Journal
Fragments of a creative life
Sketchbook #145 - Nothing is more personal than a brush stroke
I love drawing in my sketchbook. When I think about it, it’s incredible how much time I’ve spent drawing traditionally, even if the results have often been slow to appear….
I love drawing in my sketchbook. When I think about it, it’s incredible how much time I’ve spent drawing traditionally, even if the results have often been slow to appear.
In 2014, I moved to Paris with the idea of settling down and working remotely after years of traveling around the world. At that time, driven by my desire to explore the world of concept art for film and television, I decided to return to fine art school. My background was mostly rooted in photography and heavily focused on 3D-based design, but I felt the need to go back to the basics — to refine and strengthen my fundamentals.
That journey into traditional work never left me. Despite the daily use of technology in my professional life, it gradually became more and more important in my artistic path.
The struggle, the frustration, but also the passion that fuels the discipline required to show up every day eventually became almost addictive to me.
I can hardly express how difficult this journey has been, especially for someone like me, who sometimes feels as though he was born with no natural predisposition for it. And yet, at the same time, it has also become a form of therapy — a space of silence, honesty, and meaningful hard work where I can slowly find myself again, stroke after stroke.
Whitechapel - ambient pill
Short track i composed to accompany a making of video of a personal concept art piece about Jack the Ripper and my love for this mystery and for Victorian Era London. Tried to capture the mood of the place while imagining what it could feel like to wander those poorly illuminated and filthy streets, how could this not be a playground for a serial killer !?
Short track i composed to accompany a making of video of a personal concept art piece about Jack the Ripper and my love for this mystery and for Victorian Era London. Tried to capture the mood of the place while imagining what it could feel like to wander those poorly illuminated and filthy streets, how could this not be a playground for a serial killer !?
Composed in Logic Pro - Kawai Novus NV5S - Expressive-E Osmose
Structures - ambient
Skyscrapers vanish into the clouds as colossal ships glide between them. Below lies nothing but an endless ocean, the surface of a forgotten world. A glimpse into the future, an imagined civilization where architecture reaches beyond the sky.
Skyscrapers vanish into the clouds as colossal ships glide between them. Below lies nothing but an endless ocean, the surface of a forgotten world. A glimpse into the future, an imagined civilization where architecture reaches beyond the sky.
Structures.
This is the idea behind the writing of this piece of ambient music which accompanied one of my illustrations.
Composed in Logic Pro - Kawai Novus NV5S - Expressive-E Osmose
Form A - score
Form A, shortfilm score
A track i composed scoring an abstract shortfilm for which i shot a lot of macro photography and i’m actually revisiting right now to see if i can “upgrade” it.
Music wise i wanted something slow and contemplative, but also mysterious, which is generally what i like in music.
Composed in Logic Pro - Kawai Novus NV5S - Expressive-E Osmose
Sic Parvis Magna
The original score of a simple abstract short film i created a few years back, will probably re work and expand this music idea while i go back and refine the short itself. We’re never satisfied of our work, and this is a blessing and a curse.
The original score of a simple abstract short film i created a few years back, will probably re work and expand this music idea while i go back and refine the short itself. We’re never satisfied of our work, and this is a blessing and a curse.
Composed in Logic Pro - Kawai Novus NV5S - Expressive-E Osmose
Ibiza
It’s not the style i prefer to compose but i have beautiful memories of my young age dancing nights, my love for clubbing faded with age obviously but i still love listening to some good dance music.
This is just a fun weekend exercise to create some beats and go back in time
It’s not the style i prefer to compose but i have beautiful memories of my young age dancing nights, my love for clubbing faded with age obviously but i still love listening to some good dance music.
This is just a fun weekend exercise to create some beats and go back in time
Composed in Logic Pro - Kawai Novus NV5S - Expressive-E Osmose
Signal
I spent quite some time with Elektron machines, learning ins and outs. Once i decided to go minimal, in the never ending ongoing process of reducing friction and maximizing productivity……
I spent quite some time with Elektron machines, learning ins and outs. Once i decided to go minimal, in the never ending ongoing process of reducing friction and maximizing productivity, i resampled a lot of material i created with these machines to eventually
use it even after having sold the machine.
Signal is a short scifi inspired piece which made use of this material.
