BIG UPDATE! Looks like my cover for "MANGA" by Jean Marie Bouissou just went international: the guys at Editions Philippe Picquier did like the cover I made for the italian adaptation (by the beautiful people at Tunué) of their book and decided to use it as the official international cover! Oui oui!

Flash News from COMICON 2012: Viewpoint is completely SOLD OUT, setting up the next reprint!

A small preview from my new upcoming Astrogamma chapter, out soon on HOBBY COMICS the ultravicious magazine  from SUPERAMICI. BONUS! A handy how to video showing how I go thru the whole process of making a panel! (that's for you Alessandro!)

Here! A brand new illustration for the 40th anniversary of Go Nagai's most famous creature, Mazinger Z!

Published on www.lospaziobianco.it the same nice guys who interviewed me some time ago! Here is the DIRECT LINK to the work.

The concept behind the drawing is quite complex and I'm veeeery happy I could manage to fit everything I needed in one crowded, still punchy, image. As I was saying the idea behind this drawing spreads its roots across many themes: freedom, rock and roll devil/machine worshipping and getting the girls as a straight cause-effect principle, machines as a way of humanity exploitation instead of the bushi, progressive thinking and honest lefty (and "righteous" is an inside joke on the left rocketpunch) freak power against the empire and the authority, Japan as a nation of young and strong country people not a bunch of old city farts, TV sets as a final frontier of an explicit rebellion doctrine that made young boys stand up on their chairs yelling at the foes of the Asura empire. You know: Go Nagai. Well I missed motorcycles.

Les voyages sans fin ont seulment de bref moments d'obscurité. Bon retour, Maître.

Looks like my first record is finally out! The guys at ROBODUST contacted me a while ago asking for three tracks they liked a lot and my EP was born! The tracklist is: "202", "Iryoku - concerto for SID machines" and "Bydo Empire". They are all from very different moments, and done with very different techniques. Every track is done solely with Elektron Monomachine, Elektron Machinedrum, DSI Mopho, MC 202 and a Microkorg. No computer was involved and they are all recorded live. "202" has a super cheap video clip I made back then: it's interesting just because the music you hear in the video is slightly different from the record one as I had to re perfom it live to have the right sync of led displays and music. Cover, guess what, is mine too.

Available on BEATPORT and on ROBODUST. 

Algorithmica is a nice company run by some VERY creative minded developers and engineers. They started "The Harvestar" as a spare time project, to test their new time critical multi user technology on html 5 frameworks that just won european union financements. The game went under many game and graphic design trial and errors, and when gameplay structure was defined they commisioned me game art, interface design and identity. I introduced a few elements that you will see in the next following about this game. Most important, I created the name (very simple merge of "harvest" and "star", wich the game is all about!) and the logo. The logo itself is a tribute to old Milton Bradley SCI FI games like Laser Attack, Taito's Arkanoid and cheesy Filmation TV Shows title logo animations. Moreover it has a hidden stolen concept from the Deutsche Bank logo as the game is an RTS all about market and resources so the idea of a stocks/profits indicator going UP was very well indicated for it! Take it, Deutsche Bank!

Here are the first character design I made for the upcoming RTS game "The Harvestar" by Algorithmica.it! Each character has a dynamic palette and comes in 4 different chromatic flavours (see gallery below for an example). Most important, as you can see each character is driven by a resource available in the game (well, you'll see as soon as I'm authorized to show some gameplay action, I did the graphics for the game too!) and so is their look! Enjoy! BONUS: some speedpaints And a WIP breakdown for Titanya!

Back to analog for this one! It was a blast with my new Tachikawa pen holder and a superfine Nikko pen nib! In the gallery, you'll find some making of shots and my takes on the Hobby Comic Issue number 4 special colour! The original is a small format of ultra thick french paper.

Self portrait for Players Magazine.

A quick one I made for Players Magazine. So quick I now discovered left hand has serious problems (index is missing one finger section). Anyway enjoy! There is a special feature about SUPERAMICI in the next issue so be sure to get it!

Marcello Crescenzi at www.riseabove.it asked me to join a collective illustration project for I 400 CALCI blog. This blog is kind of a sancta sanctorum for italian action fighting movies fans. Main theme of the project was to revamp or celebrate a classic action/fighting/horror/scifi movie doing a movie poster for it.

