Oriol Hernandez - Spain

Oriol Hernandez Sanchez is a Spanish illustrator and comic artist. Signing his work as “Oriol”, he is a frequent collaborator with prolific author, Zidrou, and the proud recipient of the Barcelona International Comic Revelation Prize.
Oriol was born in Terrassa, Barcelona, in 1983. He studied at the Escola Joso until 2002. There he met Miki Montllo, Oriol Perez and Aleix Valldeperas. After graduating, he worked in illustration, advertising and animation. He did a two-years stint at Filmax Animation, where he worked on Donkey Xote (2007) and Nocturna (2007). Oriol also went back to Escola Joso to teach a digital illustration course.
His first professional comic job was Maman Noel, a short story in the album Joyeuses nouvelles pour petits et grands enfants adultes. It was written by Zidrou and published by Dupuis.
In 2010 he collaboration with Zidrou again on his first full album, La Peau de l’Ours. Published in 2012 by Dargaud, it was exceptionally well received and due to Oriol’s expressive style was nominated for the “Ouest-France” award. Oriol and Zidrou worked together again on Les 3 Fruits, published last year by Dargaud.
Zidrou’s and Oriol’s latest work is titled Natures Mortes. It is set in 1899, Barcelona, and will be out march 2017.
Oriol has a great ability to capturing moments that reader can relate to, enriching the story. He creates atmospheric scenes by using foreboding shadows, strong contrasting colours and exaggerated angles. His recent work is set during the Impressionist movement and borrows from the art style of the period. From what I have seen so far, each panel is a mini-masterpiece and Natures Mortes is shaping up to be one of the most impressive comics ever created.