Alejandro Mogollo on drawing Farrah

Alejandro Mogollo on drawing Farrah: Like many before me, I’ve been a fan of Farrah Fawcett since I watched her in

Charlie`s Angels when it first ran in Spain back in 1978. From that minute on I became obsessed with her. I was a kid who liked to draw and I luckily could express my fascination in sketch form. So, every Saturday afternoon I sat in from of the tv set with my notepad and a pencil and started to draw her. It became such an obsession that my parents started to worry. I may have done thousands of sketches that ended up in the trash, because they only served to express my fandom. I wish we had internet back then, because I couldn’t get enough of her in print. I bought every magazine that featured her that I could afford (remember I was a kid and didn’t have much money). When she left Angels, I followed her movie career like a madman. I dragged my older brother along since my parents wouldn’t let me go alone to the movies. God bless my brother, he had to endure such stinkers… but I found all of her movies to be great and she was great in them. Time has passed and I turned my interests to other icons and movie stars but even today, when I come across a picture of Farrah, something physical happens to me, like a chill, butterflies in my stomach. You can’t forget your first love.

A little bit more about Mogollo: I was born in Seville, Spain. Since I was a child I was obsessed with drawing and painting. So much so that, although it was something my parents

Alejandro Mogollo

didn’t think was easy to make a living off, they encouraged it because I had such a passion for it. I studied Fine Arts specializing in Graphic Design here in Seville. When I finished college I got a scholarship at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, and studied there for a year. When I came back from the States I began working as a graphic designer and art director in a publicity studio, and I’ve been working there ever since. My illustration work is something I’ve been developing these last years. But only on personal projects and on subjects of high interest to me, like my recent contribution with a series of illustrations to the Encyclopedia Madonnica published by Matthew Rettenmund. (*Matthew Rettenmund is a writer, editor and blogger who lives in NYC with his Shih Tzus, his Madonna collection and his emotional baggage. His book, “Encyclopedia Madonnica”, is considered the bible on all things Madonna)

Although my day job is fulfilling and requires creativity on my part, I sometimes miss the sheer pleasure of drawing. The illustration software is so sophisticated now (Adobe Illustrator) that it allows me to create images very close to the organic ones, giving it a distinctive touch, close to airbrush. The process, though digital, remains the same, beginning with the blank canvas, but replacing the pencil or brush with the mouse. In those personal projects I wanted to blend my two passions, graphic art and movie stars. So I started doing these movie portraits that I shared only with friends, just for fun. Then I started sharing them online. Now I have a facebook and Instagram art pages with many followers. It’s been a great journey, being able to share my work with fellow fans all over the world and has brought me the opportunity to get in touch with them and received their wonderful response. As an artist that is so gratifying. I couldn’t ask for more.