Influence map

I wanted so much to do this too

1) Even omitting every other movie/novel etc, I could’t keep Quo Vadis out. I first watched it when I was 11 and still I re-watch it every year. I know dialogues almost by heart. Petronius’ and Eunice’s love story influenced me forever.

2) Severino Baraldi illustrated many fairy tales I loved as a child. He uses to freeze actions in angular/curved lines, which I think is something I try to reproduce while illustrating. Baraldi also used a peculiar technique mixing oil pastels with acrylics (I suppose).

3) Well, what to say. I am so lucky that I will be attending a masterclass with Craig Thompson in Florida in October. He is an inking god for me, along with Bluch.

4) Rak & Scop (~alessandrorak and *scoppetta) taught me so many things I can’t count them. I owe them so much.

5) There are many things you can extract from Inoue Takehiko: faces, inks, construction of the story. Or just enjoying when he adds little SD to his pages

6) Graham Turner is one of the main illustrators of Ospreys military books, that are one of my usual references in period drawings. Turner is also a renowned Ricardian, which doesn’t harm His website is www.studio88.co.uk.

7) I kneel down before Gianni De Luca. His style is exquisite, and he too plays with angles, curves and rigidity. His comic version of Stevenson’s The Black Arrow made me discover the figure of Richard III. But his masterpiece are probably his Shakesperean comics, where his cinematographical vision reaches its peak.

8) Piero Cattaneo is another reference from my childhood. He illustrated many abridged versions of great classics, with gleaming gouaches and watercolours. Here an illustration from “The knights of the Round Table”.

9) Unknown illustrator of the abridged version of Jean Plaidy’s The Reluctant Queen for Penguin Readers level 3. If you know who he/she is, please let me know. These illustrations started my interest for XV cent. fashion. Beautiful thin/thick inking.

10) You can possibly find something of Ikeda Riyoko in my profiles. She is a queen of interwoven storytelling and one of the best in mixing history and fiction in her manga.

11) Samura Hiroaki is one of the race of the unreachables. I’m in awe of his anatomy (especially his hands and chests) and his angled perspectives. Sometimes my noses (in pencils) remind of his.

12) The portrait of Francesco I d’Este, duke of Modena, by Velázquez. I keep a postcard of it behind my desk at home. I saw this painting live during an exhibition and found it incredible. All facial brushstrokes depart from the nose and then go toward cheeks and brow. The sash is but a wash of red. And yet it seems so simple. Amazing.

13) Preraphaelites are always a source of inspiration for me. In Waterhouse’s skins you can always see blood and muscles running below the epidermis.

14) If I had to choose but one artist I met on deviantART who inspires me, that would be *Himmapaan. No secret that his illustrations verge on perfection.

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