Random Art: Max Bertolini

Max Bertolini, one of the contributors to SciFi Art Now, has had a long, varied and successful career. The image I've featured here - 'Megara,' the cover for the January 2005 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction - was shortlisted for a British Science Fiction Association Award in 2005.

Born in 1967 in Milan, where he lives and works, Max didn't attend art school and his skills are self taught. As a child, he was fascinated by American superhero comics, and the fantasy and science-fiction art he saw on magazines and book covers. But what finally pushed him to life as an artist was the first issue of Nathan Never when it was published by Sergio Bonelli Editore in 1991.

The cover was a revelation for Max, because it combined his old love of science fiction and the Italian adventure comic book genre, and prompted him to send a few illustrations of Bonelli¹s comic book hero to the publisher. Bonelli soon responded, and he has been drawing Italy's best known and best-selling comic serial since 1993. More recently, he's provided some stunning covers for Marvel Comics, featured here in our quick interview with the artist published in 2010.

After a few years working in comics, he began to feel they weren¹t enough for him and started a second career in illustration, his art reflecting a strong concern for the beauty of naked human form, his work encompassing almost every genre, from from fantasy to science-fiction, passing through horror and thriller.

Max says he enjoys depicting far alien landscapes and, as the illustration I've featured here illustrates, they are one of the distinctive features of his art, together with his fascinating and graceful warrior women, all of them represented with a deep consideration for contrast and chiaroscuro.

Max is one of the cover artists of Eura Editoriale and Mondadori, the main Italian publishing house, while in the evenings he even finds the time to teach Cartoon and Illustration at the Accademia dello Spettacolo in Milan.His work is known all over the world with his fantasy and sci-fi cover published in the US, France, Germany, Spain, England, Russia and China.

For anyone interested in Max's art, you might want to try and track down a copy of Revelations: The Art of Max Bertolini, a 128-page hardcover art book published in the UK by Paper Tiger, which collects the best of his work. German publisher MG Publishing has also published another art book featuring his art entitled, simply,The Art of Max Bertolini.

- Check out his web site at: www.maxbertolini.com


- Max Bertolini inteview on SciFi Art Now

 

 

Sci-Fi Art Now Creator Interview: Max Bertolini

Max Bertolini's cover for
Nathan Never #9

Max Bertolini is a self taught cartoonist, working in the comics business and illustration field. He's the artist on the Italian comic Nathan Never, a 94 page, black and white comic, which means he spends half his day working in black and white and the rest painting in full colour, working on comic covers, Fantasy and Sci-fi books. "My mind is split in two, I would say," he feels.

Sci-Fi Art Now: What tools do you mainly use to create your art?

Max Bertolini: I begin drawing the characters with a pencil that helps me to create the shades as well. Than I scan them into Photoshop and put on the colours.

Sci-Fi Art Now: Why?

Max: I began with oils years ago but finally turned to the PC because it's faster and you can fix colours quickly. Now I have a lot of fun drawing with Photoshop, much more than traditional ways.

New Beginning
by Max Bertolini

Sci-Fi Art Now: What inspired you to become an artist?

Max: When I was a child I wanted to bring to life the characters that kept running into my mind. I wasn't satisfied until I managed to draw them exactly. When I grew up I started enjoing all kind of art, not only comics and fantasy novels, and that helped me so much expanding my artistic views.

Thor by Max Bertolini

Sci-Fi Art Now: What was the most useful piece of advice you were given when you began learning your craft?

Max: I was given a lot of advice. The one I remember best was a talk with Neal Adams, that explained me the importance of photo reference among many other hints I had from him.

Iron Man by Max Bertolini

Sci-Fi Art Now: Which artists most inspire you?

Max: John Buscema, Neal Adams, Klimt, Martiniere, Sparth, Marko Djurdjevic and many other I can't even remember.

Sci-Fi Art Now: What is the appeal to you of science fiction as an inspiration for some of your work?

Max: Sci-Fi is the place where anything can happen, so you can draw anything.

Sci-Fi Art Now: Do you have a favourite piece of work or project you have worked on?

Max: There's a cover I made for an Italian comic book called Future War. I like the colours and the mood of the piece.

Future War by Max Bertolini

Sci-Fi Art Now: In your career, have you had any bizarre experiences while creating your art?

Max: Once I drew a background watching the reflection of my room on the monitor!

Daredevil by Max Bertolini

Sci-Fi Art Now: What most frustrates you about being an artist?

Max: That I'm never good enough.

Sci-Fi Art Now: What keeps you going despite the hopefully occasional frustrations?

Max: I have tons of stuff still to learn and I want to know them all!

Sci-Fi Art Now: What advice would you offer to anyone starting out as an artist?

Max: Learn to observe reality around you, never give up, study different styles of art, not just those you're used too look at, and draw, draw and draw!

• Check out more of Max's superb art at: www.maxbertolini.com. Contact Max via maxATmaxbertolini.com

• Check out more about Nathan Never on publishers Sergio Bonelli Editore web site