In an era where superheroes and comic books are seeing a rise in popularity, artists like Gabriel Picolo are getting the visibility they deserve. Originally from San Paulo, Brazil, the twenty-something artist gained fame in 2014 when he doodled everyday for a year. His project “365 Days of Doodles” can be seen here on his DeviantArt account.
Gabriel Picolo went on to win the DeviantArt award in 2016 for his strong community presence. The project encouraged him to make each drawing better than the last, promoting that essential practice every artist needs. In addition to sketches with pens, he paints with watercolor. His colors are clean and crisp, which clearly reflect the comic book style. His Moleskine sketchbooks also serve as templates for his digital art.
Birthed from the year-long doodle project, Picolo started his own webcomic titled Icarus and the Sun. The story centers on two characters who fall impossibly in love. It is based on the iconic Greek story of Icarus, whose wings of feathers and wax brought him too close to the sun. This exquisite story plays out in 30 pages of spectacular artwork all written and illustrated by Picolo. The book is available now for purchase here. Though it has been completed, there is chatter around the continuation of the series beyond the book. Another project Picolo has picked up is based on the zodiac signs entitled The Zodiac Archers. These lovely illustrations generously display his artistic abilities.
Picolo has also been working with DC to illustrate a book. He has teamed up with writer Kami Garcia to re-imagine an origin story for the character Raven from the comic line The Teen Titans. His playful style brings a lot of light to a normally dark character. Showing up on his websites, one can see several of tutorials and time-lapse videos of the artist at work.
Additionally, the young Brazilian is a huge fan of Studio Ghibli films. Picolo’s influence from those and other movies can be seen in his fan art. He covers DC, Studio Ghibli, Disney, Spiderman, Harry Potter, Pokémon and even some fan art from the Netflix series Stranger Things. The video game giant Blizzard even commissioned him to do artwork for one of their games. Looking at his work, it is no wonder why he is such a sought-after artist.
