Gabriel is a freelance illustrator and comic artist from Brazil. He grew an immense following during his online 365-day creative challenge called #365daysofdoodle, where he posted new artistic musings daily.
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As he says “… I am the guy who skipped art education trying to make art as a living. This thought haunts me more than I would like to admit.” That’s why, since last year, he has been focusing on learning everything from scratch: fundamentals such as anatomy, perspective, grayscale values, color theory and so on.
He has just released his first coloring book: Celestial: A Colorable Zodiac Journal where he applies his whimsical illustrative style to the various traits of the zodiacs.
Get in touch with Picolo
- Instagram: _picolo
- DeviantArt: picolo-kun
Key Takeaways
“Work on your stuff, create nice stories, do a lot of kind of artwork. It’s not enough only to do the best artwork, but you need to go deeper and challenge yourself. Even if you are not technically sound, if your story is good, you are there! You are touching on emotions if you are able to talk to people with your art”
- #365daysofdoodles was a Kickstarter of his career. He started getting clients thanks to it. His own procrastination and laziness inspired him to do it because after the college he found himself in the ‘adult’ life and didn’t have much time to draw
- Going freelance full-time was pretty crazy if you think about it. A lot of people are afraid to make the first step, so Picolo advises, if you want to start freelancing, save up some money to back yourself up against slow months
- Picolo always tries to do only 1 job at the time, so he is scheduling his clients in that way. Full focus, even if it’s only for a short time
- He takes projects where he can draw a really good story – comics, character design
- Art is a way of communicating. He is not good with words and writing, so drawing is his way to communicate, to tell stories … it’s very basic and simple
- “Win every day” (adapted from Portuguese) – try to be the best you can be each day and take each day as it comes!
Resources mentioned
- #365daysofdoodles
- DC Comics
- Art tools:
- Disposable Ink Pens: Staedtler, Uni-ball, Faber Castell
- Wacom Cintiq Companion
- iPad Pro with Apple Pencil and ProCreate App
- Adobe Photoshop
- You can meet Picolo at ComicCon XP in Brazil – December 7-10, 2017
- Book(s):
- Gabriel Picolo: Celestial: A Colorable Zodiac Journal
- Mateus Nestre: Framed Ink – a composition bible
- Mike Mattesi: FORCE: Drawing Human Anatomy – a series of books
Special thanks to Picolo for joining me today. See you next time!
Episode Transcript
Announcer
Creative, artistic, happy! That’s you. There are endless possibilities for living a creative life. So let’s inspire each other. Art Side of Life interviews with Iva.
Iva Mikles
Hello, everyone and welcome to the next episode of Art Side of Life where it’s all about how you can turn your creative passion into a profession. My name is Iva, and my guest today is super talented illustrator and comic artist from Sao Paulo, Brazil. He is best known for his Instagram challenge 365 days of doodles, they’d launched his artist career and helped him to gain the following of more than 1 million fans. Since then, he has been inspiring his community. With the comic series acres and the sun and Teen Titans. He has just released his first coloring book celestial, a colorable Zodiac journal, where he applies his whimsical illustrative style to the various traits of the zodiacs. You can meet him on the Comic Con experience in Sao Paulo in December 2017, where he will introduce some of his newest projects. So please welcome Gabriel Picolo.
Gabriel Picolo
Thank you so much for having me.
Iva Mikles
I’m super excited to have you here. Because you have such a big community of people, you are inspiring. And I’m sure they want to hear more of your story. And I would like to maybe start with a question with your background Did you always knew you wanted to work with art?
Gabriel Picolo
No, definitely not used to be a hobby. In high school, I used to read a lot of manga and comics. And I tried to emulate to copy what I saw, I wanted to create my own characters, my own stories that was like the first spark of creativity of art in my life. But I didn’t, I didn’t consider it to be a real job. Especially in Brazil, in Brazil, it’s really tough to to work with anything art related. So it doesn’t sound real. So I finished high school, I went to international relationships College, which is something which is something I like it’s something I appreciate it even now, even nowadays, but it wasn’t something I would like to pursue as a career. And then like in college, I started to realize I wanted to make something art related because it was the only thing that I really, really liked doing. So I want to make a career out of this. So it became a career because of a project I took in 2014. The 365 days off to those project. Yeah, that was like my first job. I was my first sort of, of a Kickstarter for my career, because it started getting clients because of that project.
