Our 33rd Artist Feature takes us to the classy country of Italy. Andrea took a different path to his art focusing from the technical to the creative. Without repeating our interview, enjoy a process video of Andrea displaying how the art is created, then read our discussion below….

STAMP: INTRODUCE YOURSELF. WHERE ARE YOU FROM AND WHAT IS SOMETHING YOU WANT THE WORLD TO KNOW ABOUT YOU?
Andrea: My name is Andrea, I live and work in Turin, Italy. I am a digital illustrator and painter, and now I have a extensive experience on the image editing. I make work for advertising, publishing and private commissions.

STAMP: WHEN DID YOU BECOME INTERESTED IN ART?
Andrea: Shapes and colors have always been in my mind from what I remember, since I was a kid I always loved drawing and painting, it was the way to free my imagination, feeded first of all by comics, books, animation movies, but at obligatory school not loved so much art history, it was boring me, preferring to do than to read and study.
Then growing up this feeling is changed, now I think is very interesting understand why and how an artwork is thought and created.

STAMP: WHAT IS YOUR MEDIUM OF CHOICE AND WHY?
Andrea: At the beginning I used traditional media of course, such as pencil, colored pencils, markers, acrylic, airbrush, often used all together with good results, but it was a long and laborious process. Then when the computer entered my life, I quickly realized that if I wanted to improve my productivity and the quality of my work, I should have to work digitally. The goal was to get the same results I used to get on paper, and then improve. It took me some time by myself, but when I finally succeeded, I have never come back. Today I work almost exclusively with photoshop and I think I’m an illustrator and digital painter better than I was with traditional techniques.
Watercolors apart. I think this is the most difficult to medium to render digitally. I love watercolors and I was also rather good, sometimes I would go back to paint with this technique, but they are many years that I don’t do it anymore, the digital absorbs me completely, a so powerful tool that truly offers enormous potential.

STAMP: DID YOU STUDY AT AN ART SCHOOL? IF SO WHICH ONE AND HOW WAS THAT EXPERIENCE? IF NOT, DO YOU WISH YOU DID?
Andrea: Unfortunately, my path of growing and studying was not straightforward but winding and uphill, result of bad decisions and wrong choices of life. Therefore I do not have a real artistic training. I attended a technical school that I did not like it, then I studied illustration at an art school where I learned the basics of traditional techniques (but not computer graphis, that in the first half of the nineties was just at the beginning). After that I worked for years in information technology. In any case I really never stopped drawing and to be an artist in my mind. I learned to use digital as self-taught, trial and error, and by studying books and video tutorials of other artists. If I start today again everything would probably be completely different and easier.

STAMP: HOW WERE YOU ABLE TO TAKE YOUR LOVE FOR ART AND MAKE IT INTO A CAREER?
Andrea: You must have so much determination and quality. Never give up and produce great artworks. The quality is your best business card. Even so you’re only half way because in fact not less important are relationships, contacts and self promotion. It takes time to build its own network and often it is an harder work than to draw or paint.

STAMP: YOU HAVE A VERY RECOGNIZABLE STYLE. DO YOU FIND IT CHALLENGING TO INFUSE THIS SIGNATURE LOOK WITH YOUR DIVERSE RANGE OF CLIENTS?
Andrea: I do not know if I have a very recognizable style, and do not even know whether it is really an advantage. If you work for the advertising and publishing industries, or even private clients with specific needs, may be useful to be able to adapt to any style required, in such cases the buyer leads. If it is a work of art already made in my opinion, the question does not arise, if customer likes you sell it. In the end, beauty is subjective, so is not beautiful what is beautiful but what it likes.

STAMP: HAVE YOU EVER FELT LIMITED OR TRAPPED BY YOUR STYLE?
Andrea: Yes, it happens, not really by the style but by ability and skills. I mean, sometimes when I have a good idea to turn in a new artwork, I image it as something absolutely extraordinary. This in my mind, in reality I have to deal with my talent, the way I use it and the knowledge of tools to express it, the result is almost always a compromise between these two extremes, the idea and its realization.

STAMP: CAN YOU REMEMBER THE FIRST PIECE YOU EVER DID AND WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO DO IT?
Andrea: Not realy to tell the true. I think I can remeber the most of the signs I made on paper or on my graphic tablet, in my adult life and often even before, but not the real first one, I was just a few years baby.

STAMP: CAN YOU TELL ANY INTERESTING STORIES ABOUT SPECIFIC PIECES, ARTISTS, OR PROJECTS THAT YOUíVE WORKED ON?
Andrea: I can tell about the Sunk World works. They are probably the most famous and appreciated artworks of mine such as many people asked me a lot of times the source of this idea. In the second half of the nineties, by accident in a bookshop I remain captivated by the cover of a book, Exploring the Lusitania by Robert D. Ballard, an amazing image of the wreck of the ship. Now I can say that this fact has changed my artistic career. I bought that book and then many others similar, discovering among other things, that Ken Marschall is really a great painter, author of the most beautiful paintings on the subject, but best known for his works on Titanic. From that moment I begin to redraw in fact, some of his finest subjects, paying attention to make them a little bit different, avoid the bathyscaphe with which he uses to put the spotlight in his paintings (TitanicProw.jpg and Lusitania.jpg). Some time later I presents the opportunity to participate in Piedmont Baloon ’97, a free theme contest with the sole proviso that the works must have a connection to my region, the Piedmont in the north west, one of five regions not wet from the sea of Italy. So the idea was to represent the symbols of my city, Turin, like wrecks at sea. I won the contest, but mainly it was fun to create this type of images. Over time I worked a lot to improve these works and raise my skills, in fact this led me from traditional to digital tecniques.

