How did you become an artist?

The road of the artist for me hasn’t been that straightforward, I always loved video games since I was little and I liked to draw occasionally but I thought you had to have talent for it so it never occurred to me I could become an artist as I didn’t have any.
Eventually I ended up going in tech but at 23 I found myself really disliking that so I thought hard about what I really wanted to try and the answer was an artist! That’s when I actually researched and found out that you can actually try and learn it as a skill. Pursuing that was definitely one of my best decisions!

Where do you get inspiration?

Finding references is all about pinterest these days, altho I rely a lot on my huge library of photo references I bought and shot through the years (currently sitting at 50.000 + images).
But inspiration to draw comes in all forms, especially from the external world. I often find myself sneaking in little sketches when outside to capture something I saw.

What’s your hardware setup?

I’m currently running a dual monitor + Cintiq 22”(so 3 screens) and a Tourbox for shortcuts.
It’s pretty comfortable, especially as I also got the adjustable arm for the Cintiq that allows me to turn it and paint what I see from my window (mostly clouds).

What do you like best about Clip Studio Paint?

How long does it take you to make a single illustration?

That is a really hard question to answer as it heavily depends on the illustration, I would say on average for work it takes around 2 to 3 days for things that aren’t super complex or overly polished.

How has Clip Studio Paint improved your workflow?

Clip Studio Paint really smoothed out some creases in my workflow, it’s mostly about brush behaviour and shortcuts, I don’t use a lot of fancy tools so it’s really important that the barrier between what I want to do and the tools is minimal.

Where can we follow your work?

You can follow my work on Instagram at @gatto.roberto my website www.robertogattoart.com or my Artstation www.artstation.com/robertogatto