The Comic Issues Podcast has been making its rounds at various conventions all over SoCal. Our goal was to locate new and upcoming artists that was when we met Jeff Martinez. During our time at Anime Conji, I came across a brilliant Green Lantern Corps poster; wanting to show my GL creds, I reached for my button. Unbeknownst to me Larafleeze the Orange Lantern had already come through and straight out jacked it. Luckily for me, the artist I soon would be interviewing had some connections with OA. He made a quick call, and a Green Ring appeared.
That may have been our first meeting, but it certainly wasn’t our last. Between Wizard Wold Anaheim and the Green Latnern movie premiere we seem to run into Jeff all the time. I had the opportunity to interview Jeff, learning about his art process.
Featured Artist: Jeff Martinez
Deviant Art
Introduce yourself:
Yo wattup, my name is Jeff Martinez and I’m an illustrator/designer. I currently work for DC Comics as a production artist. I’ve been with DC for close to four years now; I love my job!
What made you put pen to paper? What was your inspiration?
Inspiration can come from many sources; being exposed to great art that I like in general inspires me every day.
Have you received any education outside of your current profession? If so, do you feel it has made you a stronger artist?
I can say that taking life drawing classes are a big help in understanding human anatomy. Never too late to take a refresher course.
What are the tools of your trade? What tools do you use when you draw?
Well I don’t like to brag, but I’ll make an exception. My digital arsenal is a MAC tower with a cintiq tablet/monitor, software is Adobe CS5. My analog weapons of choice are my mechanical pencils; you can never have too many micron/copic inking pens. My secret weapon that I use is a whiteout pen.
With the current trend of social networking sites like Facebook and Deviant Art, do you find them useful from a professional level?
Well from my experience they are useful as long as you use them properly and tastefully.
Which fictional hero do you identify with and why?
I’d have to say a manga character from a series called “Blade of the Immortal” manji. He starts off as this badass samurai fighter, and along the way he loses focus on what the art of the kill was about, getting messy in a sense. Then an event happens, and he realizes that he got sloppy and he regains focus once more. I can identify the “losing focus” to an “artist” standpoint; sometimes we stray a bit from “making” the art thing. Sometimes it takes a little self-realization and confidence to keep on making the art.
Any tips for artists?
When studying human anatomy, I like to grab random magazines and actually drawing over the pictures of people with stick figures to get a better sense of gesture, form, and flow of the figure. Silly yes, but it works when you’re trying to understand human figures.