Gustavo Cabral (born July 20, 1963), better known as Ciruelo ('plum tree'), is an

Argentine Argentines, Argentinians or Argentineans are people from Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural. For most Argentines, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their ...

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures. The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...

artist,The book of the dragon
by Montse Sant whose work focuses especially on

dragons A dragon is a magical legendary creature that appears in the folklore of multiple cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in Western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depict ...

Biography

Ciruelo Cabral was born in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

, Argentina. He was born with

color blindness Color blindness, color vision deficiency (CVD) or color deficiency is the decreased ability to color vision, see color or differences in color. The severity of color blindness ranges from mostly unnoticeable to full absence of color percept ...

. At age 13 Cabral enrolled in Instituto Fernando Fader, an art school, where he began his formal studies. He started working as illustrator at age 18 for a graphic advertising company, and soon after began doing comic covers. In 1987 he moved to

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

where he drew fantasy books' covers and inside drawings for ''Timun Mas'', a publisher that specializes in the genre. Cabral then widened his horizons and did work for companies around the world, including companies in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

and

. He drew the covers of the '' Chronicles of the Shadow War'', a Bantam trilogy written by

George Lucas George Walton Lucas Jr. (born May 14, 1944) is an American filmmaker and philanthropist. He created the ''Star Wars'' and ''Indiana Jones'' franchises and founded Lucasfilm, LucasArts, Industrial Light & Magic and THX. He served as chairman ...

. He has also done music album covers, such as

Steve Vai Steven Siro Vai ( ; born June 6, 1960) is an American guitarist, songwriter, and producer. A three-time Grammy Award winner and fifteen-time nominee, Vai started his music career in 1978 at the age of eighteen as a Transcription (music), transc ...

's '' The Seventh Song'' and

The Flower King ''The Flower King'' is the third solo album by Roine Stolt. The original line-up for the album consisted of Stolt (singing, vocals, electric guitar, bass guitar, Keyboard instrument, keyboards), Jaime Salazar (musician), Jaime Salazar (Drum kit, d ...

's Adam & Eve, and magazine covers for, among others, ''

Playboy ''Playboy'' (stylized in all caps) is an American men's Lifestyle journalism, lifestyle and entertainment magazine, available both online and in print. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, funded in part by a $ ...

'' and '' Heavy Metal''. His artwork can also be seen in some Magic: The Gathering cards. Cabral uses mainly acrylic and

oil painting Oil painting is a painting method involving the procedure of painting with pigments combined with a drying oil as the Binder (material), binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on canvas, wood panel, or oil on coppe ...

, but also a number of other techniques, including his famous and distinctive paintings on rocks, which he created and calls "petropictos" (literally: stone paintings). He has published four books with his drawings: ''The Book of the Dragon'' (1990), ''Ciruelo'' (1990), ''Luz, the Art of Ciruelo'' (1997) and ''Magia, the Ciruelo Sketchbook'' (2000). Ciruelo created the poster art for two Argentine films: Eliseo Subiela's classic '' Man Facing Southeast'' (1986) and the

surrealist Surrealism is an art movement, art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists aimed to allow the unconscious mind to express itself, often resulting in the depiction of illogical or dreamlike s ...

cult film A cult film, also commonly referred to as a cult classic, is a film that has acquired a cult following. Cult films are known for their dedicated, passionate fanbase, which forms an elaborate subculture, members of which engage in repeated ...

'' Fuego gris'' (1994), written and directed by Pablo César.Ciruelo shows high-flying art and fantasy
2013-08-13, Rosario 3 The art for ''Fuego gris'' was also used in Luis Alberto Spinetta's album of the same name, which was also the original

soundtrack A soundtrack is a recorded audio signal accompanying and synchronised to the images of a book, drama, motion picture, radio program, television show, television program, or video game; colloquially, a commercially released soundtrack album of m ...

for the film. Cabral's work is represented in the 2002 collection ''Paper Tiger Fantasy Art Gallery''.D'Ammassa, Don (January 2003). "Paper Tiger Fantasy Art Gallery", ''

Chronicle A chronicle (, from Greek ''chroniká'', from , ''chrónos'' – "time") is a historical account of events arranged in chronological order, as in a timeline. Typically, equal weight is given for historically important events and local events ...

25'' (1): 30.

References

External links

* *
Non Official Site
(Spanish)

(English)

(Spanish) * on Inside Your ART (English)

Videos

El arte es la puerta
(Spanish)
La vida es arte 4/06/08
(Spanish) {{DEFAULTSORT:Cabral, Ciruelo 1963 births 20th-century Argentine illustrators 21st-century Argentine illustrators Argentine poster artists 20th-century Argentine painters 21st-century Argentine painters Artists from Buenos Aires Argentine fantasy artists Argentine album-cover and concert-poster artists Film poster artists Game artists Living people