Iva Mikles
So what inspired you to do this project?
Gabriel Picolo
My own procrastination and my own laziness. Because I was after finishing high school, and getting into adult life, I didn’t have many time, much time to draw as much time as I had before. So I felt like it was something that I was I was losing it. Slowly. I was growing less and less with time. And then in 2013 was my worst year for art. And by the end of the year, I decided I don’t shoot out in 14 I will draw one drawing a day so I could get back to the to the habit of drawing. Yeah, and that’s that’s that’s what inspired me like to draw every day to be my own my own laziness.
Iva Mikles
But it’s a good way to kind of just beat the laziness. Yeah,
Gabriel Picolo
it was it was a good way Yeah, it was effective yield effective way to to
Iva Mikles
do it. And so we can kind of like the biggest decision you had to do in order to follow your carrier.
Gabriel Picolo
By the time I did the, the 365 days project, I was working at the hospital. I came to work at the hospital because of the international relationship scores. And then I started to live and work at the hospital at the same time. It was important for me because it was when I left my parents house. So I was pretty comfortable working and living at the hostel. I didn’t have to pay many, many bills or rent to stay there. So when I decided to leave the hospital in 2015 after the project ended, that was like my first big step because I was moving from a nine to five job at the hospital, which I was super, super comfortable. And I was going to start freelancing. So it was my biggest step, I think.
Iva Mikles
Yeah. And so when you started your freelance Did you already had some clients, I guess what you like had in, you know, the period where you were still working full time, or it was like a clean cut transition.
Gabriel Picolo
I knew that I could make the transition because I the flow of clients was good enough to pay my to pay my bills monthly. But even though even though I had a nice flow of work like people, because I have a really strong presence on social media, so people are always seeing my work. That’s how I get my clients. Mostly. I didn’t go to art school, so I don’t have the fancy contact and all that stuff. So it’s mostly social media for me. So even though I got a nice flow of clients at the beginning, it wasn’t as nice as I thought it would be. It was really, really rough at the beginning. Sometimes I thought I wouldn’t make it you know, I was leaving. I was not leaving alone. But this time, I was living with a couple of friends, roommates. So I had I had them to to back me up. If something happened. It didn’t. But I the beginning was really, really rough.
Iva Mikles
Yeah. And so did you have someone who inspired you? Or did you have a mentor? Maybe who kind of like, okay, this is maybe what you can do? Or you know, the whole idea with the 360 day 65 days, right?
Gabriel Picolo
The the idea of the three 365 days was because a friend of mine a colleague work in the hospital. She just in 2013. She just had a project when she took a 365 photography’s one a day. Okay, so that’s that was like my inspiration for it. So he wasn’t like a proper mentor. Regarding fencing, I didn’t have any mentors. It was really a shot in the dark the beginning, like something out of the blue that I did. I started getting cancer, how can you say a counseling or mentorship later on on 2015? Like, where did I wanted to take my art? In what direction I wanted to take to direct my art like? Yeah, it was it was later on on 2015. And I was already working as a full time freelancer. And he wasn’t he was pretty crazy if you if you think about it.
Iva Mikles
Because a lot of people are afraid to do the first step. You know, like, Okay, this is what I want to do.
Gabriel Picolo
Ya know, if people asked me, what should they do before starting full time, freelancing, I always say save some money, save some money, because things can go wrong. The clients may not appear. And so you have to back yourself up.
Iva Mikles
Yeah, but also like, thinking about like, what is the level of comfort where you can start, you know, if you’re okay to have Oh, yeah. Oh, and you don’t need to have like five room flight right away.
Gabriel Picolo
Now, that’s really gray area. This is when you are comfortable enough to take the next step is really gray area, it works differently for everyone.
Iva Mikles
And so when you are creating your art and like thinking about stories, what do you want to put in your art? Is there like a vision or mission you are communicating through all your artworks?
Gabriel Picolo
My vision will be like telling, telling a good story. Not exactly. Big message behind all of it. But the storytelling each of the drawings that I do. That’s That’s what I think it’s the most important part. That’s what I look for in other people’s work, too. Yeah. So telling telling a story, even if it’s simple, even if it’s silly. I think it’s the most important thing.
