Gabo's favorite moments as an artist are when viewers find a personal connection to his artwork.
At comic book conventions, where Gabo, 44, used to sell his artwork as a vendor, where visitors would flip through art books, and then suddenly stop and stare at one image.
"It hits them," said Gabo, whose legal name is Gabriel Bautista. "They immediately connect with that one image, and they cherish it."
One year, English actor Jonathan Ross bought Gabo's entire sketchbook at San Diego Comic Con. The actor looked through the book, looked at Gabo and asked him to name his price. The sketchbook went for thousands of dollars.
"That will never, ever happen again," Gabo said. "It was the best sale of my life."
Gabo has illustrated for DC Comics, Oni Press and Image, and previously worked as a full-time freelance artist for almost a decade. His illustrations of people and animals, along with his unique watercolor background, earned him Harvey and Will Eisner Comic Industry awards and a nomination for the prestigious Russ Manning Most Promising Newcomer Award in 2015.
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Three years ago, Gabo, originally from West Chicago, Illinois, left freelance life behind and moved to the Quad-Cities with his wife, an artist who sells under the name Cloverkin. When he arrived in the Quad-Cities, money was tight, and Gabo said he began a job at Walmart.
"I ended up having to go back to my roots," he said.
The job led him to reevaluate his life as a freelance artist. He felt a constant pressure to create just the next best piece to sell to people, he said.
All he truly wanted, he said, was time to create his own art that fulfills him, not to create art satisfying the wishes of others.
"Freelance is not fun," Gabo said. "I was lying to myself."
Later, he stopped posting on social media, too.
"I was falling apart," he said.
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After a few months at Walmart, Gabo began a full-time job doing production and graphic design at Sign Team, Inc. in Bettendorf, where he works today. The Bettendorf job offers the perfect scenario, he said. As printing machines hum, he has time to think about the art he will create each evening.
"When I come home, I'm able to just draw," he said.
This month, Gabo is the featured artist at Art at the Bend at The Rust Belt. His work will hang in the venue's common area all month. On Thursday, Feb. 13, he'll host an art show and live art jam at Art at the Bend. Admission is free.
Gabo is working with writer Joanne Starer on "A Way From Here," a young adult book set in Vienna, Austria, in the days leading up to the Holocaust. The book began on the online platform Substack, and was later picked up by what Gabo describes as "a top, top, top" young adult book publisher he cannot mention publicly. The book is slated to be released in 2027.
Projects like "A Way From Here" are the exact types of work that fulfills him as an artist, he said.
Gabo's history as an artist began when he was young, when, like many children, he drew frequently. He just never grew out of it, he said.
As a young adult, Gabo bought bootleg "Dragon Ball" videotapes before the series was available in the U.S. The principal "Dragon Ball" artist, Akira Toriyama, was one of Gabo's biggest artistic inspirations growing up.
His progress as an artist took off in the early 2000s when he created the website entervoid.com, which he describes as comic book dueling website where artists' drawings battle one against each other. Today, the site maintains an active user base, though Gabo no longer manages it.
"It was almost like college without having to go to college," he said about the website. "It became this big pool of talent."
In the 2010s, he enrolled at The Illinois Art Institute in Schaumburg. During his final year, he signed as a colorist with DC Comics, adding color to the black-and-white illustrations for comics like "The Spirit" and "Jonah Hex."
His background in watercolor in addition to traditional comic coloring made him able to color comics differently from other artists, he said. He developed an edge. After around three years, he moved away from coloring and focused on drawing itself.
Until the pandemic, he was a freelance illustrator and illustrated the Oni Press series "The Life After" by Joshua Fialkov. He also illustrated three, as of yet unpublished, graphic novels, a total of over 400 pages, for an executive producer of the television series "Family Guy," though the novels are not connected to the show.
Sometimes, Gabo said, there's a fogginess in his mind preventing him from reaching the fullest potential in his artwork. In these moments, his wife pushes him to see beyond his prior capabilities.
"I can only see so far," he said. "But she can see right through the veil."
Photos: Local artist paints holiday cheer around the Quad-Cites 0 Comments Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0
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