Hi Charles, it’s great to talk to you! First of all, could you introduce yourself to our readers? Who are you, where do you come from, where do you live now? Tell us a little bit about your personal background!
Hey Pickmotion! Thanks a lot for the invitation. I’m really glad to be able to talk to you through this interview!
My name is Charles, aka cotton.tv on Instagram, and I’m a 32 year old graphic designer, art director and digital artist. I’m from Paris but I’m now living my best dolce vita in Rome since a few years ago now. It’s also the city where I did my design studies.
You’re a Graphic Designer & Digital Artist. When did you know you wanted to do something creative as a profession?
My family has always entertained this creative feeling. My father and sister do photography and my mother writes, so I grew up in this atmosphere and with a lot of art books at home! I used to draw a lot when I was a kid, even in my school notebooks.
After high school I started hotel management studies, but quickly realised that it wasn’t exciting enough. I wanted to be stimulated by something more artistic. So, I decided to quit my receptionist job to start a new adventure and study art in Rome. I never regretted this decision!
You also call yourself a Minimal Dreamer! What do you love most about minimalism?
To my opinion minimalism is a gorgeous contrast between the simplicity of a composition and the strong peaceful feeling that it gives. Just a few elements of a visual let your imagination develop a lot of sensations and thoughts, and in some ways give you a nice feeling of freedom that makes me feel good and relaxed.
Your pictures always delight us with the most dreamy and warm colors! How did you develop your style?
Thanks for these kind words! I started to do my visuals being inspired by simple emotions that my daily life gave me, through my experiences, the people I met, the places I went to... I like peaceful feelings, quiet moments when you can plainly enjoy the present. I wanted to picture this. So, I started to work with warm and pastel colors, trying to figure out which ones make a good combination. Then I wanted to maintain a simple minimal style and illustrate dreamy scenes or simple moment of life just to show that it’s always pleasant to take a break from time to time and escape a bit from reality.
You also like to picture the moon and clouds! Does the sky have a special meaning to you?
The sky for me is the best inspiration and wellbeing therapy that I could ask for. To the moon and clouds, I would add sunsets as well. It offers you a daily unique show every day, where the time kind of stops, which is an emotion I want to share through my work, too. I feel lucky because Rome has one of the best sunsets I’ve ever seen.
Where do you find your inspiration and why?
I find myself really inspired by moments of daily life I see in the cities I live in, by pleasant time shared with friends, holidays in new places... it can be a unexpected sunset walking through the streets, an evening night out, a special memory or emotions that I lived and that I want to recreate with colorful artworks, peaceful moods... My main inspiration is based on how to recreate the closest way possible an emotion that I have lived.
My inspiration also comes from poetry and texts that I read. I’m a huge fan of writers like Arthur Rimbaud or Pablo Neruda. I love the sensation of reading a poem or lyrics from a song that feels like it was written especially for you. It also works while listening to music. And when I’m in this mood, I directly want to create a visual linked with this special emotion.
Tell us a bit about your creation process! How do you create and edit your pictures?
My main goal in the creative process is to reproduce a feeling and the images linked with it in my head as closely as possible. The main objective is to produce a kind of colorful diary of my life. I start by defining the main directions I want to take: landscape, street scene, fantasy scene, collage. Once I know where to go, I work on the composition and where the main elements of the image will be placed. I usually get elements from images I've taken myself or found in image libraries. Once I have a composition in mind based on how I feel, I work on my favorite colors, usually pastels and sunset gradients, and finally edit the composition to reach this peaceful atmosphere that I love.
When and why did you start sharing your work on Instagram?
I start my page around 2016. It was at first to post picture of good moments with my friends and my first artworks. Time after time I posted more visuals and started to create a community.
Do you have a favourite picture you have created? Can you tell us the story behind it?
It’s hard to pick one, I really have a special connection with all of my visuals. But this is one I like a lot.
This is a imaginary scene of Rome that I thought about while I was planning to go live back there. For me this city is full of life, magic, love, a place where I feel good. And a nice way to show it was this bedroom view with a nice panorama on the city with the quote “sometimes we need a bit of magic”. This is really how I feel about the eternal city.
How do you feel about your Instagram community? Did you make any good connections and share a lot with them?
Despite all these algorithm changes through the years that in my opinion ruined some connections, I’m really glad and blessed to have created so many nice friendships through the years, to have discovered so many amazing artists and people. I have a stunning community made of beautiful souls and I couldn’t be more grateful about it.
Can you name some of your favourite Instagrammers that inspire you?
The first one that truly amazed me was a French art director and photographer named Hugo Katsumi. I remembered being hypnotized by the serenity of his pictures.
Then I love Matt Crump’s work and his page Candyminimal for the colors and joy that it gives.
Finally, I love La Via mediterranea’s page, which is different from the art direction I take but it gives me a nice mediterranean sweet emotions that I like a lot.
Do you like writing postcards? Do you have a favourite postcard you have ever received?
I love to write postcards time to time, but also like to watch it in the bookstores when I’m on holidays. It reminds me of summer when I used to send some to my cousins and friends. These are really nice memories.
Did you know Pickmotion before we started collaborating?
Unfortunately no, but it has been a great discovery!
Finally, would you like to share a little story or anecdote with us? Feel free to tell us anything!
I would just take this question to thank you guys for this interview and this nice collaboration. When I started to post pictures on Instagram years ago, I wouldn’t have thought one second that it could allow me to live such amazing experiences. I guess the message is to always believe in any kind of projects you want to achieve and work hard for it. And the rest will only be amazing emotions.
APM-0106, APM-0107, APM-0224, APM-0223, APM-0371, APM-0288
If you love @cotton.tv's art as much as we do, you are in luck! In our shop, you can find many beautiful Art Posters as well as some postcards with his designs. Make sure to also follow Charles on Instagram to never miss out on his beautiful work!