So here is my tribute to I 400 Calci Blog and to one of the greatest action flicks ever made!

Download the printable high resolution pdf HERE!

A while ago I developed this small logo for the Ba Gua Zhang Kung Fu group I study in. Main aim of my dear friend and (ruthless T^T) teacher Riccardo was to bring in the Yin Yang symbol along with the west door of Beijing (Xi Zhi Men) while making an hommage to the pillar of our style, master Sui Yunjiang. His name can be translated in something like "river of clouds". So, here it is. Tried to use the old Hokusai trick of the ying yang corruption made by the subject of the drawing (the door itself), keeping it still against the revolving nature. Logo has a also a nice hidden positive/negative color/value feature. See it positive (orange) and you have the door against a sky full of stars, see it negative (cyan) and you have a huge full moon!

Bonus! In the gallery below some videos I found of the commemoration in honor of baguazhang 3rd generation Grand Master Li Ziming (Master Sui's Master), where you can see the beauty of true, orthodox, Ba Gua Zhang. Yay!

My first speedpaint. The drawing was made in 45 minutes from start to finish. PS CS5. No additional flavours.

Though I go to you ceaselessly along dream paths, the sum of those trysts is less than a single glimpse granted in the waking world.

Though I go to you ceaselessly along dream paths, the sum of those trysts is less than a single glimpse granted in the waking world.

Though I go to you ceaselessly along dream paths, the sum of those trysts is less than a single glimpse granted in the waking world.

WORLD PREMIERE @ FESTIVAL DEL CINEMA DI ROMA 3 NOVEMBER 2011, H20:30! 

BECOME A FAN  OF "THE DARK SIDE OF THE SUN" ON FACEBOOK NOW! http://www.facebook.com/thedarksideofthesun.themovie

Well. It's beeen a year of hard work on this one. From the official pressbook (you will find the pressbook itself by clicking the link above, includes the official cast credits):

Note: Carlo Shalom Hintermann, the director of the film is speaking.

SYNOPSIS

For a few children sun is a fatal enemy. Xeroderma Pigmentosum is a rare illness that forces them to live far from any sunlight, completely isolated from the daytime life of their peers. This doesn't happen however at Camp Sundown, a summer camp in New York State conceived and established by the determination of their parents. This camp welcomes child patients from all over the world. Here an inverted universe, full of enchantment, flourishes. The life of this small nocturnal community is interwoven with the animated dreams conceived by the children themselves. Both parents and children share the same desire: to fully live out their lives, despite the illness.

THE DISEASE

Xeroderma Pigmentosum is an extremely rare, genetic illness caused by a defect in the nucleotide excision repair (NER) mechanisms of patients, so that human cells are unable to partially or fully repair damage provoked by exposure to ultraviolet rays. This means that XP patients have a probability of developing skin tumours one thousand times greater than a non-patient. There is still no cure for thisdisease. Ultraviolet rays, mainly from the sun, but also produced by some man-made lighting, are always harmful to patients with this illness. There is no safe level of exposure to ultraviolet rays and any damage is cumulative: the greater the exposure, the more significant the damage. The life expectancy of an XP patient is very low. This forces XP patients to lead a literally inverted life - mainly at night; where the day of a healthy child ends, an XP patient begins theirs. 

THE XP SOICIETY

The XP Society is a not-for-profit charitable organization founded in 1995 by Caren and Dan Mahar, whose youngest daughter, Katie, has Xeroderma Pigmentosum. The organization aims to provide XP patients and their families both support and information needed to cope daily with XP. Camp Sundown is the single most important project of the XP Society which directly benefits and involves the XP family and patients. This unique to the world night camp program, held in the state of New York, gathers families and scientists from around the globe to share support, recreation, XP information and updates and friendship under the safety of the stars.  http://www.xps.org  

ABOUT THE FILM

Meeting Dan and Caren Mahar, founders of the XP Society and Camp Sundown, immediately shaped a specific method and approach to our film. It was obvious to both Daniele Villa, the producer and myself, that this would be quite a learning curve, truly in-depth training. It meant totally overturning our viewpoint, abandoning our day-time experience and learning how to appreciate the night, its’ specificities and marvels. We had to imagine how this illness damages lives. Once we had made this switch, a sincere dialogue could take place and we could experience the widespread kindness of this community, appreciate its ethical rigour, long-sightedness and resolve. In this way we joined them unconditionally, looking for adequate observation points and their needs became ours. From that moment on everything changed, we also adopted their rigour, fostered by that human bonding that continues to warm our hearts.    

