The world is wonderful even if you’re short. And sometimes especially because you’re short. That’s one of the things that you see in Three Under the Rain’s wholesome and heart-warming Perks of Being Short illustrations.
Illustrator Brisa, who stands at a mighty 152 cm (nearly 5 feet), told Bored Panda what her most favorite perk is: “I love hearing my fiance’s heartbeat when I hug him, but I think that always having legroom, especially in trains, planes or back car seats, is way a better perk.”
Scroll down for the rest of our in-depth interview with Three Under the Rain’s artist Brisa about the Perks of Being Short, her cute drawings, and her advice for budding new artists. Remember to leave us a comment on which of the perks you love the most!
Brisa does cartoon drawings about her daily life with “the man of her life” Joan and their labrador Marly. She uploaded her very first single-panel comic to Instagram in September 2017. Since then, she’s become well-known and now has over 285k followers.
Bored Panda was incredibly interested to find out what inspired the artist to come up with the Perks of Being Short comic series. “I started with the series Short People Problems since I thought it would be fun to laugh a bit about the small daily struggles that short people have to face. They were super well-received, but in the comments, there were always people saying how they didn’t like being short, or how that made them feel less confident or feel that being a short person is a problem itself.”
“Now in my late twenties, I’m totally fine with my height of 152 cm, it’s who I am, and I like it, but there was a time when that was not like that,” she said. “So I thought it could be great to make a parallel series, focused on the perks that being below average height have.”
“My intention with all that was to show that, being short is not bad or good, it just has its own pros and cons, like any other stature. And I never could have thought of the great reception these cute comics had, a lot of people liked them, so why not keep going?”
We also enquired about Brisa’s path as an artist. “I haven’t even thought of myself as an artist. I always liked drawing, but it wasn’t even a thing until I started Three Under the Rain. I used to just doodle in all my high school and college notes. Then I started thinking about making small comic strips about our daily life, and after about a year of having it in mind, I just decided to start doing it and shared my drawings on Instagram since the very first day.”
“I think that this was a key factor in me still doing this two years later. I received a lot of feedback and encouragement sharing my creative ideas online and that’s what made me be regular in drawing and motivated me to keep creating, and therefore what really made me improve.”
She continued: “I've always liked art, in fact, when I feel a bit overwhelmed by the Three Under the Rain posts, instead of taking a break from drawing, what I do is just draw other stuff, in a different style, and then I feel recharged to go back to the comic.”
“And most of all, every time somebody sends me a message telling me how much they relate to my posts, how my posts cheer them up, or how much they like sharing them with their loved ones... just knowing that I can make some people happier with my work, is what really keeps me passionate about the comic.”
According to the illustrator of Three Under the Rain, people who want to become artists should “just do it, start, don’t wait for the best time, because it doesn’t exist.”
“And then find what motivates you to keep learning and improving.”
She also gave a shoutout to all of her loyal fans: “I’d finally like to thank all my followers for their support and love, you guys are the ones who made this possible.”
Here's what some people thought when they saw the illustrations
