Meet Illustrator Ulises Mendicutty

The Mexican illustrator with a passion for pink, street culture, skulls and perreo

Ulises Mendicutty is an illustrator, art director, and visual artist from Mexico who has been living in Barcelona for over a decade. Passionate about pink, street culture, unique anecdotes, traditions, cinema, the future, skulls and perreo (among many other things), Ulises loves to participate in diverse projects that push him out of his creative comfort zone and experiment with different formats: “I love to draw and see my strokes in magazines or blogs, but I am also a fan of seeing them on a wall or transformed into a ceramic object”.

While he studied communication and philosophy at undergrad, art had always been his passion. A postgrad in illustration confirmed that he was destined to draw. He has been commissioned by the Spanish national newspaper El Pais, Slanted Magazine, Vips, and Penguin Random House and his work has been exhibited in Italy, Scotland, Spain, Mexico, and Costa Rica. Here we share a selection of Ulises’ work, from portraits to murals.

365 Fuegos

Ulises teamed up with author Bebi Fernandez to create this weekly 2020 calendar. Throughout its pink pages, you’ll find flaming illustrations by Ulises and sassy quotes written by Fernandez. The 2020 calendar was published by Motena under Penguin Random House.

Portrait Illustrations

While developing my own style, I have experimented a lot. My grandfather was the person who motivated me to start drawing portraits. I had always wanted to make a book about his life and one day I realized that, if I wanted to make this book, I would need to start drawing people. So I did. I made a lot of mistakes before finding the right path on which I felt comfortable. Then I started to create series. These started out as personal projects that I did for my own satisfaction but, in the end, they have been instrumental in me being commissioned for commercial work. My series ‘Barrio Boys’ and ‘Portraits’ are often references that clients send me for their projects.
Ulises Medicutty

Still Life Illustration

Murals

VIPS

Ceramic Still Life

Vinyl art

If you have enjoyed getting to know the work of Ulises, be sure to check out his Domestika course, Digital Portraits with Unique Style on Procreate. In it, Ulises will share strategies that help him find his own style and tips on how to successfully transmit ideas and stories. He will also show you how he works with Procreate to get the best results.

You may also like:

–Challenge: Illustrate in Procreate with Just Two Colors.
–Photoshop Tutorial: Adding Shadows and Highlights to Your Portrait.
–Free Download: Textures for Caricature Projects.