Nicola Verlato

Nicola is my comp and design professor this semester at the Academy. On Monday, we were lucky enough to get a private view of his studio in Brooklyn. I was pretty impressed!

Nicola is from Italy. He studied as a boy with a monk who taught him how to draw and later decided to pursue a career as an architect. However, he lost interest and became an artist. He is an unbelievable painter, draftsman, and architect.... a true Renaissance man.. probably the most talented person I've ever met.

He plans out his compositions very carefully before he begins working on the final piece....starting by rough gestural sketching, making small maquettes of figures, and by creating 3-d images on the computer. (He is having us use these techniques in our class.) Finally, he will use live models to pose exactly as he has composed them. He photographs the models and uses the photographs as well as all the other preparatory work to do a beautiful precise drawing on the canvas. Next he will begin painting by laying in glazes of the three primaries in the shadows. He then begins to lay in the mid tones, working one color at a time. Apparently he is able to work very quickly... the painting I photographed was done in just 20 days!

http://www.nicolaverlato.com/