Digital
Digital Painting
Illustration
Isabel Lauren Loewe
'This is Where I Want to Be', 2025
For a certain period, Nina was drawing other people's characters. Fanart moves on social media and if you're building a following from scratch, it's a reasonable trade. The problem was that it kept giving her creative blocks. The more she drew for the algorithm, the less she had to say. At some point the calculation stopped making sense, and she started building something that was entirely hers.
Puri Puri Exitium began with three moodboards, each representing a different aesthetic she loved. Characters came out of those boards: Bonbon, Eden, and Coil, each with their own visual identity and personality, their own place in a world with lore behind it. What she didn't expect was how quickly people responded. The characters gained traction before anyone knew the backstory. The visual coherence was enough on its own.
That instinct, to build something with enough internal logic that it doesn't need explaining, runs through how Nina works. She started posting in 2015, spent years developing her practice in public, and in 2023 made the decision to archive almost everything and start over. The rebrand came through Inktober, a month of daily drawings in a completely new direction. What came out of it was the work she's known for now: dense with reference, rooted in early 2000s Japanese visual culture and old comic strips, and built around characters that feel like they've existed longer than they have.
How did you first get into making art?
I’ve always been passionate since I was a kid. My mom and my sister taught me a lot and overall my family always supported my love for art.
Do you see yourself as an illustrator, a designer, or a creator?
I call myself a creative factotum or a visual artist. I find it hard to label myself because I do many different things and I’m always eager to try new ones!
When did you decide this was something you wanted to pursue seriously?
I was coming home from my office work one day and felt like I lost my direction. I wasn't doing much art back then but people surrounding me already knew what they wanted to be. I felt like I was giving up the only thing that felt mine. After a few months, I decided to quit my job and pursue illustration.
What does a typical working session look like for you?
It really depends, everyday is different and carries different tasks, sometimes I would be filming content the whole day long, sometimes I would be sketching ideas, sometimes I would be set on a single illustration and other times I’ll be rushing the delivery of some design project! But I’m happy like that!
What tools do you work with most?
I always use procreate for my Illustrations, I would like to paint more in the future.
Your work seems to mix and mash a ton of different styles. What would you say makes it feel that way?
It’s the best way to create something unique, the more ingredients you use the more complex the taste will be. I love when people get my hidden references and easter eggs!
How would you describe your visual aesthetic to someone who's never seen your work?
I would say old comic strips combining with Japanese 2000’s culture.
Do you take inspiration from things outside of illustration/design? If so, what's a memorable example?
I constantly take pictures everywhere I go and often use them as references, I really like to observe architecture and nature.
Is there a specific era, medium, or visual world you keep returning to when you're looking for references?I really love 2000’s magazines, advertising, fashion, photography, and tech.
'Eden, Member of the Puri Puri Exitium team', 2026
Are there other artists whose work you find yourself coming back to?
I’m a big fan of Aya Takano, I think it’s easy to tell!
Tell us about Puri Puri Exitium. Where did that world come from?
I wanted to create characters that were mine, I came from a period of drawing fanarts to get reach on social media and I really hated it. It’s good to do them every once in a while but it wasn’t inspiring me anymore and actually got me into artblocks frequently.
How did Bonbon, Eden, and Coil each develop as characters? Did their personalities come first, or their visuals?
I made moodboards first, with three very different aesthetics that I liked a lot. Personality came along, then I refined their visuals.
Was building a whole original IP always part of the plan, or did PPE grow into something bigger than you expected?
I felt like I needed it in order to get back to creating with joy, I wasn’t expecting people would understand immediately but the girls were received super well from the start! Even without knowing the “lore” behind them!
You've made holy cards, DTYS challenges, merchandise, and even brought the characters into travel photos. What does it feel like to watch a world you created take on that kind of life?
I’m happy to have this project going and evolving, I’m now realizing how natural it is for me to draw them! and I also feel like a lot of artists are actually doing the same with their own characters and it’s so nice to see!