Iva Mikles
And so what do you what are you inspired by? Or what is maybe the strange thing you’re inspired by?
Gabriel Picolo
I’m inspired by, there’s so so much stuff. I am inspired by astrology. So I have this this series of drawings of constellations, I have egos and discern this and she’s, like, astrologically inspiring in a way. I have. I take a lot of things SPIRATION from coming of age stories, like teenager, but like, not the gossip teenage craft, no the coming of age, this charming, teenage stories. That’s That’s what I like to introduce on my teen Titans series. For example. I take a lot of inspiration from it. I love drama and sad stories in general. That’s another another inspiration for a son. That’s that’s what he came up with, like the top of my head. But there are many, many things, I tried to change the source of inspiration from time to time, so I don’t get, like, choose, I don’t get too too bored with my own work. So I think it’s important to to change the way like when I was just starting my main source of inspiration was the video game. So it seems from time to time.
Iva Mikles
And if you think about like, if someone wants to do what do you do now? Can you recommend them where to start maybe some mediums or tools what they should use.
Gabriel Picolo
I started with the 300 days, I started drawing specially with ink. Disposable income was not the proper correct way of thinking he was disposable pens in our recommendation, I will I don’t care that much about media. If you wanted to draw traditional draw traditional funds to draw digitally, digitally, it doesn’t matter that much for me. But having these this knowledge of form and shape, and line like I love I love my lines, I love line work. So I don’t know, I think that’s important for me like there are a lot of artists who prefer to work with volumes. Instead of lines I prefer working with lines with like, illustrative drawings, which we can say that way. So my recommendation will be get to draw. Get to understand these fundamentals. Like if you want to go the paint, teach the painting. If you want to go with painting, go learn your fundamentals, which is form and volume. If you want to to draw illustrative yard comic cards, get your fundamentals with especially shape and form and line line work. So start from the very basics that that will be my advice. Yeah, I know if it
Iva Mikles
makes sense. Yeah, that definitely makes sense because it’s like the the general point of view. And but if really someone wants to start try to do what you do, do you have like a favorite pen or favorite ink or favorite, you know, tool, something
Gabriel Picolo
I’m trying right now I’m trying to get used to the urgency to the need pen. So I can use the ink like wings touring and stuff. But I’m definitely it’s, it’s out of my comfort zone entirely. My recommendation will be with start with these disposable ink pens, they are fabric pastels only been Stadler because they are really reliable, especially if you’re just starting out they are not expensive. You can just buy some different tips, pen tips, and have some fun with them.
Iva Mikles
Yeah. And so when you’re designing i like
Gabriel Picolo
i like i like how easy you can find those how easy anyone can use them. Because like the pen nib It demands some some knowledge. You have to to practice a lot until you get it correctly. Otherwise he will spend a lot of money with ink and pens and you won’t get any any nice results is really frustrating. With disposable ink pens, you just get some and start drawing. It’s not a big compromise.
Iva Mikles
I’m just thinking now when you are creating new projects and how do you design your day when you are now doing freelance so do you plan ahead like a week or per project? Or how do you do it?
Gabriel Picolo
I plan my weeks on Sundays that works for me. I my weeks are very How do I say my schedules are very flexible because I know new stuff always come up. And one of the things that I also tried to do is trying to hit one job at a time. Like I tried to get like full one on one project then move to the next fall on this one. So I tried to schedule my my drawings my clients that way. So I can go like so I don’t so I don’t get to to do like two big projects at the same time. That doesn’t work for me I prefer to go like head on on one project then move to the next. Even if it’s even if it’s just like a short span of time, like let’s say two days I’m full on on a project and then on the next three days I’m on another project that works for me.
Iva Mikles
Yeah. And so how do you choose projects or what is your you know, self talk when you have to decide what to say yes and no to maybe to pro Jake’s because if you cannot do everything at the same time,
Gabriel Picolo
yeah. Budget of course, because I, I pay my rent with the with the drawings that I do. Budget of course. But if I’m going like right now I’m up, I’m, I’m on a pretty comfortable position moneywise. So I get to choose more freely what kind of job I really wanted to do. I didn’t have this this, I didn’t have this privilege back then I needed to take every every project when I tried to pick projects related to them, that I know that I can’t do that I will draw some good stories on it. For example, comics, I’m taking specially comic projects right now. I’m taking a lot of character design to because it’s something it’s choosing that I genuinely like to do like to draw. So yeah, it’s not a it’s not a struggle to draw it in any way.
