Giovanni Palmeri, in the world of stories and comics

Giovanni Palmeri

Giovanni Palmeri aka Dorik was born in Palermo in 1998. He’s both a cartoonist and an illustrator. Here is his identikit. After he received his degree at the School of Fine Arts in Palermo, he took part in the 8th edition of the Art Symposium in Cefalù and dreams big. Sicilian Secrets interviewed him.

Q: How did you approach the art of comics?

A: I have always loved drawing since I was a child, at that time I used to draw on my planning and schoolbooks. Moreover, I’ve always liked cartoons and superhero movies. However, I never thought about comics and illustration as a job, at least until the end of middle school. They organized the usual meeting to talk about the high school and there I met a professor who explained to me that drawings can be a job. So, I enrolled in the art school and after that, I chose the course of Comics and Illustration at the university.

Q: Is there any cartoonist you are inspired by?

A: A long time ago I was inspired a lot by Alessandro Barbucci, a well-known cartoonist, especially to learn how to animate and outline the anatomy of the characters. But later, some people pointed out that I was nothing more than a copy of Barbucci like many others. In that moment, I realized that I had to work on my drawing style, so I knew Richardhtt, Fraffrog, Rossdraw and Vivziepop. Now they are part of my inspirational models.

Giovanni Palmeri
Illustration by Giovanni Palmeri

Q: Which techniques do you use for your creations?

A: When we talk about artistic techniques, I mostly use digital tools without abandoning the traditional ones. If we are talking about working techniques, I usually start from the classic draft – or sketch – where the composition, shapes, etc. are decided. Then I move on and clean the picture, in this phase I redraw on the draft and define it. Finally, the coloring. Generally, I proceed in this way, but the process can vary depending on what is being done.

Q: Let’s look at the future, where would you like to work?

A: I would like to work as an illustrator for children’s books. Or I’d like to create my own comics. I do not exclude anything.

Giovanni Palmeri at work

Q: Among the characters you have created, what’s your favorite?

A: This is an interesting question. There are some characters I really love because they belong to my childhood. Some others, however, were born when I was an adult, but I love them in the same way. I’ll tell you an anecdote: my alter ego, The Dorik, always wears a mask, nobody has ever seen his face and his name is backwards.

Q: Where does the name of your Instagram page ‘artof_dorik’ come about?

A: The name of my Instagram page came about when I was in high school. At that time, I don’t know why, tags on the walls were very popular. So, we all wanted to create our nickname. Mine was awful and banal. I had chosen ‘Draws’, but then realized that a tag is nothing more than another name that we give to ourselves, so I remembered Giovanni Palmeri’s alter ego. So, here is Dorik.

Illustration by Giovanni Palmeri

Q: What are your current and future projects?

A: I’m planning to write and draw a story about the trial of a very important character. It’ll be definitely irreverent!

Giovanni Palmeri made us dream and took us into the world of his comics. Sicilian Secrets always tells you about some new stories through the blog. And if you wish to stay updated about our news and read our next articles, follow us on Sicilian Secrets’ Facebook page and Instagram.
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