mood, I immediately want to create an image that is connected to that special feeling.
Tell us a little about your creative process! How do you create and edit your images?
My main goal in the creative process is to convey a feeling and the images associated with it in my head as accurately as possible. The goal is to create a kind of colorful diary of my life. I start by determining the main directions I want to go in: landscape, street scene, fantasy scene, collage. Once I know which direction to go in, I work on the composition and where to place the most important elements of the image. I usually take the elements from images I have taken myself or found in image archives. Once I have a composition in my head based on my feelings, I work with my favorite colors, usually pastels and sunset gradients, and finally edit the composition to achieve that peaceful atmosphere I love.
When and why did you start sharing your work on Instagram?
I started my account around 2016. At first I only posted pictures of nice moments with my friends and my first artworks. Little by little I posted more pictures and started to build a community.
Do you have a favorite image you created? Can you tell us the story behind it?
It's really hard to choose one picture, I really have a special connection to all my pictures. But I really like this one.
This is an imaginary scene from Rome that I had in mind when I was thinking about going back there. For me, this city is full of life, magic and love, a place where I feel comfortable. And a nice way to show that was this bedroom view with a beautiful panorama of the city with the quote "sometimes we need a little magic". That's really how I feel about this eternal city.
How do you feel about your Instagram community? Have you been able to get to know a lot of people and share your inspiration?
Despite all these algorithm changes over the years that I think have destroyed some connections, I'm really glad that I've made so many lovely friendships and discovered so many amazing artists and people over the years. I have a stunning community full of wonderful souls and I couldn't be more grateful for it.
Can you tell us some of your favorite Instagrammers who inspire you?
The first person who really impressed me was a French art director and photographer called Hugo Katsumi . I still remember feeling mesmerized by the serenity of his images.
Then I love the work of Matt Crump 's and his site Candyminimal for the colors and the joy they convey.
And finally, I love the site of La Via mediterranea , which is different from my artistic direction but gives me a nice Mediterranean, sweet feeling that I really
Do you still enjoy writing postcards? Do you have a favorite postcard that you once received?
I like to write postcards every now and then and I always like to look at them in the bookshops when I'm on vacation. It reminds me of the summer when I sent some to my cousins and friends. They are really nice memories.
Did you know Pickmotion before our cooperation?
Unfortunately not, but it was a great discovery!
Would you like to tell us a little story or anecdote at the end? Feel free to tell us whatever comes to mind!
I just want to use this question to thank you for this interview and this nice collaboration. When I started posting pictures on Instagram years ago, I never thought for a second that I would experience something so amazing. I think the message is to always believe in the projects you want to achieve and work hard for them. The rest is just incredible emotions.
APM-0106, APM-0107, APM-0224, APM-0223, APM-0371, APM-0288
If you love @cotton.tv 's images as much as we do, you're in luck! In our shop you can discover and buy many art posters and some postcards with his designs. Remember to follow Charles on Instagram too, so you don't miss any of his latest creations!
