Miss January

Il post in italiano lo trovate qui


"Hello,

Congratulations! We’re very pleased to announce that Neil has chosen your artwork as one of his runners-up for the month of January."

Those 24 words are the beginning of an e.mail I got on March 22nd from BlackBerry Keep Moving Team; those 24 words almost  caused me an heart attack.

Let's explain what did happen: some months ago I was dicking around on deviantart.com as I often use to, and, in my message box, I spot an adv for a BlackBerry contest.  I've a looser attitude I know it and I'm trying to fight against this point of my character but it's still very rare I read this kind of advertising till the end; I use to stop within 5 lines: the good time to make me persuaded I'm not able to take part to the contest or I'm not really interested in. This time something make me read the advertisment till the end and that thing was the name Neil Gaiman clearly visible in the headline (that and the fact the text was quite short).

Shortly the adv explained mr Gaiman wrote 12 short stories, one for every month, basing on some tweets he himself had chosen in a previous part of the contest, and he was inviting whoever to illustrate them. All you had to do was to dawnload the short-stories, read them, pick-up one of them, make an illustration and upload it on the dedicated web page; then it will be up to Gaiman to choose his favourite ones to be featured in the digital A Calendar of Tales.

Now, I'm not an absolute lover of every Gaiman's work (let's say I even don't like some of his works), but Neil Gaiman was the one who taught me to look to comic books using completely dofferent eyes (it's not I become a Corinthian stealing people's eyes anyway),  some of his works went along with me during those complicate, absurd years that are between childhood and being an adult and sometimes, when I look behind my shoulders, I have to admit Sandman has been influencing my unconscious and my personal and career choices more than it's recommended for a comic series.

And, since it would be Neil himself the one to choose the illustrations, I hand the possibility to let the hero of my teenage know I do exist (yep you can have a lot of bizarre heroes during you teenage such as the Italian actor Bud Spender or the basketball player Dino Menegin and so on...). Neil Gaiman would watch my art work: perhaps he would like it, pheraps definitely not but I didn't care so much: HE WOULD WATCH MY ARTWORK; he would know that somewhere in the world there is FedZeppelin, that thing alone was a triumph.

So I downloaded the shortstories, printed them, read them all during one night (not a big deal really; they are very short), I loved some of them, I just liked some others and I just didn't like a couple of them; but I was very sure from the first moment I would make an art work based on January Tale. That wasn't my favourite one, the easier to illustrate neither but - I don't know why - it was the one which had a sort of correspondance in my mind, maybe because its asmosphere but is sounded sort of familiar to me.

I started work on a photomanipulation (you sow it at the top of this entry or, if you like - and please make me happy and  do this - on the project page here): I took photos, searched between my files, looked for the help of some friends of mine (and I use this entry to say thanks to them: Valberici who long long time ago gave me the X-ray of his damaged eye and Luca who use to assemble such beautiful dioramas that I use part of one of them for my version of the character of Twelve).
At the end of all this I sent my artwork.

When they sent to me the e.mail telling me Neil (writing just the name was an idea of them not mine) shortlisted my work for the final selection and asking me to send an higher resolution file my heart stopped beating for a moment and what I thought was (in this very order): "so that's what a mail of good news looks like!" (I'm such a collector of "We are sorry to..." shaped mail and know very very well how they look like) and "OMG! OMG! Gaiman saw an illustration of mine and he liked it! Whatever will happen I won! The hell what happens now!"

And then the things went better than I can expect: surprisingly, some days later, I found in my e.mail box the letter I wrote in the beginning of this entry and I had to wait till A Calendar of Tales was officially online to spread the news all over the world.

In the meanwhile I wrote this blog entry again and again and again in my mind looking for the better form to share with you all my happiness. That is a small victory against my bad attitudes and that gives me the strength to keep on working.

And if when I was 14 they told that to me I would never never believe this: Neil Gaiman chosen my artwork.

Death Is Just A Feeling

Some weeks ago, listening to this song I started to think to an illustration about a lich.

Now the work is still in progress: I finished my first step some days ago, then I sent the picture to my friend Sara, who's a very good artist too as you can see in her deviantart page, and she worked on the ink version.

Here there is the artwork at this point.

Next step will be the digital colour I'll do (I hope very very soon). Look forward for that.

Qualche settimana fa, ascoltando la canzone qui sopra ho iniziato a pensare a un'illustrazione che vedeva un lich come protagonista.

Ora sono ancora al lavoro: ho inito le matite qualche giorno fa e poi le ho mandate alla mia amica Sara che, come potete vedere dalla sua pagina su deviant, è anche una meravigliosa artista.

