Hi!

My name is Nico Rigobello and I’m a fantasy illustrator from Italy.

Since I was a kid drawing was a big part of my life and my imagination was fueled by great artists like James Gurney with his Dinotopia book, Tony Wolf and Richard Scarry. Dragons, mighty heroes and little forest people were my daily obsession.

As a boy I made bad school choices by choosing a school based on economics. Maybe the fact that I drew dragons and heroes in school books and notebooks every day without paying attention to my math classes should have given me some doubts, but it would take a few more years to figure it out.

After school I met a graphic designer who, seeing my drawings, wanted to hire me. From that day on I discovered that my passion could turn into a career. Without the possibility of attending a school I decided to learn for myself what there was to know, I started to love art and I started to discover many illustrators who are my daily inspiration. Graphic design has been my main occupation for most of my career, but in 2020, due to the global pandemic, I intensified my studies on illustration.

Today I can claim to be a self-taught illustrator who has created images for board games, book covers, private clients and public events. I found inspiration from Tolkien’s books, classic paintings, 80’s movies and music, but my favorite source of inspiration is the part of Italy where I live: a land full of medieval castles, sea, mountains, forests and history.

“The Green Dragon”, markers and biscuit crumbs on random paper (1993)