David welcomes me in the studio he shares with other artists in Torrent de las Flors street, in the Gracia district of Barcelona. Observing his work space, one can guess that he is organized, perfectionist and meticulous: everything that is required by the impeccable technique of his illustrations, which he sketches with acrylic to finish them in oil, a quite unusual procedure in illustration. With a slow and gentle voice, he tells me about the artist's honesty, about his career as a painter, about how one day, tired of a certain hypocrisy that reigns in the art market, he moved away from official channels to continue creating his most personal work, which makes him happier and allows him to survive emotionally. At the same time, he earns his living by making illustrations, especially for the publishing sector. And I have to say that both his personal and commercial work is of exceptional quality, and faithfully reflects the discreet sincerity of its author.
David de las Heras has a degree in Fine Arts from the University of the Basque Country, and graduated from the Illustration cycle at the Escola Massana in Barcelona. His work as a painter has been exhibited in different European countries as well as in galleries in many cities around the country. As an illustrator he has published several books, together with the texts of Arianna Squilloni or recently illustrating the book of the writer Julio Llamazares Atllas de la España imaginaria. He has also specialized in book covers, among all of them the cover he made for Instrumental by the pianist James Rhodes and the cover awarded as the best of 2015 in the Junceda awards for the book Kalimán en Jericó by Àngel Burgas. His work has also been published in newspapers such as El País, in the cultural supplement of ABC, and on several covers of El País Semanal.