realistic

Giornale E Caffè

Digital, Illustration /
A pen & ink drawing of a street café in the historic city center of Verona.

This is probably my best work so far, if I do say so myself. Drawn in ProCreate on an iPad Pro M1 in about 40 hours. It shows a real café in the historic city center of Verona called Giornale & Caffè. In front of it, there’s our family (seated) and our two friends who run the place. This work was printed in a limited run of three A2-sized prints on 300gsm Hahnemüle rag paper.

Pebble

Illustration, Traditional /
A pebble with the image of ponte di Castelvecchio in Verona drawn onto it with brush pen and white gouache.

We found this flat, almost perfectly rectangular pebble while on a walk under ponte di Castelvecchio in Verona. I decided to draw the very same bridge onto it in brush pen (Kuretake Bimoji) and white gouache.

Experimenting with Watercolor Pencils

Illustration, Traditional /
A drawing of a shiny, metallic beetle, with a purple and blue thorax, and a golden carapace.
Wanting to add some color to my traditional drawings, I dug out my old Staedtler watercolor pencils I’ve had since I was a kid. I drew this beetle from photo reference on watercolor paper. I did the inking using my trusty Kuretake Bimoji brush pens. Their carbon ink is not only very black, but also totally waterproof. If you like the beetle, why not check out its store page.

Christmas Card 2018

Digital, Illustration /
Christmas tree in the background, with wrapped gifts piled up in front and a rooster on top.

Taking a break from the abstract doodling, I decided to draw a custom vintage-style Christmas postcard for my friends and family. Drawn in ProCreate on the iPad Pro. In case you were wondering, my surname (Gallo) means rooster in Italian.