Camilla d’Errico, a visual artist based out of Vancouver, British Columbia, continually develops her career, exploring new areas and showcasing the elements of her work to a global following. Known for her extraordinary work illustrating for comic books, Camilla has also transferred her creative ability into the design of vinyl and plush toys, including her Tanpopo character, Kuro. Tanpopo is just one of many series that Camilla is responsible for bringing to life, not only through its print production but clothing as well. While this is a new area that Camilla has recently begun to explore, she intends to continue focusing her efforts on designing and illustrating.
“Tanpopo is a wonderful surprise and adventure for me. It started out in 2007 as a 20-page book with a finite ending, and now I’m turning it into a series. Tanpopo is about a mysterious girl who feels no emotion so she sells her soul to the Devil in exchange for the chance at feeling what it means to be human. The Devil, named Kuro, appears as a poodle in the first volume, but he transforms into a boy in the second, and will make several transformations throughout the story. In each volume, based on a different piece of literature, has an underlying emotional theme, and Kuro teaches Tanpopo a new emotion, ranging from sadness, jealousy, all the way to happiness and love. But of course there will be twists and surprises and an ending that I won’t divulge now. Each book (volume) is inspired by a different poem, prose, opera, etc. (all public domain). I take the text and use it to tell the story, so each volume’s text is this classic literature but it tells the story perfectly! The first book is based on Goethe’s Faust and I chose this because, well, I love Faust. I love literature in general. It is also fun to create the series, to develop the characters and the storyline, and to watch it turn into a saga.”
Despite differing media, there is consistency in d’Errico’s work; it is always of the greatest quality and is inspired by a range of emotions — emotions which Camilla says come from deep inside of her, from what she feels or sees out in the world and how she interprets it.
“Often the paintings reveal part of my state of being when I was painting them, but it is never an intentional transposition of my emotions onto canvas. When I paint I go off into another world, and let myself be led by what I feel. But, like any woman or any person, I can feel several emotions at the same time. The emotions come from deep inside of me, from what I feel, or what I see out in the world and how I interpret the world and what I think the girls in the paintings want to say.”
Camilla has worked for a growing list of impressive clients who have entrusted her with bringing their various visions to life. This aspect of trust is something Camilla admits can be the most challenging part about working with someone else’s characters.
“If [clients] don’t give the artist total trust and freedom to bring to life the vision, or they try to constrain the artist too much, it completely cuts off the creative energy and enthusiasm that the artist has, or had, for the project. This hasn’t happened to me often, and I’ve even turned down offers where I felt that it would end up this way.”
A recent offer that Camilla is pleased to have not turned down is one from ex-Marvel Comics writer and artist, and co-founder of Image Comics, Jim Valentino.
“The project with Jim Valentino is already finished so to speak. The artwork is done, and it has been announced by Image. Jim put together, for his Silverline imprint, an anthology of fairytales and fables. He asked some of today’s best comic artists and writers to contribute their talents. We could either work with a partner (artist/writer) or some people did the whole story alone. We picked a classic fairytale/fable and re-interpreted it in a funny way. The point is to bring comics back to kids, to involve them in comics and help them love comics. I paired up with Bryan Talbot who is an unbelievable writer and artist. We picked Little Red Riding Hood. We even re-exhumed one of my favorite sayings of ALL TIME! (and you’ll see it on the last panel of the first page of the story). What’s funny is that we cranked this baby out at the last minute, but with so much creative energy that you’d think we were out to save the world (and not just our butts!). I involved fellow Canadian artists, Edison Yan and Ed Brisson in our little team. And the result? Well, we were thrilled with it, and so was Jim, because he chose it to lead off the whole anthology and the Free Comic Book Day 36-page version.”
The Fractured Fables project will surface May 1, 2010 — part of an exciting year for Camilla d’Errico and her fans. While the world anxiously anticipates the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver near her hometown of Lumby, BC, Camilla is busy preparing for her exhibit which will be showcased during the Winter Games. Camilla has some fascinating work in store, which will touch on aspects of Northern nature.
“I’m playing with the idea of doing some black and whites that represent the various cultures, and because I believe Canada is such a wonderful and nature driven country I’m going to do a piece that represents my idea of Canadian nature. There are gonna be some of the pieces from my past Vain Remains show which is VERY nature based, but not just ‘animals’, since the theme of Vain Remains was the circle of life, but the essence of nature. If I can manage it, I’ll also do a brand new full color piece.”
In addition to her preparation for the Winter Olympics exhibition, Camilla has been planning to showcase her Helmetgirls series — one of Camilla’s fascinating trademark designs — at a solo show in Rome in June 2010 at the Modobizzarro Gallery.
“The whole show is based on Helmetgirls and it will be a black and whites show. I know that most people love my color paintings but I’m very attached to the black and whites and those are exactly what Helmetgirls is, since Helmetgirls started as black and white sketches, drawings, then they evolved into paintings. This is a big step for me, because I want to start promoting and developing Helmetgirls into the graphic novel that I’ve had planned now for some time.”
Indeed a busy year for Camilla, her hard work and ability to progress as an artist are sure to result in some incredible designs for the upcoming year, and many to come.