FILMING WITHOUT CONVENTIONAL LIGHTS

One of the main production challenges encountered in the documentary “The Dark Side of the Sun”is filming with non-UV emission lighting. Thanks to the collaboration between Giancarlo Leggeri (Cinematographer) and Gianluca Bronzini from the Italian Tecnolight company, a LED lighting system was ingeniously devised that did not emit any UV rays. This project developed both film lighting as well as luminous games for the children to play with. Another invaluable contribution came from Robert Selen of the  Lanterne Volanti (lit.: ‘flying lanterns’) company who helped us devise natural flame lighting which also does not affect XP patients. This is how flying lanterns, floating water lilies and various decorative candlelights were included in the documentary’s visuals. All lighting sources devised and used have since been donated to the XP  Society and are now an integral part of the magical Camp Sundown universe.

PLAYING ON EQUAL TERMS: THE WORKSHOPS

The Director Carlo Shalom Hintermann and producer Daniele Villa always felt that turning up emptyhanded to Camp Sundown wasn’t quite right. So from Year One they held a video workshop led by Daniele Villa (the producer, already experienced in children’s workshops, Mus-e Roma Artist) with Piero Lassandro, the editor, who had also taken part in the pre-production phases from the very beginning. This fostered a climate of mutual trust with our protagonists and everyone got to know each other without feeling intrusive. Both workshop leaders and children had video-cameras. This created an opportunity for the children to measure themselves up with the documentary makers on a practical level - on equal terms. In this way the children also made their own two, extremely dynamic films. Over the following years Daniele Villa coordinated various workshops: music with Aleksandar Zar Caric, drama with Véronique Bouteille and collage workshops - all supported by the charity association  Mus-e Roma Onlus, which also intends continuing its commitment and  sharing experiences with the XP society, together with Mus-e Italia Onlus. 

DEVELOPING THE ANIMATION WITH OUR PROTAGONISTS

Another challenge was developing the animation narrative together with the children of Camp Sundown. Over the past three years through our Camp Sundown experiences, interactions and workshops, we managed to record our protagonists’ desires, fears, hopes and dreams and together we set out this story. The ultimate crowning glory  of this experience was the dubbing session – where the children themselves dubbed the voices of  their animated counterparts. Obviously this entailed adapting the Dubbing Studios to their specific needs, but it also represented a unique opportunity for the children who lived up to this challenge with exceptional professionalism

CREATING AN ANIMATION STUDIO FROM SCRATCH

The last authentic challenge was to create an 'in house' animation team without any external production companies. Lorenzo Ceccotti handpicked his colleagues from around Italy on the basis of their talent and enthusiasm: Giorgia Velluso, Pamela Poltronieri, Mariachiara Di Giorgio and Fabio Ramiro Rossin. This particular team contributed to  the non-conventional working approach which perfectly adapted itself to the artistic requirements of the animation sequence. Lastly, a significantcontribution came from Mauro Uzzeo, Rainbow’s Artistic Director who believed in the project enough to facilitate the company’s becoming co-producers,  with the support of Rainbow’s chairman Iginio Straffi. Rainbow’s contribution was far-sighted and fundamental; supporting the animation team to continue its work without any disruptions. 

More on http://www.thedarksideofthesun.org

Dal comunicato stampa ufficiale:

Primo appuntamento della seconda edizione per Electric Barnum! 

Nei pressi di Campo dei Fiori, in uno spazio gradevole e stimolante, "Electric Barnum" conferma le sue vecchie intenzioni: regalare al suo pubblico una serata vibrante, dove l'entusiasmo dei fedeli al progetto fa da 'garante' mentre le nuove leve sono sempre ben accette!!!!

