Meet Luca Nemolato

Today we’d like to introduce you to Luca Nemolato.

Hi Luca, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’m an Italian Concept Artist working for Films, Tv Shows, Video Games and Commercials. I have professional experience working both in Italy and USA, where he is a member of the ADG local 800 \ CDG 892 and AG 839
I started my education in Italy where I graduated in fine art in 2010, specializing in painting and sculpting. I then continued my education in the USA when I moved to Los Angeles to attend courses at the Gnomon School of VFX to learn from some of the best concept artists in the industry.

From then my career started working for design companies, vfx companies, spfx companies and different Directors and Productions making a name for myself working on projects such as The Shape of Water, Jungle Cruise, Black Adam, HBO Westworld, Middle Earth: Shadow of War video game and more.

He is also the author of two tutorial DVDs with the Gnomon Workshop and he was a CG Society/CGMA Workshop Instructor for several years.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
My road to starting my career wasn’t smooth at all. I immigrated from Italy to Los Angeles at 19 years old, without any friends of family in the country, whit only a high school understanding of English. I had to live in various hostels around the city which were pretty awful while attending courses at Gnomon School of VFX. I couldn’t work so I was living of the little bit of savings I had so life was pretty rough in an expensive city like LA. I went around the city on my bicycle and on busses for a long time.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I’m a Concept Artist, which means I draw, paint and sculpt Characters, Creatures, Costumes and Keyframes for Movies, Tv Shows and video games. I’m very proud of the work I did on projects like the Shape of Water, he was a dream job to work for Guillermo Del Toro, he has always been one of my favorite directors growing up so it was such a surreal experience to be in his presence.

I’m not sure what sets me aside but I love that I have a Fine Art background. Going to Art school in Italy wasn’t perfect but it really gave me that classical art upbringing that I try to carry with me even into films and tv projects.

We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?
Taking risks in my career has helped me a lot to push forward to the next level, It’s a really scary thing to do, I’ve personally left more stable jobs with full-time employment to jump on risky, short-term opportunities that had no promises. But if I didn’t do that, if I didn’t jump towards the unknown, I would have never achieved some milestones in my career. I’m proud that I did that but I will never forget how scary those times were.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.artstation.com/lucanemolato
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lucanemolato/?hl=en