No matter what his job description may be—Character Designer, Art Director, Creative Director, Illustrator—Valerio Fabbretti is always drawing. In fact, he loves drawing so much, he does it whether he’s on or off the job. He’s currently working on his own comic book series called Spider and Fly, an ongoing passion project on top of his work as an Art Director and most recently as Creative Director, where he was part of a team designing and art directing new original series in development at Cartoon Network.
“I used to draw on grocery receipts, school desks, or the paper tablecloths that usually cover the tables of the pizzerie in Italy.”
Born in Rome, Fabbretti’s earliest memories include pencil in hand. “I used to draw on grocery receipts, school desks, or the paper tablecloths that usually cover the tables of the pizzerie in Italy,” he recalls. In the 1980s, his grandfather was a set builder on a Western movie based on an Italian comic book series called Tex. After befriending the comic book publisher, his grandfather was gifted the first 300 books in the series, and he continued collecting, buying a new issue each month. Fabbretti grew up reading these comics in his grandfather’s studio side-by-side with his grandfather reading the newspaper. “I spent hours copying them, trying to learn anatomy and inking,” he says.
After high school Fabbretti left Italy to study at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. It was a big move at the age of 19, and he assumed it would be temporary as he improved his English while studying art. He took classes in figure drawing, and learned anatomy, perspective, and how to paint. He hadn’t had formal training before, so every class, he says, was a huge discovery for him. While illustration was his major, he became intrigued by the world of animation. As a kid he’d watched countless cartoons, “but I never knew how they were made or that drawing in the animation industry could be a possible career path,” he says. Toward the end of his studies, his interest in animation grew, inspired by classmates and meetings with artists working in the field.
After graduating in 2014, Fabbretti began applying for animation jobs. At the same time, he worked as a children’s book illustrator for publishers like Bloomsbury and Simon & Schuster. Animation is a competitive field, Fabbretti says, and finding a job can be difficult, which is why he always tells students he meets to persevere: “It’s about being at the right time, [in] the right place, because there are very few spots on any production.” In his case, Fabbretti didn’t allow himself to be discouraged, and continued going to animation conventions, meeting people, and getting an idea of how things work in the industry.
Fabbretti’s first animation job was at Cartoon Network on Clarence. When the series ended, he was hired as Lead Character Designer on Julia Pott’s Summer Camp Island. But it was during his time on Clarence that an opportunity arose that would forward his career. Stephen Neary asked him to do some character design on a pilot he was creating that ended up being The Fungies!. In 2018 Fabbretti became the show’s Art Director.
Fabbretti explains that Neary had a very clear vision for the series, wanting the episodes to have a storybook feel to them. “To achieve a unique look, we designed each background using pencil on paper. Each drawing was shaded [and] had some eraser marks and a very lovely traditional feeling to it,” says Fabbretti. “We worked on 80 wonderful episodes with a really kind and sweet crew.” They originally thought that using a traditional medium would be challenging for meeting tight deadlines, but the artists on the team exceeded expectations while also adding their own original details to each drawing. He loved observing how an episode could come alive through the collective input of the individual artists.
With his recent role as a Creative Director in series development, Fabbretti found it fun and challenging to work with so many creators in different styles and mediums on projects for different audiences. But he says that whatever his role, he finds himself drawing, whether he’s adding to an idea or just figuring out a direction that something might go in. When he’s invited to do a portfolio review or critique a student’s work, he urges them to “just draw,” and while waiting for his next project, he plans to keep drawing on Spider and Fly. It’s safe to say that putting pencil or pen to paper is ingrained in Fabbretti’s DNA.
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