Amanda Lago

Storyteller Artist

Feather-alt Twitter Instagram Tumblr Artstation Behance

In depth - about me

I’m Amanda Lago and I was born in November 1994, in a small town in the country side of Brazil.
As most artists I know, I’ve always been an introverted person who rather stay at home to draw or play video games.

As a child, I used to spend hours doodling on my mother’s post-its in her office, leaving her little messages or drawing short stories about random subjects. She kept lots of my drawings. 

So here they go, my masterpieces:

Well, when I was around 12 years old, my mom signed me up for painting classes. This is one of my most favorite memories from that time.

I didn’t spend a lot of time there, maybe a year or two, but it was special for me, especially when I sold my first oil painting to someone in the family (I think it was my father haha). I bought my first TV from the money I earned making paintings for the rest of the family. My teacher helped me a lot with them, so the credit is hers too. But then she had to move to another city and I didn’t keep painting. =(

I didn’t stop drawing, though. I already loved to spend 10+ hours in my room, drawing things that I was into at that time. I used to draw during classes too =P and I even made a silly comic about my best friend.

Thing is, I didn’t think I could make a living from my art when I was in High School. No one told me I could make enough money from it, even though I met some oil painting artists on the road. I just didn’t feel oil painting was my thing. Drawing was my thing and I didn’t know anyone making money from it, so I heard that if I liked to draw I should go to architecture university and so I went.

I did draw a few things during the first year, for the course’s assignments. These are from 2012/3:

But after that, I didn’t draw anymore. :'( The course started focusing more and more on 2D and 3D house plans and so, 5 years has passed, doing something that I tried so hard to be my thing.

Well, at the end, I do have a bachelor degree in Architecture and Urbanism, but that’s just it. I don’t think it was a complete wast of my time and energy though. I do like architecture and I hope I can build my own house and my beautiful garden from scracth someday. But it’s definitely something that I would NOT like to do for a living.

After my graduation, I couldn’t have felt more lost.
I tried to draw a couple of times, but I always stopped and I couldn’t make that a habit. I was still in the mindset of making Architecture work for me.

It was only when I went to a self-knowledge training that I finally faced the truth and found the tools to go back to drawing. To scrap all up and restart.

I decided to start the 100 Days of Pratice Challenge and the rest of the story you can find on the next post. >>