Iva Mikles
Yeah. And so when you’re thinking about your new project, or something, you know, which is like exciting right now, can you share something which is upcoming, or you know, something you can already share?
Gabriel Picolo
Right now, I’m working on a comic for an Italian publisher. I can’t say much about it yet. But I’m really really excited. It will be like my first ever published comic. Cool. So it’s really cool that it’s gonna it’s going to be published later on this year. I think it will be in September, September, October, something like that. Personally, I have some projects for Comic Con. later on this year. I want to release a fanzine with I think Titans art, like like a compilation of all my teen Titans work and mini mini story like many plots like that I’ve been planning for a long time. The Teen Titans zine. I am also creating a full story of full fledged story for Icarus in the sun, which people have been requesting a lot. And I’m also working on a comic for for those constellations series that I draw and Zodiac markers and arrows, they are all part of the same project. But I’ll talk more about the about the soon I can talk much about Yeah,
Iva Mikles
yeah. And we will put all the stuff in the show notes, you know, so you can give us the links. And so people can go buy your product, because this will be out around September. And then just to clarify, you said the Comic Con so for everyone to know that Brazilian Comic Con.
Gabriel Picolo
Yeah, it’s a Comic Con experience in Brazil. Yeah, cool, cool. And
Iva Mikles
they will be able to buy your product through website or
Gabriel Picolo
via Weibo, it will be available at a con. Then after the con, I will have to sort it out because I expect it to release my own stuff because I do have a store but it’s on RedBubble. So I just send the art and they they do the Shippings and everything else. I expected to open my own store by this time of the year. But it happened because I was too caught up in projects. So I expect to do that before Comic Con experience so I can sell the Comic Con items on my own shop.
Iva Mikles
Ah, super cool. Congrats. Thanks. So we’re looking forward to see that so it should be maybe before the end of the year.
Gabriel Picolo
Yeah, before the end of the year, tried to open my own store, my own shop, and then I can sell it. The Comic Con releases, I can sell them after the Comic Con.
Iva Mikles
Ah, super cool. And so now when we are thinking about the project, and you know the career, can you share maybe the worst career moment so far or most difficult? And maybe what do you learn from it?
Gabriel Picolo
worst moment, it will be would be 2015 later on the year 2015. All the art that I produced the year was really confusing. I was like, how do I say like in that transition phase. I was still learning a lot of stuff. And then on August 2015 I had like a mental breakdown because I didn’t know what what I wanted to do with my art. Like, at the same time I wanted to do everything. I don’t know if I wanted to go to Animation or to to illustration or I don’t know, editorial, you know, I wanted to do all every everything but I didn’t want to do them at the same time. So it was really really confusing. I was overthinking my drawings. I couldn’t get anything done. And by that time, so it was, how can I say? It was the moment when I started to realize what I really wanted to do were like I said, the direction I wanted to take my art. It was that happening 2015 And it wasn’t easy.
Iva Mikles
So how did you do it? How did you find it?
Gabriel Picolo
Because you get to know what he wants to do what he wants to draw what you want to make with your own artwork. By getting to know yourself, like you have to you have you have to ask some some really deep questions like, what’s the most important feature of drawing for me? Why? Why did I started drawing the beginning? Like, you have to ask all of these questions in as soon as you the more you know yourself, the easier it gets to decide where you want to take your art or what you want to draw for life or for as a career.
Iva Mikles
So let me ask you, then what fascinates you about the art the most?
Gabriel Picolo
That it’s a way of communicating like I’m not I’m not really good with words, or or with writing. So getting sold drawings are my way to, to communicate to to tell story to tell something to people. So that’s, it’s really basic, really simple. But that’s the feature that I liked the most about art.
Iva Mikles
Yeah. And it’s definitely like, good to find it, you know, kind of what is your motivation to continue?
Gabriel Picolo
Yeah, yeah.
Iva Mikles
And now when you are, you know, like, your career is going so well. And, you know, like influencing a lot of people and inspiring. Do you have also maybe some tips for people how they can create their own community.
