Dreamlike Worlds

Parisian illustrator Ugo Gattoni spends months crafting fantastical environments for his giant hand-drawn art works, which fully immerse the viewer in his imagination...

- Nick Carson

UGO GATTONI_ Ugo Gattoni is a Parisian artist and art director, whose surreal and exquisitely detailed portraits, depictions of cityscapes, and strange, otherworldly objects and artefacts are renowned worldwide for their unparalleled level of skill. Working predominantly with graphite and ink, Ugo creates pieces that are a whirlwind of minute details, ethereal characters and typography. www.ugogattoni.fr

Spending months and months honing a piece to perfection by hand may sound more akin to the life of a fine artist than a commercial illustrator, where tight briefs and deadline pressures may sometimes risk putting a straitjacket on creativity and craft. 

Not so for renowned French illustrator Ugo Gattoni, who uses a unique blend of patience and skill to fill large canvases with incredibly intricate detail, populating whole worlds with the many creatures of his imagination.

Arguably his breakthrough project, a 2011 mural in Paris – some 33 feet wide – helped pave the way for Gattoni’s large-scale work, which has been applied across everything from wallpaper for Pierre Frey to silk scarves for Hermès; projection mapped onto the walls of London’s Saatchi Gallery; graced the covers of books for Nobrow and album artwork for Caravan Palace; and also made the transition into animated form for the latter’s music video.

In our third and final interview conducted at OFFF By Night festival in Antwerp back in September, we caught up with Gattoni to discuss his passion for fine detail, his love of handcrafted techniques, and his rare skill for bringing these things together on a large scale...

Talk us through your interest in surrealism and fantasy worlds. Who are your main influences?