A partire dall'aperitivo, sapientemente preparato da Daniele, fino a tarda notte una consolle tutta speciale per l'Opening Party! 
Festeggeremo i 40 anni di Dj Renghi con la sua Acid House e i suoi 25 anni di militanza nel mondo del dancefloor, insieme ai personaggi più significativi: Paolo Zerla, vero e proprio "monumento" della dance romana e non solo, il Groove elettronico di Davide Spaccatrosi, il Funk di Panillo, conosciuto anche come "enciclopedia vivente" del panorama musicale universale! 
E ancora il DJ SET di Andrea Secchi ed il Live set di Boccia Bean, 50% dei "Pinbal Palyfield" l'uno e 50% dei T.E.W. l'altro!
Per l'evento Number 1, l'expo ha l'onore di ospitare la mostra dell'artista Lorenzo Ceccotti, in arte LRNZ.

free entry!

Vi aspettiamo numerosi, simpatici e danzerini!

Enjoy!

Website coded by the Übermensch Michele La Corte.

UPDATE: Here is a nice insight by Rrobe!

Below an illustrated history of the various versions of my website that never were. Starting from 2000 to now. I still miss a version of the website. As soon as I'll find the comps I'll add it to the gallery.

Cover illustration for the forthcoming LP "Vol.2" by Miriam in Siberia.

Christian G. Marra of Passenger Press asked me to do this 24x17 piece about apocalypse in videogames, more specifically in Fallout 3. Destination: Bizzarro Magazine, Kaboom issue.

I did a dirty draft (shown below, in the gallery section) as usual. I generally lay down the final idea in the first 10 seconds of work.As you can guess (not see, as it's VERY draft), there's a second guy on the back getting the nuka cola cap. This was my first concept of the work. Showed it to my friend Rrobe and he gave me the brilliant idea to eliminate the second character and let the bad guy interact with the spectator, throwing the cap towards the camera. That was a really smart solution and so I did (it even eliminates the need of a second character to draw, yessss!).

Here is the second cover I saw in my dream.It is a collection of Otomo's early works.Mostly black and white stuff. The book was thick and covered in dark gray canvas.One copy had that paper thing (obi) the japanese books usually have, but I can't remember perfectly.Last thing: the covers are exactly the way I dreamed 'em. Far from me to think these are actually good covers. They are the faithful reproduction of the books I saw in my dream.Hope you'll like it, anyway.Don't forget to click the image to see it full size.

I dreamt about Mr. Katsuhiro Otomo.In the dream I was not self confident enough to speak to him so I only stared at Otomo from a distance while he was talking with his collaborators in the main hall of a old fashioned roman hotel.During the meeting he was shuffling his new books on the table.I could clearly see two books.Here is the first one.It was a book about Otomo's anatomy archetypes research made for Akira.It is called OTOMO / ANATOMY.
Sorry for the cheap compositing, it's only a quickie, but I think it gets to the point.Here is an in between.

"Doctor H"
A5 352 black and white, four color cover.
350+ Original character designs, realized during year 2009 for the 1825 project. Everything, layout graphics to shipping is by LRNZ.

Promo music by next century genius Panoram.

Hatching test on my Lenovo x201t.

More fake Batman.Loved to develop more concept on this one.A 2hrs all digital thing so no in between steps, sorry.
Expect a major color correction and detail fixing by tomorrow.
Another one and we're set.

Click on the images to see 'em properly.Finally had some time to finish.It was a 12 hours thing, digital draft to coloured flat version.
Not very sure about some details. For sure I can do be faster AND better.Anyway the Superamici logo on true a Batman cover should be there by default.
Batman is the best superhero to draw, no doubt.

This is a cover illustration I made for "Il Manga" Book, by Jean-Marie Bouissou,  edited by Tunuè.

It's a very comprehensive book about Japanese comics and culture. I was very glad to work on this subject as I'm very into japanese comics and animation as you may know.

I developed the work trying to blend the main specs form japanese visual culture: overcrowding of visual information and the superior synthesis they have stylizing, bringing the single information to the maximum signal/noise ratio possible.

Below you can find a gallery containing even the previous designs I started from and the inlay cover (the flat, magenta one).

I was asked by a super secret client to draw my favourite Masters of the Universe character 

Zodac, the walking 2001 monolith. As I child Zodac was the most enigmatic character of the whole series. He wasn't goor evil. He was a god and even He Man was a regular guy compared to him: Zodac used a flying throne to move thru the universe. He is the best.

