What can I say about Gabriel Picolo? According to his Patreon site, he’s only 21 years old, a freelance illustrator based in São Paulo, Brazil, loves drinking coffee and draws black kitties every day. So that’s that…
Now to the good stuff and I mean the really good stuff. In 2014, Gabriel Picolo began a project called “365 days of doodles”. The goal was to create a drawing a day for the whole year. I assume he accomplished this as I only started following his work at the beginning of 2015. Since then he has amassed over 170,000 followers on Instagram and over 75,000 likes on Facebook but forget the stats, even if he only had a dozen followers and likes on social media, I’d still be putting him in my Artist Spotlight. Why? Because his art is nothing short of magic. He draws much of his inspiration from creative pantheons such as Studio Ghibli (and other anime), Disney and Harry Potter. His attention to detail, expression, movement and colour is astounding and he captures most (if not all) of his art in what appears to be a small artist notebook.
If you’re seeking for inspiration then this guy has it in spades. He conveys a dream like connection in every illustration. There is so much to look at and admire from his drawings of Miyazaki’s Totoro, Disney’s Jungle Book & Peter Pan, J.K.Rowling’s Hermoine making Polyjuice Potion and slightly more abstract wonders such “Paint at Sea” and “Melt My Heart”. His doodles are not just doodles, they are works of art!
After his “365 days of doodles” project in 2014, Gabriel stepped it up in 2015 with the idea of “The Palette Project”. Prior to this year, he concentrated primarily on black and white illustrations and this year wanted to examine colours. He did this by focusing on the seven colours of the rainbow and drawing incredible pictures that focused on one of these colours each month. What then transpired was something extraordinary.
February was RED. Check out “The Colour of Love” and “Strawberry Avalanche”
March was ORANGE. Check out “Merida” and “The Waters of March”.
April was YELLOW. Check out “Slumber” and “Golden Snitch”.
May was GREEN. Check out “Clearing” and “Garden Head”.
June was BLUE. Check out “Undersea” and “Stormy Weather”.
July was INDIGO. Check out “Lost in Wonderland” and “Ghost”.
August was VIOLET. Check out “The Colour of Magic” and “Amethyst”.
At the end of this journey, Gabriel posted “Overflowing with Colors”, an illustration combining all the colours he used.
Sharing his gift to the masses, Gabriel has brought light to the world. I feel my words can’t really do justice to what he has accomplished in two short years. In fact one of his illustrations best describes how my mind races when I examine his impressive scope of work, you’ll understand once you look at his piece – “All The Things Unsaid”.
Given I am always looking to explore the spark with words and art and my own ongoing efforts to write fiction that will inspire others, I wish to extend a heartfelt thank you to Mr. Picolo for taking me on his incredible journey so far and I can’t wait to see how his next chapter unfolds.
If you want to continue encouraging Gabriel, you can support his efforts at his Patreon site.
Until next time, be inspired everyone!
JCEnno 