Elena "Greenedera" Zambelli Interview

Let’s learn a bit about the talented artist and graphic designer Elena “Greenedera” Zambelli. You can learn more about her and her art here:https://linktr.ee/elenazambelli

Transcript

1) How did you discover Dragonlance?

I was 13 when I received “War of the Twins.” I knew it was not the first book of the series, but I decided to read it anyway. I fell in love with Raistlin immediately. In the next two months, I found and read the other books by Weis & Hickman and loved them. Later I discovered the D&D setting and all the previous material.

The Internet was just a novelty at the time, and I didn’t know English, but I did my best to hoard all the official paintings of the series. I still have my first sketches of Raistlin from 2000.

2) Do you have a favorite novel or series?

In Dragonlance, that is The Soulforge. The Legend Trilogy is my favorite as well, especially the chapters about Raistlin and Dalamar.

3) Why is that your favorite novel or series?

Easy to understand why: Raistlin, Raistlin, Raistlin. Such a clichè, to fall for the villain. But it’s not just that. He’s a character misunderstood by his peers, the outcast. He has a lot of problems, yet he never gives up. He always finds inner strength that leads him to overcome his fears and fight with all his might.

He can make mistakes, but he regrets nothing. This was inspiring and still inspires me to this day. Even though he’s just a fictional character, thinking of Raistlin helped me through some awful moments in my past, especially when I had a health problem that I feared would stop me from drawing forever.

4) What is the most tragic moment in Dragonlance, in your opinion?

As you can imagine, it was the end of Time of the Twins. It stole my breath, and when the book ended, I felt that peculiar feeling of emptiness. One moment later, though, I was already creating an alternative finale in my head, one I could bear. So, Raistlin never really died, for me.

5) What is it about Dragonlance that makes you create art for it?

My love for the characters. I want them to live forever, and I want to share how I imagine them. I want to depict significant moments. When creating a semi-realistic painting, I spend a lot of time with the characters: from 10 up to 40 hours working on the same picture, from sketch to final stage, so I have a lot of time to think. My thoughts are circling around the books, the scenes, the “what ifs.” Of course, it’s nicer to paint subjects you love. It’s not just about drawing something: it’s about catching the moment, expressing the feel of the scene, the emotions of the characters: It is what I try to do, when I sit down and paint.

6) What is your favorite medium to create art in?

I am torn on this subject, because I am an eclectic person. If I have to choose one answer, then it would be: digital. But I cannot deny my great love for art on paper as well: with a ballpoint pen and a scrap of paper I can sketch an idea I got within a minute. With watercolors, I can experiment with textures. A piece of traditional art, no matter how small, has a quality that digital art lacks: this is the reason why in my digital paintings I try to evoke that messiness which is typical of ink and paint.I want people to understand with the first glance that my paintings are handmade, and not 3d renders or photographs.

7) How were you approached to be included in Dragonlance Nexus’ Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition fan conversion of the Dragonlance campaign sourcebook?

I entered Dragonlance Nexus radar with my painting of Tasslehoff pickpocketing Lord Soth and the ones that followed. I published them in the main Facebook group, and they asked me if they could share them on their gallery.

This year, they were looking for artworks for their upcoming manual: I sent them all I had because I wanted to support this kind of free project for the sake of bringing Dragonlance into the 5th Edition. So many don’t know of this Setting. I was delighted when I discovered they had picked my painting for the front cover and 8 others for the internal pages. Later they asked me if I wanted to realize something specific, and that’s how I created the Draconian portrait.

8) Were you given options for interior art or did they just offer specific ideas?

The Draconian portrait was a specific request: a painting with all the five races of draconians. I was like… “ook, I remember Baaz and Aurak, but what are the differences between all the others?” So I had to investigate, and it was somehow the work of a naturalist, studying all the possible references explaining the different races. Many paintings of the past years had some differences, and it was not just about the colors but also about the shape of the heads and the bodies: in the end, I returned to the origin and used some miniature pictures of the 80s as the main reference for the heads.

