ARTIST MARC BORSTEL TALKS DIONYSUS WEPT!

Argentina born artist Marc Borstel has spent the last 20 years working in the comic book industry. But he's always looking for new ways to tell killer stories through his art. I had the pleasure of meeting Marc last year at NEW YORK COMIC CON '09 for the launch of our collaborative effort on THE OUTER SPACE MEN Graphic Novel. Marc was kind enough to shed some more light on the creative process involved in DIONYSUS WEPT.

Eric C Hayes: So Marc, give me an idea about the steps in the creative process.
Marc Borstel: I start sketching the page (On the computer, using Photoshop, with a Wacom Intuos 3 Tablet) on a virtual blueline white artboard, after the storyboard is done, I do all the panel borders, and I make a cheap copy I use as reference, then, I skip programs, enter the 3D modeling. I use Poser 7 for the characters and Lightwave 3D for the objects. when I do all the renderings, I come back to photoshop where I build every panel using 3D renderings, my own thumbnails and photo references (if needed), when I mesh all the objects in the panel, I add some photoshop filters to melt the artwork.

Eric C Hayes: The story starts out with some character development before business starts to pick up. Tell me how you can change the story's mood through your artwork.
Marc Borstel: Here's when the things get interesting: At this point, I start toying with the images, retouching, getting dirty, erasing, doing whacky things with all the tools I have at hand. this is the reason for getting something new (and fresh, I hope) in every page, because every panel has a different finishing process. If you like the artistic evolution in every page, but to me, this fact is great, because the story starts in a very specific way, moody, dark, and elegant, and after the page 5, it comes darker, chaotic, sick, very dramatic and moodier. I'm very proud of it.

Eric C Hayes: You're also doing the lettering on this project. Can you give me some information on your lettering decisions?
Marc Borstel: I'm trying to always keep the same color scheme for the lettering, I tried to make it controlled, because in such chaotic artwork, you need to be grounded with all the captions, to make the message clear for the reader, the only part where I made the lettering different was in the last panel, trying to increase the transformation on the main character.

Thanks Marc. If you're interested in Marc's art and the comic, make sure to follow this blog for the latest news on the progress of DIONYSUS WEPT.