STAMP: WHEN A CLIENTS APPROACHES YOU FOR A PROJECT, WHAT FACTORS, ENTER INTO YOUR DECISION TO TAKE IT (BESIDES MONEY)?
Andrea: Money is always a good reason to accept a job, but not the only one, there are other variables, such as whether if it is right for me, for my capabilities and skills, who is the client, the subject matter, the visibility and therefore the possibility that it brings me to future other opportunities, and not least the delivery time.

STAMP: ARE THERE ANY CLIENTS YOU WISH TO WORK WITH, THAT YOU HAVEN’T ALREADY?
Andrea: Sure, a lot, it’s full of big and rich companies out there, such as of galleries and art collectors.

STAMP: WHAT HAVE BEEN YOUR FAVORITE PROJECTS TO WORK ON TO DATE? WHY?
Andrea: My favorite project is the creation of the work of the Sunk World, project far from finished, even so much remains to be done. It is an idea that lends itself to many developments and I think it has great potential, yet to be discovered. I think to a dedicated website, to publications, to a stable insertion in the circuit of art galleries, and more. Because as I said before, first of all I like to create this kind of pieces, suggestive and evocative, with the sea and its colors, among my favorites; it allows me freedom of expression and research, balanced between fantasy and science fiction. Like the reaction of people facing their daily living reality in an altered defamiliarization, it is very rewarding and satisfying, one more reason to continue. More recently, however I am also start to paint portraits and caricatures.

STAMP: WHAT ARE YOUR CHALLENGES AS AN ARTIST?
Andrea: I think the challenge is to continue to amaze and excite with my images, and I would try to make it with fun.

STAMP: HAVE YOU EVER SHOWN IN GALLERIES? IF SO, WHAT WAS THE EXPERIENCE LIKE? IF NOT, HOW COME?
Andrea: The art world is very attractive but also difficult and often expensive. Have to spend for the critics, for publications, for exhibition in galleries. If you have time and especially money to invest, you can build a path, a career as a professional artist. But I think the proper way to make art is to not ask for money to artists but to stand on an equal level, and share half the profits on sales between gallery owner and artist. I have shown in few small galleries and has been an interesting experience, great feeling with people’s feedback, so if I can, I would like to be able to get space in even more important galleries; even if it is difficult to find serious art dealers who want to invest promoting new artists, especially digital, no one wants to risk anything, when passion gives way only to money, in the end it is just business.

STAMP: HAVE YOU EVER CREATED AN AMAZING PIECE BY MISTAKE?
Andrea: Really by mistake not, I don’t think so, usually I meditate a lot about my work and how to realize it to the best of my ability. Maybe so however, experimenting, trying solutions that normally do not would use. Or sometimes, if I’m very indecisive about a work and I can finally stop thinking and start to draw and paint, without worrying over the result, and perhaps because of it, the piece can be really appreciable.

STAMP: WHAT ROLE DO YOU FEEL THE INTERNET HAS ON ART? POSITIVE OR NEGATIVE?
Andrea: Positive or negative is the use made of available tools, internet is a revolution that has changed the world. For me of course her role is very, very positive. Allows visibility, contacts and opportunities that were previously unthinkable, not least making this interview possible.

STAMP: DO U FEEL LIKE YOUR WORK IS EVOLVING.
Andrea: Life is movement, only inanimate things remain basically unchanged. Around us, everything changes and this is reflected to some extent on people and on what they do and how they do it. Such as the way to draw and paint is influenced by many factors, certainly is not a linear or constant process, but there is. Sometimes they can also be little things, maybe to learn a different technique or tool, the use of new a particular brush, can lead to produce different works or with different look. This is especially evident when you watch a some time ago artwork, hardly will not find details that we do not like anymore, things that today we would make more or differently or better. This means that we are perhaps better but certainly changed, that our tastes have changed, our aesthetic sense, our ideas. Sure even my work evolves to little by little, inevitably.

STAMP: WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE A YOUNG ARTIST JUST STARTING OR TRYING TO GET STARTED?
Andrea: Good question, difficult to answer. The way of an artist is almost never easy but often is a hard path, so it takes great passion, determination and desire to always improve, not only, as in all things planning with method is crucial, set their own targets. One aspect is as important as undervalued, but before you understand this and begin, and better it is.

STAMP: WHAT CAN WE EXPECT IN THE FUTURE FROM YOU?
Andrea: I expect to continue to improve professionally, further on increase my visibility and thus to work more and better, and not least make more money that never hurts.

STAMP: DO YOU AGREE WITH THE OVERALL OBJECTIVE OF STAMP MAGAZINE? WHY OR WHY NOT?
Andrea: Yes, absolutely! I appreciate very much who is working to provide a quality space for artists, excellent opportunity to increase the visibility. Thanks a lot.

See more of Andrea on the web: http://www.agatti.com and http://www.digitalportraits.biz