Ecco il risultato a questo punto.

La prossima mossa sarà la colorazione digitale. Restate sintonizzati.

Warriors from the mist

Made for my portfolio some months ago, ink and digital colour.

Fatta un po' di tempo fa per il mio book, china e colore digitale.

Don't Blink

Sorry I forgotten this blog for a while, but lot of things happened and I had no so much time to keep on uploading this blog. Now I'm back and I've a lot of arts to put on theese pages, so, here we start with two photomanipulations that are really good for this period.
This photomanipulations are inspired by the Weeping Angels from Doctor Who TV show and I did them mixing my usual stuff and some photos I took in my walking in Cemeteries all around Europe.

Hope you'll enjoy.

 

Scusatemi se sono sparita per un po', ma sono successe un sacco di cose e non ho avuto molto tempo per continuare ad aggiornare il blog. Eccomi di nuovo e ho un sacco di lavori da pubblicare su queste pagine. Cominciamo subito con due fotomanipolazioni che sono particolarmente a tema in questo periodo.

L'ispirazione viene dagli angeli piangenti del telefilm Doctor Who e sono fatti mischiando materiale vario e foto che ho fatto nelle mie passeggiate nei cimiteri europei.

Spero vi piacciano.

Don't turn your back, don't look away, and don't blink. Good luck.

Non ti girare, non distogliere lo sguardo, e non sbattere le palpebre. Buona fortuna!

Weeping Angels' Cemetery (digital colour)

wating for the hand colour a digital colour version / aspettando il colore a mano, una versione digitale:

Weeping Angels' Cemetery (scrap)

A sketch for a watercolour painting / uno schizzo in previsione di un acquerello

Beauty and the Steam step by step

Potete leggere questo stesso post in italiano qui.

Days ago my friend Tanabrus suggested I could draw a steampunk version for the classic fairytale Beauty and the Beast.

That's the result:

Now let's see how I did this (but remember: I've to thanks a lot Tanabrus for the original idea and for the pieces of advice he gave me during the whole work in progress).

Step 1: pencil draw

I tried to focuses on the principal points of the fairytale: the Beauty, the Beast and the rose. 

Since I decided I'll make this illustration I know I will make a threatenig Beast who looks at Belle who was watching the rose (ok it's a mess of a phrase, but hope you'll understand what I'm writing).

The rose most of all offered me some cues for the steampunk setting: it's in a glass jar and the jar is perfect to be connected with brass tubed and stuff...

In the first version Belle had a different outfit, but Tanabrus suggest I've to dress her up like the Disney's version to give instantly the idea of what we're illustrating. 

In this first version  the candlestick you can see on the right in the last version is missing. It's because I didn't draw it until Tanabrus suggested me to add a side character from the Disney's movie.

Step 2: cyan print

Using adobe photoshop I changed my draw in a cyan version and printed it so I could add ink and then scan it again without any track of pencil lines.

Step 3: ink

Put ink over an illustration is not just trace the pencil lines with the ink. I wanted the atmosphere around Belle and around the Beast to be different, so I choose to put heavy black shadow on the background in the Beast's area and almost no shadows in Belle's area, thinking maybe the rose will be spreading a little of light.

I'm still not so sure about this choice: Belle's look seems to be too 'weak', maybe I'll work again on this.

The jar and the rose's outlines are coloured: I did them with black ink and then used photoshop to change their colors to have a more glassy effect.

Step 4: flat colours

Now I had a inked draw, and I need to choose my colours. I tried to think to the steampunk typical colours (ocher, vermillion, dark green, copper, rust...) and the Disney's Beauty and the Beast ones at the same time.

I choose to paint the main characters' outfits similar to the Disney's ones.

I'd to pay attention when I choose the colours 'caure they're the colours which I'll work on: putting on shadows and shades, they've to be light ones but also give the idea of where I'll be go with the finishing touch.

Step 5: shadows

For the shadows I used a spray-like brush of photoshop which gives that pointed effect, I worked on several layers in multiply mode, and changed the opacity to obtain the shade I wanted.

The glass jar is on a different layer: I painted it grey-blue and lowered the opacity, then, on another layer I tracked some withe lines with a soft brush to give the idea of light.

As finishing touches I added some light-pink sparkles around the rose with a starry brush and a little of steam effect done on a different layer with a soft brush and light grey paint lowering a lot the opacity.

And at the moment that's all: I'm not really satisfied of Bella's face, I think I'll work again on it sooner or later.

