Illustrator Franz Lang draws your daily struggles

Franz Lang is an Italian illustrator currently working and living in London. “I always had a passion for drawing. My mother recalls from when I used to paint on the walls of our apartment and how I yelled ‘I want to be an artist!’,” Franz laughs. When studying at the Venice Academy of Fine Arts, Franz decided to attend an illustration course. “It was love at first sight.”

“I don’t really follow a process or a scheme,” Franz says of the work behind his bubbly, relatable drawings, which usually feature a female protagonist in a surreal setting, symbolising the struggles we all face, from depression to the pressures of social media, or sexual gratification in long distance relationships. “Sometimes a very strong idea comes and I can easily put it on paper (or computer) within a couple of hours," Franz explains. "Other times, instead, it takes days of sketching, trying and re-trying and drinking coffee (too much coffee) before I am happy with anything I draw. Nonetheless I would say everything starts from my sketchbook, that is always in my bag, wherever I go.”

Franz’ plant obsession occupies not only her work but her home. “It’s my own jungle,” she says. “I draw them, look after them and sometimes even talk to them. If it isn’t plants, it’s either faces, weird quirky animals or random shapes — and my sketchbooks are full of them.” Next up work-wise is “a couple of murals on two different houses” as well as a personal project which Franz says she “cannot wait to show”. “It will be a newly illustrated version of my favourite children’s book, the one my grandmother used to read to me (a very creepy one). It will be my Christmas present to my young twin cousins, if I can finish it on time for the print!”