Meet Fabrizio Fiandanese
Fabrizio is sharing drawing tips and demo videos with Sktchy subscribers throughout September. Learn more
What's your background?
I was born in Italy and live in the southern area, in Bari. When I was a kid I was pretty good at portraits, then all of a sudden I lost interest in drawing and never touched a piece of paper again.
One day though, over ten years later, when I was well into my 30s, I felt the urge to try sketching a face. Once done I looked at my artwork and realized how much I was missing all of that time. What a day it was! Since then I have practiced almost daily to get better and have fun with drawing.
What's your medium of choice when you're creating art?
Just look at my gallery and you'll have no doubts about it, it's the ballpoint pen! It's inexpensive and portable and I just love the feeling of the ballpoint rolling on the paper: I'm addicted!
Ballpoint pens are challenging, no mistakes allowed, and they threaten to leave nasty ink blots anytime. But once you overcome the fear of messing up, it makes you feel pretty confident in your mark making.
My other medium of choice is watercolors, just love their magic. With a portable watercolors set and a few ballpoint pens I'm ready to go anywhere.
How did you build your creative habit?
I have a stack of paper on my desk. Every single time I have a minute or two, or just need to relax, I get to it and try drawing something.
Faces are what I love to draw most so I look for some inspirational photos and then try my hand at them. I put a date on every single sketch I create. Over time I have collected literally thousands of sketches. Every now and them I like browsing my folders and see the progress I made, it's a very rewarding feeling!
When you find yourself in a creative rut, how do you get out of it?
Looking at other artists' work helps me get out of creative block. I've collected thousands of inspiring art pieces. When stuck I just need to flip through some of those to get started again. There is so much talent out there!
I don't mind if my skills are not even close to my favorite artists'. I just love to try and get better every day, for me drawing is all about fun and nothing else.
Which of your recent Sktchy artworks most expresses who you are now as an artist?
I used to be obsessed about getting the perfect likeness in my portraits. Now all I really care is "feeling" the subject of my portraits. While drawing I literally fall in love with the facial features of my subject. I mentally wander through the slope of cheek, the bridge of the nose, the depressions of the ocular orbits and during my "travel" I mark all my feelings on paper.
Get the Sktchy iPhone app to join Fabrizio on Sktchy, and subscribe in-app to learn drawing tips from him. Learn more.