NOIR

Noir and Crime are my favorite genres…Don’t misunderstand me I love drawing other genres as well: Sci-fi, military, Horror, Superheros etc…but when the lights turn Off and the party is over I always get back to my noir alley.

I think this is reflected on my art work as well…even if I draw a Cow Boys or Gi story…you can see a “noir” approach.
People think of me as Noir artist due to the way I approach both black and white balancing in the page and the way I use cast shadows.

I’m a fan of old classic black and white movies and I learned a lot from them, I studied the way both lights and shadows and camera angles were used to add drama, mystery, fear ecc.. and and I tried to apply the same in my work.

What I’m saying it’s not new at all and wonderful example can be seen in the amazing work of several artists I admire and follow.
I run into Gene Colan work on Dare Devil and Doctor Strange when I was a kid and it’s been love at first sight. I was captured by that dark style and this was just the kickoff of my learning journey that had important milestones when I knew the work of Zaffino, Bernet, Trigo, Mandrafina, Milazzo, Battaglia, Breccia, Munoz, Williamson, Toth, Raymond etc… And I’m still learning from today masters: Sean Phillips, Steve Epting, Michael Lark, Corrado Mastantuono, Tommy Lee Edwards, Shawn Martinbrough etc…I’m just an absolute beginner compare to their work.

Did it put a “noir artist” label on me? It did. Almost 80% of the work requests I receive are about noir or crime stories, the rest is split between Horror and Military stories.
I’m Ok with it. I’m totally fine.

“I didn’t know I was doing film noir, I thought they were detective stories with low lighting!” Marie Windsor