'Bonbon, Member of the Puri Puri Exitium team', 2026
Does your work usually come out how you saw it in your head?
More or less, sometimes it comes out better, sometimes worse! And that’s ok!
Can you describe the feeling you get when you make something you love?
I’m just excited to show it to people!
Is there a piece you've made that feels like a turning point for you?
Not a single piece but my biggest turning point was my 2023 Inktober for sure.
What's something you've tried in your work that didn't land the way you expected?
Many things actually, that’s why I changed my style so many times!
How has your style changed since you first started sharing work publicly?
I was very tired with my old style and I did a complete “rebranding” in 2023 with my Inktober, I wanted to start fresh with something completely different from what I used to do. And I archived most of my old posts for this reason. I’ve been posting my art since 2015 but only now I see people actually engaged with it!
How do you deal with artistic hurdles or struggles?
I just take breaks, I don’t care about forcing things. I still get a little bit anxious when I stop drawing but I learned that’s just a phase and that I will always go back to it when I’m ready. I spend my time doing other activities and hobbies to recharge.
You take on commissions alongside your personal work. How do you balance the two?
I’m actually very selective on drawing commissions because I easily get overwhelmed, my creative process is often fragile and for this reason I have to give myself breaks between one commission and another.
What's the hardest kind of commission or brief to execute?
When I have total freedom. I prefer having limits, rules and directions, it makes me design better!
You recently hit 10k followers on Instagram. What does a milestone like that mean to you? What do you qualify as success with your art?
It’s crazy to think about it, I never thought I could accomplish something like that. I would like to show it to my younger self, I want to make her proud, that’s what I call a big success.
You post in both Italian and English. Does the language you're writing in change how you talk about your work?
I feel like it doesn’t change much, even though Italian is always better being my native language, it feels more natural.
What role does community play in your practice? Things like DTYSs, fan engagement, and collaboration?
It really makes me excited! I especially love seeing DTYS entries, seeing people spending time drawing my characters. It's crazy and fills my heart!
Do you think about what your work is communicating, or is the process more instinctive?
I see pictures and images in my head and go with the flow, I think about how it might be perceived while I’m making it but once I start I just keep going.
What's something about how you work that might surprise people?
I’m a big procrastinator and often do things at the last minute, it works a lot better under pressure anyways!
Has living in Italy, visually or culturally, shaped your work in ways you can point to?
I think Italy is an amazing country, built on the desire to create beautiful things. There’s art anywhere and I was lucky my family taught me to look at things with the right eye. Knowing and learning about all of these things makes you want to respect and nurture them. Unfortunately there are also plenty of flaws but I feel like they often come from a systemic lack of knowledge and respect.
'Coil, Member of Puri Puri Exitium team', 2026
What's the most ambitious future project you might take on?
I would love to make a new book about Puri Puri Exitium and to teach more about what I do.
What do you want Puri Puri Exitium to become?
A comic series! Hopefully!
What would you want someone to take away from your work?
Social planning, bureaucracy and cold mailing for collaborations!
Nina measures success by one specific standard: whether she'd be able to show it to her younger self. The girl who started posting in 2015, working through styles that didn't quite fit, drawing other people's characters to stay visible. The 10k milestone meant something because of the distance between then and now, and because of how much was deliberately left behind to get there. Most of those old posts are archived. The work that exists publicly now is the work that came after she decided to start over.
What she kept was the part that was always hers. The 2000s magazines and Japanese visual culture she kept returning to, the references and easter eggs she builds into every piece. Puri Puri Exitium came from needing to create with joy again, after a period where the work had stopped feeling like hers. Bonbon, Eden, and Coil landed immediately, received well before anyone knew the lore behind them. The audience found something to hold onto before they had a reason to, which says something about the clarity of what she built. That kind of coherence takes longer to develop than a following, and Nina knew it was the only thing worth building toward.