Dragonlance existed in this time period already, so why not? We are already used to modern depictions of half-dragons from the 5th edition: I wanted to make something more archaic that screamed “we are the scaly guys from AD&D.” An important reference was the painting of the Draconians in the snow by Master Keith Parkinson. I surely won’t be able reaching such mastery, but keeping that artwork near me was inspiring.

Tasslehoff’s Pouches of Everything has just been released, and it’s free to download from the Dragonlance Nexus website. To see my name written on the first page near that of the great master Elmore is like a dream come true. I KNOW it’s not like I work for Wizard of the Coast or the like: this is a project for fans created by the fans, but for someone like me, it is priceless. I grew up admiring Elmore’s work, studying his paintings, sketching them, and when he released the pictures he used to create them, my mind was blown away.

9) Besides Dragonlance, what are your favorite pieces of art that you have created?

In the last six months, I got involved in another fandom, a steampunk RPG video game named GreedFall. I was fascinated by the story and the characters, and I realized several artworks, both personal and commissioned. Drawing humans is always a challenge, especially when you want to depict love and emotion. This one, I call it “Parting kiss”, is dear to me not only because I liked that scene but because it dragged me out of an art block, making me feel the love and the enthusiasm of painting again.

(painting and wips, https://www.artstation.com/artwork/ZGZnQG

10) Can you walk us through your process of creating a piece of art? Does it start with a pencil sketch, or is it all on the computer?

I start with a little pencil sketch because I have to decide on the general shapes, how the characters fill the space, and what pose I want for my painting. Nothing elaborate.
Then I search for references: I browse hundreds of pictures, searching for details and the scene’s mood. Often I take pictures of myself or the people near me to catch the folds of the clothes, or I build small plasticine models if I must study how the ambient light hits the bodies. This phase often takes a couple of days because I mull over the scene, imagining it before my eyes as if it were a hologram and observing it from all points of view.
Then, finally I open Photoshop, turn on my drawing tablet, and work on the lineart- I go into detail, drawing the shapes and the volumes using the cross-hatching technique like working with a ball pen. This phase takes me a lengthy amount of time.
Then I paint the shadows as if I would use ink or watercolor. I turn my background grey, and I paint the lights like a white pencil on dark paper. Now I have a black and white painting, and I decide if the general shapes of darkness and lights are suitable and check if my characters are occupying the space as I wanted.
Then underneath the shaded layer, I add the base wash: with a lasso tool, I draw the shapes and fill them with flat colors, then add some sketchy colors to the different parts of the figure. I work on the background as a separate layer.
When it’s done, I do the “sandwich”: I merge all the layers of the figures in one, and I paint using opaque colors over everything, as if painting with oil colors, rendering the final aspect of the drawing, adding light effects if needed, applying filters to tweak the general color of the painting. Final touches until I feel it’s done.

11) What inspired you to become a Graphic Designer?

Sometimes in life we make mistakes, such as choosing the wrong course of study. But as the great Bob Ross said: “We don’t make mistakes — we just have happy accidents. After graduating in Natural Sciences, things happened, and I’ve been working as a graphic designer ever since: already as a child, I have always loved to mess around with the computer and graphic programs, especially to experiment with digital painting, so I already had some skills to do the job, and learned the rest with tutorials and gaining experience. In the meantime, I always experimented with drawing, painting and digital art.

12) Were there artists or works of art that inspired you to teach yourself painting?

In my artistic pantheon, there are many gods. Larry Elmore and Keith Parkinson’s work introduced me to fantasy art; Michael Whelan showed me the realistic style; Todd Lockwood and Matt Stawicki are outstanding and epic. Stephanie Pui Mun Law influenced my watercolors and love for material textures. Above all, the ultimate god, the multitasking genius, Leonardo Da Vinci. His book ‘De pictura’ helped me analyze reality in order to draw it.

Are you open to commissions?

I am. I take a few at a time, but I enjoy creating them as new challenges and dreams need to come true. I like realistic fantasy paintings because if I can depict a scene well enough, I can bring the observer into another world, making them feel like it was real.

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