Elena Boils is a Mexican illustrator and visual artist based in London. Combining digital and hand-created imagery, her work explores the space between observation and imagination, with color and simple arrangements of objects at the heart of her visual language.

Hi Elena! So happy to have you here. First things first - where are you right now and what have you been up to lately? Anything you’re particularly excited about right now?

I'm currently in London, have been working most of the summer on commercial projects but am now getting ready to get on with some personal work that I've been meaning to start for ages. I'm excited about making a series of prints and paintings I've been trying to get  to all summer.

You split your time between London and Mexico City, two places with very different energies. What do you love about each?

I love London in the Summer, you can really feel the energy change around April and the city transforms itself. I love that in London there is always somewhere new to go and see. Saying that, Mexico City is my hometown and if I spend too much time away I get desperately homesick for the food, the vibe, the people.

Your illustrations often take very ordinary things – flowers, food, objects, buildings – and make them feel a little stranger or more playful. Do you think you naturally see everyday life that way too?

Definitely, I love finding little scenes and moments in mundane situations that seem staged and cinematic in an aesthetic way. I look out for objects placed in absurd situations both quite beautiful and funny. I've attached a photo of an example of a broom and a bin saving a parking space.

You work across illustration and animation. Does seeing your drawings start to move change your relationship with them at all?

It's more that if I know something is going to move I will think about this from the beginning and this affects the image in so much as the design is made with the motion in mind. I feel that when I make something that is still, I can have a bit more play and overlay as there is no worry about how this is going to play out later in motion.

You’ve worked on everything from a New York Times cover and Bon Appétit to animations for Chanel, Hermès and Aesop. When a brief lands in your inbox, what makes you immediately think, “Oh, this is going to be fun”?

I really like when a brief has a concise starting point but allows for creative freedom and exploration. It's hard to know how a project is going to develop but most things are really exciting when they land.

And on the other side of that – what do you do when you have absolutely no idea what to make?

Sometimes when there is absolute freedom I find it really hard to find a starting point but usually the best way to combat this is to go outside and look at buildings and things.

I’m wondering if you have any little rules for yourself when you’re working? And are you good at breaking them?

I wouldn't call them rules but definitely a process. I usually like knowing the colours before I've thought of the composition. This has always been a starting point, even if at a later stage they change. I  feel like I need to know the tones that the image is going to have from the start to get me going.

What does your workspace look like on a very normal, unfiltered day? We’d love a photo!

My studio is under an arch in Loughborough Junction in London and because I travel between London and Mexico for a very long time it was a bit monastic, I didn't have anything on the walls but I'm slowly decorating and making it feel more like a fun space with a bit more personality.

If the next year could bring you one really good surprise, what would you want it to be?

I would love to get a really unconventional brief, maybe something quite large scale in a context I've never worked on. I love making stuff that gets printed so working on an illustrated book or something like that.

Lastly, what are you dreaming of these days?

I'm dreaming of a little break in nature. I've been in the city all Summer and though it has been lovely in its own way, I'm craving a real stint in a more rural setting.