A Distant Soil by Colleen Doran

Jozef Szekeres is a very talented artist, cartoonist and animator. His credits include co-creating Wavedancers, as well as work on Joseph Michael Linsner’s Dawn, and Erik Larsen’s Dart miniseries.

Jozef spent many years as an animator and director for Walt Disney Animation in Australia.

He was a senior animator on several video features: Aladdin: King of Thieves, Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea, Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp’s Adventure, Peter Pan II: Return to Neverland, and Jungle Book II. Jozef also sculpted maquettes of the lead Disney characters for the studio.

He has a a very impressive list of conceptual design credits, and line of outstandingly gorgeous dolls. He’s also the artist for the upcoming Black Mermaid Productions comic Elf-Fin. Which is made of all kinds of gorgeous, and which you will want muchly when it comes out. It is a fully painted series about mermaids, written by his partner Julie Ditrich, who has also written guest blogs at A Distant Soil.

Here is their Facebook group page for more art and updates on Elf Fin.

Late last year, I was hired to do the conceptual designs for a television show co-created by Greatest American Hero actor William Katt. Don’t miss the chance to meet him at a convention; he’s an absolute delight!

Like many projects in development, this one is in the hands of the producers. So, I can’t show you any art.

However, I often show my work to very close pro friends for their opinion, and with Jozef’s kind permission, I present his letters of comment to me.

Some of the comments don’t really apply: Jozef was under the impression I was designing for animation. I’m not. But the observations are interesting, and you may find them of use. It’s great that he took the time to go over the work with me. I truly value his expertise.

I know some artists get testy and don’t want to discuss their work with others, but I love to learn. And since animation isn’t my forte, I learn a lot from Jozef. I hope you will, too.

Hi Colleen,

These are marvellous illustrations, what lovely designs. What is their usage? For live action costume designs or for animation models?

As character costume designs for live action film, they’re fantastic. As 2D modelsheet guides, they’re still about a step away from the construction instructiveness an animator would need to stay “on model”. If this was for animation, I’d say another in-house lead animator would reinterpret them for model-sheet readiness.

What the aim is when an illustrator is brought on board to design for 2D, is to get a sense of their personal style in their character design architecture/structure. The idea is to break down the style (the “how to” of it) so that the animator can recreate it to work within that style again and again for the project.

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