Daniele Fabbri, a Rebelle Featured Artist and talented illustrator living in Modena, Italy took a moment to open up about his career, working in publishing and animation. Read about his favorite projects, future dreams, and how his son helps him with his book illustrations.
Daniele Fabbri is an Italian artist who studied illustration and animation at the IED in Milan. Since graduating in 2003, he worked in publishing and advertising. His illustrations accompanied ideas, packaging, backgrounds for animations, and illustrated books.
As soon as Daniele finished his studies, he collaborated on the creation of animations and backgrounds for an animated series broadcast on the main television channel RAI (Radio Italian Television) and continued his activity of making everything more "animated" even on paper by publishing and advertising.
Let's hear his story!
Hello Daniele, thank you for taking the time to answer our questions and provide a peek to your artistic life for all creatives reading these lines. Let's kick off this interview with a question about your workspace. If we visited your art studio, what tools would we find?
I don't have a real workstation that can be called a studio. Any place, where I take a notepad and a pencil, becomes a possible workplace for me. I often work from home but also in a space that I share with other artists here in Modena, the city where I live at.
You can always find books around me, illustrated by the authors I like, texts, brushes, and natural media, that I love, like watercolors and papers to be able to improvise a quick drawing. I always have luminous LED tablet to be able to trace the drawings, lots of pencils, markers and pastels of large calibers.
At the heart of all this, there is still room for my notebook and the graphics tablet. I take a tablet that works just as well when traveling.
The printer, on the other hand, follows me from one studio to another, but not always.
When creating children’s book illustrations, do you have a specific child in mind? Do you ask children in your family for feedback?
When I make an illustrated book for children with children as protagonists, I don't think of a character but more of his way of being and living within that story, his gaze, his emotions, and how he could express them.
I often ask my little big boy Enrico (my 6-year-old son), if the protagonist of the story convinces him and transmits empathy. His advice is always very direct and without filters, it helps me to eliminate what is superfluous.
What is your favorite piece of work in your portfolio? When did you make it?
In my portfolio, there are several works that I love but it is very difficult to decide which one is my favorite. Usually, when I finish a project I spend some time without looking at it and when it happens if it still gives me something it means that it was important to me, not only as a final result but also as a work experience, the research work, the reading of history and the relationship with the customer.
Let's say that one of these is definitely a packaging I made for Leo Burnett, which was part of a collection of cigarette packs for Philip Morris. After all these years, I still like the result because it reminds me of the challenge of the creation of an image without human figures expressing a famous event such as a Singing Festival, where singers were the protagonists.
As a professional illustrator working on many exciting projects, do you ever get time to draw just for fun or to improve a technique?
It does not happen often. Usually, when I am on vacation and I carry a few things or travel outside my comfort zone I am stimulated to produce new things, and experiment with new techniques or different palettes. All that is good, but also a small problem because that way I never stop working.
How do you learn about new art trends and tools? How did you find out about Rebelle?
There are so many sources where to find new trends and tools to experiment with these days, especially by taking part in social networks, forums, and discussions with colleagues.
The first time I heard about Rebelle was from an Italian artist and colleague that I followed and who was showcasing her fantastic watercolors. Initially, I was skeptical about how realistic they were, so I had to try them immediately, I was really impressed.
Do you work on projects alone or do you often collaborate with other artists? What does such collaboration look like?
I did not have a chance to collaborate with other illustrators on a project, but I often work with writers. My last collaboration went very well as we inspired each other by creating something original in a very short time. The result was a very important recognition. I patiently await another opportunity to continue in this very constructive and useful experience.
What are your goals for the upcoming months or years? Is there a dream project you would love to work on?
I can tell you about the projects I'm currently working on if you like; one, in particular, is "The Ballad of Mulan" for which I am also using Rebelle and specifically I apply the watercolors with the classic style of Chinese canvases of the time, for now, I am very happy with the result but I cannot reveal anything yet.
In the future, I would like to deepen and return to conceptual illustration made of limited and almost abstract colors, experiment with materials such as ceramics, and create a language made up of solid shapes and colors.
Those are exciting plans and ambitions. We wish you the best of luck with "The Ballad of Mulan" project, as well as with your future creative endeavors.
Escape Motions Team
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Learn More about Daniele Fabbri
https://www.escapemotions.com/featured-artists/daniele-fabbri
https://www.danielefabbri.com/
https://www.instagram.com/danielefabbriillustrator/
Rebelle 5 Painting Tutorials:
https://youtu.be/rN9-TQNDROk
https://youtu.be/iekTZTTClrE