Gabriel Picolo
When I started, I was just starting out, I started on DeviantArt. It’s a nice way if you’re just starting out, it’s a nice community. Right now you have Instagram and you have Twitter and Facebook. It’s not that great for artists in my opinion. It never was that great for artists because it’s too crowded. There are too many pages there. But tweet and Instagram are super hot for art artists right now. Twitter, I will say more professional artists are there. And Instagram are more like enthusiasts and amateurs and people just starting out because it’s so much easier, right? If you want to to get a following on social media, you have to upload a lot of a lot of content like a lot of lots and lots of work. People need to remember you do you have to be on their feeds every day, like Yeah, hey, please, no, no, this to me. That’s what I did a 365 days project. So I was like I was every day on people’s feed. So that that will be one of my tips. Try to draw your own stuff. Like don’t don’t try to emulate other artists or because there’s a lot of this right now, especially on Instagram artists trying to be other artists is not only being inspired by them, but trying to emulate them as a persona as a full thing. That’s really bizarre and doesn’t work, it doesn’t work. So get away from that. Try to build your own stuff. With time. It’s it’s pretty random in the beginning. But once you get to upload a lot of stuff, you get to know what people enjoy about your stuff you get to you get to know what you enjoy about your own stuff. So it gets it gets easier with time. So that that will be another another hint. What else? The hashtags I used to I used to use a lot of hashtags on Twitter and Instagram, they they used to work really well. They they don’t work that well anymore. try always to comment on people’s stuff to get like real interactions with people try to, like try to, to to create a community around you like something I didn’t I didn’t used to do I didn’t use to talk with other artists because I felt so intimidated by them. And then by 2016, I started to get more open to to other artists. I get to I got to to talk with them and they talk back some of them talk. And it was really Yeah, exactly. I admire your work so much. And you’re talking with me. It’s so so so good. So really, really take a chance and talk with artists tried to talk with people comment on people’s stuff, it sounds it looks at this it looks genuine. Indeed, we must be a genuinely inter interaction with you just trying to make it happen. As a spammer account, you won’t happen either.
Iva Mikles
Yeah, exactly. And when you mentioned as well that you are going for the ComiCon in Brazil, and what about your fans in Europe or us? Are you planning to go for events more around the world or do something.
Gabriel Picolo
So I have this trip planned on November this year to Europe, I want to meet some people, I will meet Claude outside. And again, I will meet I’m trying to schedule meeting with other artists that I know that are located all around Europe. And I’m trying to this is not a hard to say it’s not. It’s a strong possibility. I’m not sure of it yet. But I may be traveling to the US soon to make signings of my recent book, I just released a coloring book. So I’m, I may go to the to the US to to do some signings, but it’s not 100% sure yet. So if I do go to the US, of course, I’ll let my US fans know.
Iva Mikles
That’s super cool. Yeah. So they can look forward to some events with you. And what about some events like festivals, you know, like maybe the CPN in us or, you know, the creative networking or other comic cons around Europe. So that’s not planned yet.
Gabriel Picolo
It’s not planned here probably won’t happen this year, because I have some some other projects that I will be working on and to Comic Con. But I hopefully I’ll, I’ll try to go to the events next year, specially especially comic cons on the US because I know they are crazy. And I really, really want to see how, how things are there.
Iva Mikles
Yeah, I really enjoyed it. So I think you would like it as well.
Gabriel Picolo
Which one? Which one? Have you been? Which one? Have you been there? CTM? US Ttn Okay,
Iva Mikles
yeah, because it’s more like the creative networking. So you can meet a lot of artists and it’s not only about like cosplay, or the movie stars or something. So it’s like you can actually meet
Gabriel Picolo
Yeah, come my interest in comico it’s never never about the movie boots or, or the the actors and, and video games and all this stuff. No, my main interest in Comic Con is actually getting to know the the artists. Yeah, exactly. So the artists, the artists alley this year on this year’s Comic Con will be so so cool. Because I do know a lot of people and the people that I don’t know in person I know they’re, they’re really nice people in real life. So I’m really, really excited looking forward for the artists alley does, you know, that’s
Iva Mikles
super cool, then you have to post everything, you know, Instagram story.
