Tell a little bit about how you first got into creating art.
I had the passion for art since I was very young. I've never had a period of my life where I stopped drawing and creating art. Also, I remember exactly that in high school I decided that comics and illustrations were the best art form for expressing myself. Because I wanted to meet people with the same passion, I decided to study in two different Academies of Art.
I got my Bachelor Degree in Italy, and my Master Degree in the US.
During my studies, I also explored different art mediums and techniques. In fact, I had experience with traditional painting, sculpting, and printmaking.
My goal is to convey a sense of grime and corruption
What artists or movements have had an impact on you?
Comic book artists and illustrators have had an impact on me. I don't want to make a list of them because it would be very long. But I can say that I love a wide range of artists from Underground Comics and Japanese Manga to horror and fantasy illustrations. Also, many traditional painters, sculptors, and visual artist have had a huge impact on me.
I work both from memory and photographs, but for the most part I combine the two methods
What is important to you about the visual experiences you create?
The subjects that I represent are most degraded and dirty environments, inhabited by monstrous and grotesque figures. My goal is to convey a sense of grime and corruption. For achieving this goal, in my illustrations I paint unnatural color, light and many texture layers.
Do you work from memory, life, photographs, or from other resources? Describe your creative process.
I work both from memory and photographs, but for the most part I combine the two methods. My creative process depends on the medium that I'm working on. For example, if I'm creating a comics page or an illustration, I start sketching my ideas on paper. When I'm satisfied with my sketch, I start the final artwork.
Sometimes I create everything from memory, but in many cases I draw the environment from a photo reference. I don't reproduce the photo reference exactly as it is, instead I use it for my background, and I add from memory characters or other details in the scene. In this phase of my artistic career, the artworks are created with a similar process. I use a mix of traditional and digital techniques. The illustrations are drawn by hand on paper. After, I ink the drawings traditionally with brushes and other tools. For the color base and texture, I use acrylic paint in a different paper or panel. The drawing and the acrylic paint are combined together with Photoshop, and finally I overpaint everything digitally.
Do you have any artistic goals for the future that you would like to share?
Yes. Currently I'm working on a big graphic novel project about a cannibal uprising in Bologna, Italy. I have exaggerated every element of the story. In fact, the city is dominated by drugs and social decay. This dystopic environment is populated by homeless, drug addicts, corrupted politician and secret societies. It is the perfect place for a social catastrophe. At the same time, I'm working on an illustration project that depicts a series of abandoned places, vehicles and objects, from different parts of the world. Every illustration has a different scene, a peculiar color scheme and a particular format.