First of the year illustration for Agenda Aeterna, an agenda about craziest documented deaths.
Edited by Grrrzetic.

Anyway: see you at school!

My cousin Francesca asked me for a fairy drawing. She wanted it bad. I really don't like drawing fairies, but I love her so I tried. It was ment to be a on hour task, and it ended as a 2,5 one as I hadn't actually a clear veision of the technique and style I wanted to use. You can tell it by the messy execution, anyway. The speedpaint video shows pretty much everything an illustrator should not show anybody. Tons of errors, and the result is pretty limited. Enjoy! XD 

Music By Buromaschinen.

"VIEWPOINT"18.2cm x 25.6cm 128 pages, full colour, digital.
A super limited edition (first run is 100 copies)of a deluxe book to come.Contains a broad selection of my works.VIEWPOINT is the first of a serie of book limited prototyping process. Everything, layout graphics to shipping is by LRNZ.
Each copy is signed and decorated with a flashy pink unipaint.
Price: €25.00 + Shipping

TEMPORARY OUT OF STOCK

Some anticipations. Let me introduce you Rosabella. It's been a while since I did my last analog penciling work. In the gallery the original drawing I started from.

My take on a super classic.

The book is called "WOnderland, wuando alice se ne andò", edited by Nicola Pesce editore.

It is an anthology about the life of wonderland inhabitants, without Alice.

Each character has it's own short story drawn by a different artist.

Hope you'll like it!

Ok I know: this is a borderline illustration work.It's more a illustration on photos process.I usually don't like people working with photos.
Still I want to share it on this blog.
It's my work for Meet in Town, a music festival in Rome.Xister involved me in the project as a creative director.
Honestly, I started working on it as a joke, but it did get dead serious in the end!The basic idea was to develop a 3 step communication process, a teaser, the evolution and the final images.
Each step is made of 3 images and three simple animations I made starting from the illustrations.
The concept is very easy: 3 huge mysterious objects are coming, one from the desert, one from the ocean and one from the sky (yes, it's a SENTAI tribute).Where do they come from and what are they coming for? 
Then I got this idea to use the main auditorium structures as alien vessels and it was very fun to develop.Hope that Renzo Piano will have fun as much as I did.
I hope that after the whole set of posters is out, somebody will think of the real auditorium as a GIANT action figure set of a sci fi movie rather than modern architecture. Maybe it will look like a fake repro of my spaceships.
Moreover: you are actually going INTO those BIG spaceships - to party.

These are the first images, including some previews for the next round of illustrations. Enjoy!

Font by ADE Creative Studio!

Archimedes, a planetarium opera" is a very complex mixed media project by computer music pioneer, performer and composer James Dashow. The opera is about life, works and death  of one of the most important and charming personality of physics and mathematics, Archimedes. This project stands out for it's very peculiar form: it's an opera, where music is all computer generated, but with a real choir and actors and computer generated video as a scenography: morevoer video is thought to be projected in a planetarium for a special tridimensional image rendition. The whole opera has several chapters and each of em can have a video track in a very special time/space sync: music has a very complex spatialization process with several audio channels and video sticks to each movement the audio does, creating a very complex multisensorial experience. I was asked by James Dashow to take care of the video for the last part of the opera, the chapter is titled "MATHIII", where archimedes fictionally discovers all of todays explerimental science, like strings, multiverses, black holes and so on. While I was very excited for the project, theme and musics where truly outstanding, I'm not exactly what you could call a science pro so I had to work a lot to get the ideas behind each one of the theories I had to animate. The wholo piece is 16:00 minutes long. Here is a brief Playlist: (00:00) Archimedes starts warming up (1:42) Feynmann diagrams (2:30) Bubble Chamber, Large Hadron Collider (3:25) Chaos, autosimilarity (5:35) Lorentz attractors (6:40) small to micro (7:14) The strings theory (8:31) Penrose tilings (09:29) Big bang, brane theory and parallel universes (11:42) more on parallel universe theory (12:20) Finale, archimedes and the soldier (15:05) Death.

Here! ED-209 strikes a pose for the official "i 400 calci" calendar!