Gabriel Picolo
Of course, I’ll tag everyone. I’ll take a lot of tough artists that I get to know there to meet there.
Iva Mikles
So everyone can be jealous. Like, I want to be there. So, like thinking about, you know, like learning and maybe inspiration. What about books? Do you have like favorite books, maybe you give as a present or you like as an art book, or it doesn’t have to be art book.
Gabriel Picolo
I’m not a big fan of art books, people will kill me for this. I was I was just saying this on my latest live that I did on Instagram. I don’t I don’t like to get a lot too. How do I say? To collect a lot of books to have a lot of books in my house, I tried to get to a minimum kind of minimal way of life minimalistic way of life. So if I if I can get a digital copy of the book, I will get a digital copy of the book. So I don’t get lots of stuff in my house. But there are some books that I really really liked to have. Which are how do I say they’re not like art books, per se. They are more like books that teach you how to how to how to borrow stuff. So for example, one book that I love I posted on Instagram, one of these days is framed ink by materials mastery he’s it’s like a composition Bible. It’s amazing. And I’m really into composition into drawing so it’s really good. Other book that I’m reading and I’m absolutely loving it is forced drawing. There is a line of books is forced drawing books. This is first drawing for anatomy. So the book is divided each section of the book is a different part of the body. It helped me so much understanding anatomy. So I get I get to learn a lot from these kinds of books because I’m self taught in anything art related. So I get to know a lot to learn a lot from this books.
Iva Mikles
And do you also have like favorite documentaries or movies
Gabriel Picolo
aren’t related. No, no, not not one that I can think of from the top of my head
Iva Mikles
and not and related, you know, maybe life. I don’t know life documentaries or animals or something inspirational. Astrology
Gabriel Picolo
let me think. I don’t know, the kind of documentary that I watch. It’s mostly like conspiracy stuff and these kind of crazy crazy stuff like, No, I don’t get to watch art related documentaries. So
Gabriel Picolo
I don’t know. I know it’s not it’s not to spend like, watching I don’t know.
Iva Mikles
And then maybe do you have some now thinking about you know, books and these kind of things. product which kind of simplifies your life maybe something you bought? Like either tool or software or or something?
Gabriel Picolo
I don’t know, like I did a Cintiq Companion. I think it’s great because I can take it to places it’s okay with me. I’m on my friend’s house and I can I can do some work on it. Well, welcome in general, they are the especially their customer service their customers. How do you say customers
Iva Mikles
customer service?
Gabriel Picolo
Service? Yeah, it’s really “beep”. I don’t like it. What’s it the Cintiq Companion really, really is handy in my life. So if you can get it like, I know that I bought my Cintiq two years ago. But I know that nowadays they have the iPad and you iPad that you can sketch on. What’s
Iva Mikles
the iPad Pro?
Gabriel Picolo
iPad Pro? Yeah, you can sketch on it.
Iva Mikles
Have you tried it? Or? Yeah, no, no, I
Gabriel Picolo
haven’t tried it. Laura tried it. She didn’t like it. So I haven’t tried it. She told me she didn’t like it much. So that may be a nice resource that I didn’t have. But by the time I bought my Cintiq have these have these tablets that you can take with you and then draw any anywhere else? That’s that’s what I love about sketchbooks, like getting getting sketchbooks everywhere. So I can draw wherever I go.
Iva Mikles
And now when you have a sketchbook and do you do the drawing with ink, do you have like a scanner and then you print it to use maybe some other?
Gabriel Picolo
Usually, I usually take pictures of off the drawings. I think patients I do my best to take a good picture of it, like good weather and good light and try to take pictures. And then I did it on Photoshop. Okay, so I can so I can upload it. And with
Iva Mikles
the picture just with the phone or do you have like a camera or something?
Gabriel Picolo
No, no, just just the phone.
Iva Mikles
Cool, cool. But you can still do like process videos and these kinds of things with the phone if you do it like somehow.
Gabriel Picolo
Yeah, maybe. Yeah, it’s really, really basic. It’s really basic. People think it’s so complicated. Well, it’s not. Yeah,
Iva Mikles
because it looks cool. Have you do the layout and everything. So yeah, thank you. And do you have a favorite quote, which you would put maybe on your sketchbook or somewhere which you kind of live by?
