original artwork
i don't know about you, but when i was a kid i never really wondered where the drawings that made up the comics i so loved (and still love at my not-so-green-anymore age) were coming from. for all i knew, comics might have been growing on trees or being magically printed in wonderland, stories and pictures originating from fairy dust.
years later, when i realized -again- that comics were cool and that i must've had hit my head too hard when i sold my collection all those years before, i also found out that there were real men (and women) behind those stories. Artists who would spend their life creating the visuals to larger-than-life characters, giving them two-dimensional life and drawing all that crazy action that kept me glued to those four-color funnies month in, month out.
imagine my surprise when i discovered that those drawings (and paintings) could be obtained in exchange of -guess what?- monetary compensation. "so i can really have a piece of art by __insert name here__ depicting my fave character?": there went my brain and my bank account, but the collection of original artwork hanging on my walls is definitely my pride and joy and there's not a single day during which i don't stop in front of one of the pieces enjoying the brush strokes or the pencil and ink work. |
one-of-a-kind
think of it: not "limited edition". not "super-rare". nNot "__insert name of show__ exclusive". not "only me and such-and-such have it".
ONE-OF-A-KIND. spelled "i-f i h-a-v-e i-t, n-o-b-o-d-y e-l-s-e d-o-e-s".
ain't that any collector's dream? and that's exactly what original artwork is: one-of-a-kind. the artist handpainted that one piece which was then used to print tens/hundreds of thousands of copies: that single painting can be owned by one person only in the whole world. might as well be you, right?
ultimate collectible
now it's easy to see why "ultimate collectible" fits original artwork so perfectly, isn't it?
so, with no further ado, let's go see what kind of barbie original art we're offering here and who's the artist who did most of it.
|
barbie parade
in 1978, italian publisher figurine panini hit the market with one of his most successful sets ever: barbie parade, a collection of 256 stickers featuring barbie, ken, cara, francie, skipper and ginger in fifteen different set-ups. some of the stickers were single, some composed larger images, all featured beautiful shots of the most beloved doll in the world, the vast majority of which handpainted by a famous italian illustrator, angelo bioletto.
the set and album were also reprinted in france, belgium and netherlands in 1979 and in spain in 1985.
the artist
angelo bioletto, was born in turin and worked in a graphic studio before he started drawing for the daily la stampa. there he had his own features, such as 'bioletto ha visto' and 'taccuino di bioletto'. he was responsible for the merchandising of the radio series 'i quattro moschettieri', and illustrated some comic adaptations of the serial. bioletto joined publisher mondadori in the late 1930s, where he worked on the 'don chisciotte' comic with writer frederico pedrocchi. the pair also worked together on 'la rosa di bagdad', the first big animation project in italy. in 1948 he returned to comics, illustrating several stories with disney characters for topolino and, after that, moving to illustration and other assorted projects until he died in 1987. |
quique alcatena 