Designed this logo/mascotte for THE international Anime event, in collaboration with BANDAI, Shueisha, Studio Pierrot, SONY ANIPLEX, Toei Animation, TV Tokyo and Sunrise.
From their website:
The first and official live event made and performed by the Japanese creators of the famous Manga and Anime series WORLD PREMIERE – PARIS, Zénith - October 2010 The Greatest SHOW OF MANGA & ANIME ever conceived in the World. JAPAN ANIME LIVE is an extraordinary event that brings live on stage the “all-star” of the world of Japanese animation such as NARUTO-SHIPPUDEN, FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST BROTHERHOOD, BLEACH, ONE PIECE and GUNDAM Series. A unique show for the first time on tour in Europe. JAPAN ANIME LIVE is a mix of live action, live recitation, special stories, flamboyant effects and live music to sing along with the public the original theme songs of the TV series. JAPAN ANIME LIVE is a fast paced POP OPERA that puts into reality a world of fantasy and its heroes. A time-space gate that connects the fans with the dream world of Anime. A “must-attend” event for all cosplayers and Japanese pop culture lovers in general. JAPAN ANIME LIVE is what you will never watch on TV: in fact all animations and stories have been re-created and re-edited exclusively for the show and what’s more, they contain hidden facts about the stories of the beloved Anime characters. Over two and half hours of breathtaking show, divided into five chapters, each one devoted to an animated series, dynamically orchestrated by a script that combines all the different elements of the show. All contents featured in JAPAN ANIME LIVE are licensed and created by Aniplex, Toei Animation, Sunrise, Pierrot, TV Tokyo and Shueisha, which are the major JapaneseAnime-maker companies. 

In the gallery below you can see some other discarded Logo drafts I made for the event.

VERY VERY honoured to be selected for Futuro Anteriore 2010 (BLACK) at Napoli COMICON.

Event Horizon, my story, is about a lost spaceman that turns into a black hole, devouring the entire universe as we know it.

Event Horizon will be printed as part of the Futuro Anteriore 2010 book.
You can see the panels at Napoli Comicon.

Text by Alessandro Caroni.
Japanese Adaptation Federica Lippi.

My friend RADRO from Subdance Records asked me an illustration for a music event in Winterthur, switzerland. Here it is, a weird space encounter. It will be printed as a flyer and as a A2 Poster.
Below some in between steps!

1964 AAU Teen Mr. America; 4th Place
1964 AAU Teen Mr. America Most Muscular, 5th Place
1969 IFBB Mr. America Tall, 40th Place
1970 IFBB Mr. America Tall & Overall, 4th Place
1970 AAU Mr. East Coast Tall & Overall, 4th Place
1971 IFBB Universe Tall, 3rd Place
1971 Beat Brandon Lewi for the Heavyweight Championship of the World
1972 IFBB Mr. International Tall, 4th Place
1972 IFBB Universe Tall, 4th Place
1973 IFBB Universe Tall, 3rd Place
1974 IFBB Mr. International Tall, - 4th Place
1974 GLAAD names Mike Katz the Man of the Century
1975 IFBB Universe Tall, 4th Place
1976 Mr. Olympia Heavyweight, 4th Place
1980 NBA Natural Mr. America Professional, 4th Place
1980 IFBB World Pro Championships Did Not Place
1980 Retired after losing to Cooper Hayman in the National Strongman Competition
1981 Mr. Olympia 15th Place

I illustrated book about Turin thanks to mr Matteo Stefanelli.
It's the 2010 guide to Turin by Edizioni Zero, a deluxe small book full of good informations to spend your time in F.W. Nietzsche favourite city! 
Moreover it will be out SOON, and (TAH DAAAAH) for FREEEEE!
It features one of the 1825 named "Sol", acting as the main character.
Check it out!

In the gallery some studies or alternate versions!

Blue 194, out now. Ask your newsagent.
This is my humble contribute to a forbidden sacred magazine.
I wanted to catch that exotic super futuristic flavour of those early super pricy '90's newtype japanese magazines. 
Hope you'll like it.

Cover illustration for "Plissken", a LORY D remix EP for John Carpenter's "Escape from New York" OST. Yes: I actually wrote John Carpenter's name on a record label (and Alan Howarth's too) I can die in peace now.Published thanks to my friend Radro at Subdance. 
Below you can find the promotional sticker design and other materials I made for the release.