I hated my art teacher at school. And he hated me too. When I graduated, he convinced my parents that I couldn't make it in design. My dream was to make cartoons and comics. They sent me to an architecture school, which I hated from the first day to the last.

On the side, I worked on illustrations for a fanzine and fell in love with the job. I'd always been drawing, and I wanted it to be my life. So after the architecture school, without any design degree, I found a job in an advertising agency.

5 years ago, something tragic happened in my life and made me realize the importance of time. I decided to stop wasting mine, so I quit my job and made a bet with myself: I was going to be a freelancer. That was scary, I didn't have any clients, or any idea of what I was doing, but it felt like following my passion for drawing was the right thing to do.

I don't believe in inspiration, I believe in passion. It's passion that makes you draw while your friends play soccer, that motivates you to take a side job for a fanzine while you're studying architecture, that keeps you awake at night iterating on your style and ideas.

I'm sometimes invited to teach in art schools. I talk about my story. I never say a word about style or technique. That doesn't matter. If you are passionate enough, they will come. What matters, in my opinion is how you approach your work and life. If you have the passion, the rest will happen. The last time I gave that talk, some teacher told me that he had never seen students that quiet for 3 straight hours.

Ale Giorgini

Italian illustrator and cartoonist.