Interview
Heraldo Mussolini
Heraldo Mussolini was born in Río Cuarto, Argentina, in 1986. He graduated as an art teacher and currently works as an educator and a freelance illustrator.
His artistic creations are made through both traditional and digital media. Heraldo's work has been shown in exhibitions, scientific illustration contests, fantasy novels, and tabletop role-playing games, among others.
What is your background and how did you start your journey in the art world?
“My passion and my journey in the art world started from when I was able to grab a pencil. The first thing that caught my attention were prehistoric creatures - I always felt an intense attraction for them and I still do as an adult. In fact, when I was young I didn't want to be an artist, but wanted to be a paleontologist. After finishing high school though, I dropped the idea and decided to study art. I graduated as an art teacher and I've been living ever since as an educator and freelance artist.”
“I'm primarily a draftsman. Although I enjoy working with color and am inspired by paintings of many artists, my weapon of choice has always been and always will be a pencil. I admire good draftsmanship above all things because I think drawing is the basis of all good art.”
How would you describe your work?
“I make figurative artwork. When I'm working on a scientific illustration I have to do so in a realistic fashion, to create a naturalistic and realistic subject, but when I illustrate something from the fantasy world, I also try to work as realistically as possible with my characters and creatures to convey a sense of credibility in what I want to portray.”
Which artists influence you most?
“Many artists have influenced me throughout my lifetime. From the old masters to paleo-artists like John Sibbick or Douglas Henderson, or fantasy artists like Frank Frazetta, Alan Lee, and John Howe, just to name a few.”
What themes do you pursue? Is there an underlying message in your work?
“Although I never lost my passion for prehistoric creatures, my main theme started to switch from paleontology to fantasy art. I always loved fantasy, mythology and medieval aesthetics and themes. But I don’t know if there's an underlying message in my work. I try to let my characters and creatures speak for themselves, instead of me trying to convey some kind of predetermined message. I love to create and design characters in a way that when the public sees them, they can ask themselves what kind of character that is, what kind of personality it may have, what background could he or she could have, and where could that character or creature live? I prefer to create some kind of narrative or story behind my illustrations rather than conveying a specific message.”
What is your creative process like?
“My creative process is driven mostly by spontaneous sketching. Sometimes I can have an idea of what I want to represent and I seek the way to do it by drawing many sketches. Of course most of my commission work starts with an idea or description by the client. But sometimes I just sit down on my desk with a pencil and a piece of paper and automatically sketch shapes, creatures or characters until something comes up without much thinking. Then I pass from the sketch to a clean and finished piece. For color pieces I generally scan the graphite drawing and then work the color on the computer, or simply start the process from scratch completely digitally.”
What is an artist’s role in society and how do you see that evolving?
“I don't think there's one specific role. Art can have many applications and objectives, from a scientific publication to political propaganda, or a way of pouring out personal emotions, or it could be that the only objective of a piece of art is purely for beauty and aesthetic pleasure. Maybe the most transcendental art is that one that, besides the objective for which it was made, has something in it that challenges us, that leads us to examine ourselves, our world, our perspective on things, and gives you the chance to become a more complex and better individual. But one thing is for sure - in this time during the pandemic, when many of us around the globe had to spend so much time indoors, life would have been substantially more miserable without art.”
Website: www.artstation.com/heraldomussolini
Instagram: @heraldo.mussolini
