Joel Gabelli

I have been drawing my entire life. I am 34 and for as far back as my memory reaches, I have drawing things. One of my most prominent art memories is from the age of five, when I traced Sonic the Hedgehog from the back of the SEGA Genesis box.
Sonic is, admittedly, a mascot of sorts for my talent. I always drew what I was a fan of when I was little. Animaniacs, Aladdin, Battle Toads,… whatever cartoon flavor-of-the-week I fancied.
I also made up imaginary monsters with mish-mashed scary features to spice them up. Big or dislocated jaws were a big part of those drawings.

As I grew up I dove into finer artistic endeavors, like skeletal structure, muscles and their names, hair and clothing dynamics,… Shading was a big thing for me even before this stage in my artistic development. Anatomical studies compounded my mastery of figure drawing.

When I was bored, I drew. I would usually start with an emotion or aesthetic detail and build on it from there. Case-in-point, the Lemon-Headed Cat Vixen. Her defining visual trait was an oblong oversized head with long hair wearing a lounge singer’s dress. Cartoony, of course, Kind of like an anthropomorphic Betty Boop.

I obtained an Associate’s Degree in Visual Design from Oakbridge Academy of Art in 2008. During my time there I met many fascinating people and produced some of my best work, including my ink stippling of Gwen Stefani, which I had copyrighted.

More recently I have gotten into caricatures. My approach to then is, in my opinion, different enough to call them “Realisticatures”, which is what I call them when I draw them. It’s kind of like impressionism with a Sharpie.