Bio
Behind Clavinia writes Carmen L. Seva, a human being made of fantasy stories and existential questions. Born in Alicante, in the sunny coast of eastern Spain, she feels there's nothing like walking by the beach and watching the waves dancing to get the feeling she's on the right track.
Since I was little I've loved good stories and enjoyed anything that implied creating. I became soon fascinated with computers and all the visual potential they possessed, spending hours playing with MSPaint and PowerPoint when my parents took me to their workplace. Later on I discovered Japanese animation, followed by manga comics and videogames; discovery that became a turning point. I started reading and writing fanfics, drawing the chars I liked, and even began to learn English and Japanese mainly on my own. Those were the times of Frontpage, software that became my first contact to HTML and web building.
While I was studying in the Lycée Français I kept drawing and writing as a hobby, and had much less time to dedicate to it when I entered my city University, where I studied at the same time Sociology -a way to combine my passion for Philosophy and Antrophology with more applicable subjects-, and Advertising and Public Relations -the only Design related career in my college-.
Still, the academic world was far too theoretical sometimes, and when I got the chance, the last year of career, I started a much more practical approach in a private art school. Updating my knowledge in web design landed me a year job as Social Media and Online Shop Manager in a sportwear local company. It also gave me the chance to learn Illustration for the first time.
I left my job when I received a scholarship to study a Master Degree in the Art Faculty of Valencia Polytechnic University. There, I specialized in the Art and Technology branch, and wrote a minor thesis about recent changes in Japanese animation. When that year was over, I went back to Alicante and swayed between getting another job -in nowadays difficult situation-, going abroad to the adventure or keep studying. Finally, my steps guided me back to the art school and to a 3D modeling, animation and VFX course. During that same course I was recruited for a job at a software consultancy where I have been working as a jack of all trades in graphic design, frontend development, Magnolia CMS trainee (rings a bell? it never does...), mobile app UI and UX designs... and fixing all kinds of things with CSS (really, it's amazing what you learn to do when you don't have control over the html code or the templates).
When I thought I had found my a bit boring place in web design aimed at the medical field, I had a call from a art teacher, telling me a video game company was looking for artists in Alicante. To be honest, as I had never worked as an illustrator before and I had my doubts about leaving the stability for a startup. I was not expecting much when I sent them my portfolio and did the interview, but it turned out great in the end and I started to work as a Game Artist in Space Nation, becoming some months later Game Lead Artist and having a couple of promising artist under my care.
I seem to have found gold, will I be able to keep living in this dream or are new chances for me at the horizon? May it be, as it's the journey that matters, not the destination!
If you want to know more about my career, check my online CV!