Obviously this illustration is for Tanabrus :)

Another night at the court of the rabbit queen

The Wake Of Magellan

"  I believe what the prophets said

That the oceans hold their dead

But at night when the waves are near
 

They whisper

And I hear"

The Wake of Magellan - Savatage

Tiger, tiger

My last art-work in pantone, ink and wax crayons, inspired by the William Blake's poetry:

La mia ultima illustrazione: pantone, china e pastelli a cera, ispirata dalla poesia di William Blake:

Tiger! Tiger! burning bright 

in the forests of the night,

what immortal hand or eye

could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies

burnt the fire of thine eyes?

On what wings dare he aspire?

What the hand dare seize the fire?

And what shoulder, and what art,

could twist the sinews of thy heart?

And when thy heart began to beat,

What dread hand? and what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain?

In what furnace was thy brain?

What the anvil? What dread grasp

dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears,

and water'd heaven with their tears,

did he smile his work to see?

Did he who made the Lamb made thee?

Tiger! Tiger! burning bright

in the forests of the night,

what immortal hand or eye,

dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

Giraffa

So many artworks to upload and quite a little of time.

You can see a best-of of my latest artwork here. 

I'll publish them on this blog as soon as possible so don't worry if you can't speak Italian (I'm sorry I write my other blog in my own language, I uploaded a link to google translator anyway, so if you're interested in what I wrote about my art works you can use it).

In the meanwhile here there is a brand new artwork all in wax crayons:

Così tanti disegni da caricare e poco tempo.

Intanto potete vedere qui un best of dei miei ultimi lavori.

Li pubblicherò su questo blog al più presto, quindi non preoccupatevi se non leggete in italiano (ma se state leggendo questa parte non è un problema vostro).

Nel frattempo ecco la mia ultimissima creazione tutta in pastello a cera:

Tick, tack, rabbit

You can catch an idea for a work from almost anything: pictures, songs, movies, poetry...

This time I took my inspiration from a phrase in a radio show: Tick tack, rabbit. Tick. Tack.

Ok is not that they where talking about rabbits, but the words have been junping in my brain for days.

That is the result:

L'ispirazione per un nuovo lavoro può venire da qualunque cosa: immagini, canzoni, film, poesia...

Questa volta mi sono lasciata ispirare da una frase ascoltata in una trasmissione radio: Tick tack, rabbit. Tick. Tack.

Beh, non è che stessero parlando proprio di un coniglio, ma le parole sono rimaste a rimabalzarmi in testa per giorni.

Questo è il risultato:

There are two versions 'cause I'm not able to choose the better background color, if you've any suggest...

In due versioni perché non riesco a scegliere il colore di fondo più adatto, per cui se ci sono suggerimenti...

How can I catch an eating-socks monster?

Obviously with a fishing rod and a sock:

Being for the benefit of Mr.Kite...

... there will be a show tonight:

Steampunk chick

Pencil  /  matita

Ink  / inchiostro

Colour / colori

Baby dinoes

Honey I'm back home!!

La faccia della terra...

Till the end of the world...

Wedding board bookshelf

Yesterday, my friends Chiara and Marco got marrided.

For the dinner party they asked me a board which write names of tables and guests on. The theme of the party was: "books that man and wife love" so I managed to make the board looking like a bookshelf.

In the first photo you can see the original board before we wrote the name on.

I used waterpastels (Faber-Castle) but at the end I liked the result so I didn't use water and brush to watercolorize them.

In the second photo there is the board with all the names on; we decided to write them on common paper (printed by a computer printer) so we could correct the names at the last second, just in case guests would change their idea about coming or not.

Sorry for the low quality of the photos!!

Ieri i miei amici Chiara e Marco si sono sposati.

Per la cena mi avevano chiesto di realizzare un tabellone su cui scrivere i nomi dei tavoli e quelli degli invitati. Il tema della cena era 'i libri più amati dagli sposi' così ho disegnato il tabellone in modo che ricordasse uno scaffale di libri.

Nella prima foto potete vedere il lavoro originale, prima della scrittura dei nomi.

Per realizzarlo ho usato i pastelli acquerellabili (Faber Castle), ma, dato che alla fine mi piaceva il risultato così com'era, non li ho acquerellati.

Nella seconda foto c'è il tabellone completo dei nomi; li ho scritti su carta comune e stampati con la stampate del computer, così da poter apportare le solite, classiche correzioni dell'ultimo minuto dovute a conferme o defezioni inaspettate.

Scusate se le foto non sono gran che!