June ‘22
Composed in Logic Pro - Kawai Novus NV5S - Expressive-E Osmose - Digitakt ii
Clone - A failed idea
I composed this track while working on a personal concept art piece inspired by a story I had in mind about a human cloning facility hidden inside a cave.
I composed this track while working on a personal concept art piece inspired by a story I had in mind about a human cloning facility hidden inside a cave. Not a particularly original idea, and I wasn't especially pleased with the final result, particularly the design of the machine, which was the main focus of the piece. It felt bulky and lacked elegance, and I eventually removed the artwork from my portfolio.
It was, however, a good excuse to compose this short piece of music.
Composed in Logic Pro - Kawai Novus NV5S - Expressive-E Osmose
Porter
The Short Film “Porter” by talented director Travis Hanour was a joy to work on, here’s a music sketch inspired by it
The Short Film “Porter” by talented director Travis Hanour was a joy to work on, here’s a music sketch inspired by it
Composed in Logic Pro - Kawai Novus NV5S - Expressive-E Osmose
Hausen - score
Hausen Tv Show for Sky International was such a fun project to work on, this is a small piece i composed to showcase my work on it
Hausen Tv Show for Sky International was such a fun project to work on, this is a small piece i composed to showcase my work on it
Composed in Logic Pro - Kawai Novus NV5S - Expressive-E Osmose
Sketchbook #13
Pages from my sketchbook, practicing using various media
Pages from my sketchbook, practicing using various media
Sketchbook #235 Human forms
Pages from my sketchbook, anatomy studies
Pages from my sketchbook, old studies of human forms.
Anatomy studies from books, from Masters, combining techniques, feeding the passion that keeps me going through continuous failure and random micro successes
Mistero - 2 chords
A few chords and a simple arrangement to convey Mistery. I probably wrote this for another making of videos from my portfolio.
A few chords and a simple arrangement to convey Mistery. I probably wrote this for another making of videos from my portfolio.
Composed in Logic Pro - Kawai Novus NV5S - Expressive-E Osmose
Gen V - score
A few years ago i worked on a The Boys spin-off tv show called GenV. For that show i designer a character called Golden Boy.
As i’m used to doing i eventually prepared a making of with a few phases of the design process. I composed this little piece of electronic music right for it.
A few years ago i worked on a The Boys spin-off tv show called GenV. For that show i designer a character called Golden Boy.
As i’m used to doing i eventually prepared a making of with a few phases of the design process. I composed this little piece of electronic music right for it.
Composed in Logic Pro - Kawai Novus NV5S - Expressive-E Osmose
Sketchbook #157
Pages from my sketchbook, improvised places
Pages from my sketchbook, places.
Sometimes I’m lucky enough to find myself alone in a place I like, without distractions or family around. Those moments are ideal for starting a quick on-location sketch: improvised, direct, and rarely good :) or fully “finished” state (what does “finished” even mean for a sketch?).
Other times I’ll just capture the spirit of a place through a few lines and shapes, and bring a photo back to the studio to further refine — or, more honestly, to reinterpret and push it a bit further. Some of these pages also include studies from master works;
I often alternate between studying from others and drawing from observation, with the aim of absorbing what I learn and re-expressing it through my own hand. Much simpler said than done… but we’re still here.
Sketchbook #72 - Gouache and my bad brain
I think one of the main obstacles in art — at least in the way I experienced it — is the overwhelming number of tools available, and how collecting fine art materials can easily become a real addiction.
I think one of the main obstacles in art — at least in the way I experienced it — is the overwhelming number of tools available, and how collecting fine art materials can easily become a real addiction.
Experimentation is important, of course. It’s part of finding what resonates with you, discovering your preferences, and slowly developing your own visual language. But I also realized that, for me, it often became a form of procrastination.
We are constantly bombarded by advertisements and exposed online to incredible artists creating extraordinary work with every possible tool imaginable. It becomes easy to believe that by buying the same materials, somehow we might also become capable of producing the same kind of work.
That is insecurity speaking — the quiet voice convincing you that the next tool will finally unlock something in you.
For a long time, I believed it over and over again.
So I accumulated enough materials to fill an entire store, only to slowly realize how deceptive that mindset could be. Little by little, I began reducing my tools drastically and focusing instead on process, repetition, and attention.
There was also a period in the past when I experimented extensively with gouache and watercolor. These are some very old studies from life or masters — the few that, as usual, did not end up in the fireplace…. imagine the others….