Gabriel Picolo
There’s this whole works best in Portuguese, right? We say. Greg on Jia Jia cada vez, which is basically when every day, like every like getting the I know there’s a similar quote for that in English. I just, I can never remember it. So it basically means like means like, try to be the best the best that you can be each day and take each day by the time like don’t try to overwhelm yourself.
Iva Mikles
Yeah, I mean, that’s super cool. Because then you don’t think about like bad things and just like okay, just do my best on every project you work on or every day. Yeah. And well, they also wanted to ask you because you mentioned the studio. Do you have a studio at your house? They work from home or do you travel to your studio? No, no,
Gabriel Picolo
I work from home. Yeah.
Iva Mikles
So do you have like a separate room or something like that? No,
Gabriel Picolo
no, I live in a flat apartment. So it’s really really small. It’s like a one one Komodo Komodo
Iva Mikles
Yeah, like Yeah,
Gabriel Picolo
one one room apartment.
Iva Mikles
I know what you need. How is it called now? I’m thinking
Gabriel Picolo
it’s a one room apartment. It’s really small. But I tried to divide it like that there’s a part that what where there’s my bed and my actual bedroom and then there’s a part like my desk and all the my books and sketchbooks and all that it’s my my workspace.
Iva Mikles
And how do you then you know I differ from the the work life and then the like, relaxing time. How do you kind of block that off? Or do you work seven days
Gabriel Picolo
a week? It’s, it’s really tough. Like, I’m not the best at doing that. Especially because it’s so my My bed is so close to the to my actual workspace. So I’m not the best thing doing it. I tried to set a schedule for for, like what I want to produce in that day. So let’s say by 9pm I don’t get to draw anymore. So I’m free to draw like to eat or to to play games or, or do nothing to get I get free time to draw for myself and upload on social media and stuff.
Iva Mikles
Yeah. And do you still upload like every day? Or like,
Gabriel Picolo
no, no, no, I can’t, I can’t afford to upload every day. I wish I could I really wish I could. But I’m mostly working right now. So some days, I really miss it the 365 days project, because when you spend like weeks and weeks working for others, and you didn’t draw anything for yourself, it’s I don’t know, it’s so strange.
Iva Mikles
Yeah. Because then you cannot just, you know, create their own stuff. And then yeah,
Gabriel Picolo
I really, I really miss it sometimes. So, and these, and these are the worst. Because when I get all absent from social media for too long. I think like in my head, I’m thinking that people are expecting something great for me. Like, as if I was working on a single piece to upload, you know, then I get I get Oh, yeah. And then I get all self conscious about it. Because oh my god, I don’t have I want to upload this doodle this sketch, but I don’t upload anything in a week. So and what do people think of me? You know, like, what is this? Yeah.
Iva Mikles
So there is a certain pressure from social media as well. Like when you build Yeah,
Gabriel Picolo
yeah, yeah, you have to, you have to you can’t go over your head, like, don’t get too self conscious about it, because people will probably enjoy anything that you upload. At least it happens with me. Like, I get super self conscious about a post. And I won’t post it, I don’t post it. And then I post it like right before I go to sleep. So like I don’t get I don’t ever think about it, the caption and and all that it only decouples later, so So I get to I uploaded then I go to sleep. And then when I wake up lots of likes and people commenting and I’m so big that you upload it. And people always like to see new stuff. So don’t get too too self conscious about it.
Iva Mikles
Yeah. And also, when you’re talking about the posting stuff, how did you learn to take maybe feedback? I’m not talking about like, bad comments, you know, like, there’s always haters, but
Gabriel Picolo
I think I’m super lucky regarding these the haters and, and this feedback stuff, because I don’t get a lot of it. A lot of feedback, a lot of critiques. I don’t get a lot of it. And when I get when I read times that I do get feedback. I probably already knew what what mistake was there. Yeah, so I’m really I judged myself really, really harshly. So it doesn’t get to me like it doesn’t. It doesn’t affect me as much as I can affect myself in a way.
Iva Mikles
Yeah, like we
Gabriel Picolo
are the worst critic. So everywhere. Exactly, exactly. Yeah, we see all the mistakes there. And people often don’t see them, but we see them all.
