The artist, before the freelance lifestyle ruined his complexion
About
Ricardo Bessa is a London-based, Portuguese-born freelance illustrator and storyboard artist who is partial to unique characters and eye-catching colour combos. Drawing inspiration from nature, comics and mythology, as well his upbringing in sunny Portugal and a variety of queer art, he tries to depict a world that's just a little bit more magical than you'd expect.
He has worked for properties such as Game of Thrones, Power Rangers and Lumberjanes, and his work has been featured by Sky News, Mashable, ImagineFX, Digital Arts, Gay Times, P3 and Comics Alliance. He’s also exhibited in several shows with, among others, Gallery Nucleus and Light Grey Art Lab, and has written for Digital Arts Online.
In 2015 he curated Heróica, a zine about superheroes comprising of 21 Portuguese illustrators; and was one of the curators of Burl & Fur, a 2016 zine tribute to the bara genre.
FEATURES
Digital Arts feature + interview
Gay Times feature + interview
Partial Client List
HBO, Dreamworks TV, Sky TV, Cartoon Network, MTV, Smirnoff, Zizzi, Wacom, Clip Studio Paint, Tumblr, Hazlitt/Penguin Random House, Puffin Books, Bloomsbury Publishing, Oxford University Press, BOOM! Studios, Sunday Telegraph, Wired Magazine, Financial Times, Quanta Magazine, Elite Traveller Magazine, Cricket Magazine, Women's Weekly, Medicine at Michigan, Fetch, M&C Saatchi