Comic Con-versation with Marcelo Baez!


 Marcelo Baez is a professional illustrator and designer who always have one eye on his first love comics and illustration! He has  worked for international clients such as Marvel, GQ Magazine, Hardie Grant Egmont, Popular Mechanics, Men's Health, National Geographic, Microsoft, Scholastic and Westpac just to name a few.

Could you tell us about your  journey as a comic artist? 

I didn’t think it was possible to be a comic art or illustrator as a young man so I studied graphic design. It opened a whole new world of creative skills and possibilities, which in turn made me realise that if I really focussed, I might still be able to do comics. During my time as a professional graphic designer I kept on practicing my illustration and comic work, which led me to creating my first comic Diabla. The very positive response to my self published comic, persistence, and a lot of luck, gave me many opportunities which have eventually lead me to being a Full-time Freelance illustrator and comic artist. 
What are your tools of the trade? Do you work in traditional media as well as digital?
Pencil, pens, brushes and digital.
All my idea roughs start in my sketchbook (pen and paper) For the sake of speed and meeting deadlines I have trained myself to do my layouts and “tight pencils” in photoshop.
After client approval, I then print out the art on watercolour paper in faint blue and proceed to ink in pen and brush. The last stage, I scan in the final inked art and finish the colours in photoshop.

Tell us about the works you are exhibiting in the Another dimension: More than 2D exhibition this year?
I’m exhibiting, “Gish” comic book cover, An upcoming wrap around cover for “OIOIOI” Comics anthology and one of my Marvel Avengers Woodblock style prints.

On your website it says you are working on a strange Greek myth graphic novel and a post-apocalyptic movie/comics crossover! Can you tell us more about this?
The post-apocalyptic movie/comic cross over is a project named GISH, based on a movie directed and written by Paul Barakat. “Whenever Gish falls asleep, her consciousness travels to the near future, where she finds herself heavily pregnant, missing an eye and struggling to survive in a city overrun by murderous gangs. When she wakes up back in the present, she must confront the fact that she is not yet carrying her future child. Caught between these two realities, Gish must now decide who she truly is and what it is she truly wants.”
My greek myth graphic novel project is about what happen to the Cyclopes after Homer’s Odyssey… I’m currently working on the second draft and it’s over 100 pages.

Any advice for the aspiring comic artist you wish someone had told you?
Draw every day! Practice practice! Draw from life! Draw for fun! Keep a sketch book and draw everyday! Practice practice! Did I mention practice?


Find out more at Marcelo Baez's Website and Facebook pages. 

This event is part of Comic Con-versation 2016. Comic Con-versation is an annual week long festival celebrating the best of local comic culture with events, talks, workshops, panel sessions, readings and exhibitions across Sydney libraries.

You can check out all the amazing upcoming ‪#‎ccv16 events and activities here

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