Illustrator Spotlight: Gabriel Evangelista

Oct. 27, 2017

Today we feature Gabriel Evangelista, aka GEvan, a Canadian/Portuguese illustrator, concept artist, art director and professor living in Portugal.

Tell us about yourself and the kind of creative work you do.

Hi! First of all, many thanks for inviting me to this interview!

About myself? Well, I was born in Canada and came to Portugal in a young age. I guess from around 10 years old I decided that I would pursue a career in arts and since then I never looked back. I studied design and my first job was as a designer while I was still in college.

Since then I slowly started to build a path through illustration and comics. Around 2005 I started getting invitations from the videogame industry and today I work as a concept artist, 2d artist and I teach videogame art and digital art at College.

Although the majority of my work comes from the videogame industry I still work in illustration and comics from time to time.

You work in both concept art for video games and illustrations for comic books. Do you approach these assignments in similar or different ways?

I approach all my work in a similar way although different art forms need different tasks.

I always start by trying to understand what’s my client needs. I work with different art styles so I like put my personal tastes aside and aim at what I think is best for the project. This been said, sometimes a client does ask for a specific style and I do my best to get there as well.

So this goes to all my different tasks, whether it’s game art, comics or concept art: I first study what the project needs and try to understand as much as possible about the context or theme I’ll be dealing with, then I do a lot of research and only after that I start sketching.

I feel that a good research is essential to a solid creative method. This will help build and grow your cultural and visual library inside your head. The better it is, the more ingredients I’ll have to start “cooking” ideas.

After several sketches I gradually start building different concepts. I try to keep my mind open at start and do my best to avoid coming up with “the right idea” in an early stage. I can only say that I delivered the best solution possible if I try, study and compare different ideas first. Then, I go on and create a final image or concept.

The length of this stage depends obviously on the client’s milestones so I end up adapting myself to them. Sometimes time is short so I can’t study and sketch as much as I would like but the base of the process is still there.

So, although comics and video games have different needs, I still fit the same strategy for both of them.

What projects are you working on now?

Now I’m starting to work on a couple of new projects but they’re still in a very early stage so I can’t talk about them.

One of my personal projects, if you may call it that, is teaching and that’s an ongoing work.

You are a Canadian living in Portugal. Where are your clients generally located, and are you part of a creative community where you live?

My clients are generally from all Europe and America although all the work I created in the last 10 years ended up coming from Portugal and United States.

Portugal has a good strong and always growing creative community in comics and illustration but also in videogames. I do my best to be in all of them and I often participate in several events either as a curator and participant in some of the expos or just as a visitor.

What advice would you give to illustrators who want to work in comics or graphic novels?

Just start working on them. Facebook and other social networks are an easy way to meet people with the same interests nowadays. So it’s easy to find somebody to not only team up with but also to showcase your work. Experience is highly valued so start building. Try to have finished projects on your portfolio because that will give you a head start between those who haven’t.

Then, keep an eye in all events or exhibits you can find. Showcase your work as most as possible!

What is one thing most people don't know about you?

I have a terribly bad memory. It’s really hard for me to remember names, numbers and sometimes even faces.

Where can people find you online?

I have my own website: http://www.gevan.org/

And several social pages:

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gevan

Behance: https://www.behance.net/GEvan

Artstation: https://www.artstation.com/gevan

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GEvanArtwork

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gevan.artwork/

Twiter: https://twitter.com/realgevan

Creative pool: https://creativepool.com/gevan

Gabriel Evangelista a.k.a. GEvan.. is a Canadian/Portuguese Illustrator, Concept Artist, Art Director & Professor currently living in Portugal. With over 10 years of experience, he’s been developing mostly concept art for the game industry and illustrations for comic books and print.