"ODE TO MY CHILDHOOD" 

(Goku's Dream)

OK…THIS IS IT! This cartoon was definitely my favorite of them all, so this will be a very large introduction!

You know those movies or cartoons, that really mark your childhood? well, "Dragon Ball" marked mine, from the moment I discovered "DBZ" I followed it till the end, I watched every chapter, every movie, I played every game, I had all the toys, I knew all the names of every character, I was fascinated with it, man! it was an amazing journey for me, I still get goosebumps just by hearing any of their fantastic intro songs.

But this illustration has another backstory, "Dragon Ball" was also one of the first things I draw when I was a kid, I did tons of "DBZ" painting, so now, I wanted to paint a more realistic version of them, but I knew it was a very hard thing to do, because of one thing... their faces, interpret realistically a face I saw for so many years, in an animated version, with such unique features as theirs, is not easy, but after watching the live action movie, I was definitely sure it wasn't , everyone would think on a different face to give those characters, because so many people love them, and it would be tremendously difficult to make everyone happy, and that hair! how do you paint it realistically, without making it look silly? , and that is why this illustration came to me, and not the other way around, and many of you will be able to realize that  this composition is not mine, and I dont have any intention to claim it as mine, in fact, that is the curious thing about this illustration.

I was surfing the internet and suddenly I saw this wonderful poster of "Rainbow 6" (video game) and immediately thought, oh boy!, "Dragon Ball" would look awesome in this composition, and also, it will solve the problem of the faces, because in this way, everyone could imagine them as they would like them to be, so I decided to borrow this composicion and paint the "DBZ" characters in one similar to that one, I never do this, but I couldn't get the idea out of my head, maybe someday I will dare to paint their faces, but for now, this is how I want to represent them and leave the rest to your imagination.

Now, the name of the illustration, talks about what is happening there, if you know the story of "Dragon Ball Z", you would know that neither "Goku" nor "Trunks" or "Vegeta" were present in that part of the story, that's why it is called like that, putting a scene that will only could be possible in Goku's dreams.

I leave you here a link to one of the original openings,  (English)  or  (Spanish).

You can follow this collection on any of my sites!

"Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" 

I could easily say that this guys are definitely on my "Top 3" favorite cartoons of all time, I loved this guys, and I still do, their toys, movies, games, everything, i just can't get enough of them.

But i also have to say, that, this specific ninja turtles series, had a different purpose that the rest of the "ODE", I painted them like a year ago, as an exercise to see how I would redesign them with a more realistic look, before seeing the new designs of the movie, and this is what came out of that, a little more clean, i tried to stay true to the original design as much as i could.

Although I'm sure this is not going to be the last time i will paint the ninja turtles, but was a good exercise.

let me leave you here a link to the original"Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" cartoon intro, so you can get nostalgic too!

Also here is a link to the full idea behind the design of this guys.

"ODE TO MY CHILDHOOD"

"ODE TO MY CHILDHOOD" is a series of illustrations dedicated to all those things that made me tingle when i was a child, from cartoon characters,video games or even toys, but i will paint them with a more realistic look, trying to stay as close to the original design as i can.

you can follow this illustrations in any of my sites, i will upload new ones every week.

i hope you enjoy them!

"FAT HEROES"

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• "FAT HEROES" is a personal project, in which i take the famous super heroes and paint them with a different approach.

  "DC" was the first one, and because so many people liked it, i decided to do a complete series of them.

  
  In this series my main focus was on the idea, so i tried to keep the painting simple and fun, here you can see characters from the "DC" world like, "Batman", "Robin", "Superman" and "Flash", as well as characters from"Marvel", such as the "Avengers", "Spider Man", "Fantastic Four" and the "X Men", also from "Capcom" some"Street Fighter" characters and of course the beloved "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles".

  
  Also i've included a tutorial step by step and a speed painting video on how to paint one of them, in this case the  "X Men", done for: "design.tutsplus.com".
  
  

  http://design.tutsplus.com/articles/the-making-of-heavy-heroes--psd-29626
  
  

Also Here is a link to the full idea behind the design of this guys.

I hope you like it!

A little bit about Myself and my Art

Hi, my name is Carlos Dattoli, if you ask me what is my passion, I will say, to paint, to draw, to write, to create, if you ask me what I do for a living, I will say my passion… but saying this, means that my passion eventually could also become a job if I let it, a meaningless job, so I like to take every job as a new adventure, a new way to learn something, doesn't matter if it is just a technical improvement or a life changing journey, the important thing for me is to not  get lost in the way, so as this famous quote say," Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life".

This way, whenever  I paint for me or for a client, i give my whole effort, there is not a small client or a small idea, I believe that every single work can be great if it means something to someone, so when i start a project, I become the project, and for as long as the project lasts, it will be mine too and I will do it as good as I possibly can.

so yes, I'm a very passionate person, without passion there is not life, and without life there is not passion, so I want to take this incredible and very unlikely journey we call life, to put passion and meaning in everything that I do, and if you look closely to my work you will find this in every single piece.

I want to use this blog not only to write about my art, but about myself, my ideas and what is behind every piece or every choice I take.

I always say that you can't  simplify a human being with a simple description, and so you can't  simplify an artist either, because we all have a lot of faces, even not everyone approach them.

So a very important thing to know about myself in terms of my art, is that you would never see me doing the same thing over and over, i don't want to limit myself into choosing only one path, and why should i? what I mean, is that I enjoy doing a piece of art for children's book the same way as I enjoy doing a piece of concept art for an older audience, a humorous  illustration or an philosophical one, a commercial one, or a personal, doesn't matter, at the end of the day I will put all my effort into it and I will get the job done.

(English is not my native language so i will try to write as clear as i can)

Thank you for reading 

Carlos Dattoli