Iva Mikles
That’s true. And now kind of let’s talk about the future. And maybe what would be your ideal kind of dream scenario. If you think about like five to 10 years, like if you cannot fail and you are not afraid of anything and when would you be
Gabriel Picolo
right now my dream job is working at DC Comics. It’s my dream job right now. Like I’ve been I’ve been drawing a series of a series of Teen Titans drawings that I like that I want to expand in a way I really want you to, to bring it to DC like so they can can see it and they can let me hear their thoughts about it. They called me for a portfolio review for a workshop that was going to happen in 2000s 2016 last year. So I sent my portfolio I didn’t get accepted which was totally fine. I was just starting out with comic. My portfolio was completely different from what it is today. So I didn’t get accepted. It was a really hard blow. I got really, really sad when I heard the news that I didn’t get accepted. And but it kind of lit a fire in me ever since. So I started working on the weaknesses that they that they saw on my portfolio. I didn’t I didn’t apply this year, they they have this this workshop every year, I didn’t apply this year, because I didn’t think I was ready enough. Like it’s the thing, the more the more that you learn, the more that you know that you that you don’t know. So I was kind of in this stage this year. So I want to make sure that my portfolio next year is strong enough. So I probably send my portfolio back to them next year. Let’s see what happens.
Iva Mikles
And it sounds good. And now the last question where they want to ask is about like far, far future? And what would you like to be remembered for in like, 100 years?
Gabriel Picolo
Oh, that’s Oh, that’s too deep. That’s not fair. I wasn’t prepared for that question. No, no, because every now and then, I try to think about my artwork as a legacy as like, what I’m going to what is what’s the legacy that I’m going to left behind. And in a way, I think that’s really important, because making art is a way of immortalizing yourself to others through your work. But I still haven’t figured out what I want to be remembered for. Because I think that’s true. I you know, I have I don’t think I have been working on that for that long to understand that yet. So, like, you asked me this question. It’s really, really strange, because I do ask myself sometimes, and I still haven’t found the answer. Yeah, really? Sorry. Yeah, I’m looking for I don’t know, I don’t think I I’m working on this for as long as it needs to find something as deep as that as a legacy. Yeah, so I really I really wish I had a good answer for that. But I don’t sorry.
Iva Mikles
And then looking forward to know when you when you will find out so
Gabriel Picolo
ya know, when I find out find out it’s when I find find out, I think it will be like an enlightenment moment, I will find like, the the art in your fun. You know, I’m open, I open my third
Iva Mikles
eye, and it will be tattooed on your forehead or something. Yeah. Good. And so I’m really happy that you were able to join us for the interview and share your story with the young artists. And if you have like a final piece of guidance before we say goodbye,
Gabriel Picolo
welcome, you’re your stuff. Create nice stories. Stories do a lot a lot to any kind of artwork. I know everyone likes beautiful pictures. I do like beautiful pictures too. But I don’t think they’re enough. I think that at some point, you realize that they are not enough and they wanted to move to get something deeper out of the beautiful pictures. So even though you’re even though you’re you you’re not that technically sound. If your idea is good, if your story is good, you’re there. So you can you can make people relate to your stuff. You can create emotions through your art, just as good as the artist who is technically perfect, you know?
Iva Mikles
Yeah, that’s perfect. I love it. Thank you. And thank you so much for being here again, and thanks for everyone to joining.
Gabriel Picolo
Thanks for having me. I appreciate it so much.
Iva Mikles
Hope you guys enjoyed this interview. You can find all the resources mentioned in this episode at artsideoflife.com. Just type a guest name in the search bar. There is also a little freebie waiting for you so go check it out. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review on iTunes hopefully five stars so I can read and inspire more people like you. Also, don’t forget to subscribe to Art Side of Life podcast, because I post new interview every single workday. If you want to watch the interviews, head over to artsideoflife.com/youtube. Thank you so much for listening. Don’t forget to inspire each other. And I will talk to you guys in the next episode. Bye.
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Hi, I am Iva (rhymes with “viva”). I am a full-time self-taught artist behind Art Side of Life® and a Top Teacher on Skillshare. I have 15 years of experience in the creative field as a concept designer, illustrator, art director, and now freelance artist, content creator, and art instructor. My goal is to help you get your creative groove on with Procreate and make awesome art through practical classes, tutorials, Procreate brushes, and guides on art tools, supplies and resources. About me »
