Artist of the Month – Karlo Martinez

What made you get interested in art?

“Ever since I was a kid I’ve always been into animated movies like, Disney movies and old school Looney Toons. I also have been into video games that I think have cool artwork. I started doodling when I was 4 years old I wanna say.”

Why do you do art?

“It’s a really big hobby of mine. It’s just a really fun thing I like to do to pass time or to relax. When I draw I like to put on some music and it’s just relaxing.”

What is your favorite style of art?

“I was really inspired by old school cartoons and Disney so those are the kinds of art styles I really enjoy. I also really like the anime art style. Just cartooney, really expressive art styles.”

What do you do to improve or challenge yourself?

“The simple thing any artist can do is to challenge themselves, is to just draw something you’re not used to. As much as I like drawing people and animals, I for the life of me cannot draw landscapes, so I’ll try to draw something I’ve never drawn before or a completely different art style.”

What artists do you look up to for inspiration?

“I really like Chuck Jones, Don Bluth, and there’s a couple of anime artists like Hayao Miyazaki and also an artist called Yuji Uekawa, who does artwork for the Sonic games. He is probably my biggest inspiration. If you took a look at my artwork, you could probably see the influence that his artwork had on mine.”

What is your favorite thing to draw and why?

“This is a tough one because I like to draw a lot of things. It can range from characters from movies and video games and all that to some of my closest friends. I guess my favorite is anything that I can draw quickly, something that I’m comfortable with, so just simple stuff, like people or characters.”

Will you pursue art as a future career and why or why not?

“I definitely want to pursue art, more specifically I want to do animation. Another possibility would be video game development so if I don’t go the art route I’ll go there. Definitely art is one of my biggest passions so I want to make a living out of it.”

What is your least favorite style of art and why?

“I’m not sure if I have a least favorite. I feel like every art style has something unique to it. They each have a voice to be heard. Actually you know what, the Big Mouth art style is ugly, that is a very unappealing art style.”