Miró Ingmar Tiebe aka MIRUEL is a German illustrator from Hamburg. Driven by a wish for development and evolution, he is always looking for more variety of styles in his works. A selection of his beautifully depicted illustrations inspired by mystical creatures and plants anatomy “FRAGMENTS” are now published as a 100for10 book. While browsing through his works of art, you might also come across an illustration Miró has created at Forward Festival at his much noticed live art drawings.

 

 

Were all of the illustrations you drew in your artist book brand new and created exclusively for 100for10?

90% exclusive, yes. My plan for the book was this one: I just got two new sketchbooks and filled them up to the very last page with new illustrations, so I would then have enough pieces for the book. I also found the idea of being able to show two original books at the end very tempting. And the plan worked out very well.

 

Are the illustrations coherent, or does each one of the artworks stand for itself?

They tend to stand alone. The book is intended to give an insight into my style and their variations.

 

What was your main source of inspiration for the illustrations?

I always like to gather my inspiration from different sources. While I was working on the book, I found a lot of inspiration from nature, as I’ve spent a lot of time in the countryside over the past year. These influences were then mixed with various science fiction artists of the 70s and 80s. Art Nouveau has also been a great source of inspiration for me for several years.

 

 

How much time did you spend drawing all of them?

100FOR10 contacted me in May 2021. I started right away and finished it by the end of 2021.

 

Are there times when you lack inspiration? If yes, what helps you get out of that state?

Of course I also go through such phases. An ideal situation for this to happen is when you would have time to spare anyways and then you can take advantage of it and give yourself time to think ideas through and not torment yourself by feeling pressured. However, if inspiration is lacking at certain a moment where the job is pending and you can’t think of a brilliant idea, it always helps me to put everything down and go for a walk. It doesn’t matter if it’s stormy or sunny, walking is good for body and mind. Usually after a walk, when you get back to your workplace you definitely have at least a rough idea.

 

 

Could you tell us a little bit about your illustrating process and how you get into your workflow?

I have two ways of starting. Firstly, I draw very rough sketches with fine-liners on cheap copy paper, therefore I also don’t feel wasteful. The second part starts directly on the Cintiq. As soon as the sketch is ready, it is either scanned and then a second layer of lines is depicted in Adobe Illustrator, or the second layer is switched on directly and worked out. As soon as the lines are all in place, I’m creating the shadow areas. As a third step, I put a layer under the line and shadow layers and create a colour composition.

For this book, however, as I already mentioned, I drew all the illustrations analogously in sketchbooks, scanned them and edited them in Illustrator so that they were clean and all in the same shade of black.

 

Get Miró’s book FRAGMENTS here!