Today we bring you the second chapter of the Behind the Mark of Odin series with an interview with illustrator Manu Nieto, responsible for the avatars and conceptual arts that each week accompany the extended contents of the saga. By reading it, readers will be able to better understand who this great arts professional from Seville is and what exactly his role is within the ‘Mark of Odin’ project.

1.- HELLO MANU, CAN YOU TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT YOURSELF, WHO IS MANU NIETO AND WHAT HE DOES?

I am an illustrator and sculptor, although I have also been a set designer and have worked in the world of animation, television and museology for many years. Come on, what we could call a one-man band. I started as a traditional sculptor and from that time I have a lot of plastic work, most recently the monument to Aníbal González in the Plaza de España in Seville. Little by little I switched to digital techniques in both illustration and sculpture until I ended up doing visual effects for cinema and advertising.

2.- HOW DID YOU SEE YOURSELF INVOLVED IN THE MARK OF ODIN PROJECT? WHAT DRIVEN YOU TO GET INVOLVED IN IT AS LEAD ILLUSTRATOR OF THE PROJECT?

I learned about the Mark of Odin project while I was dedicated precisely to the field of visual effects as an Art Director, Xavier Marcé came to us looking for advice for the realization of the viral DesastreSevilla and already in the first meetings he liked my work and offered me to do the concepts and avatars for the book. I especially liked the project’s bravery of the concept, it is not only a new business model but the ambition for a book to be “something more” than a book. I know that it is common in the world of video games but it is something unprecedented in the literary field and even more so in Spain. If we add to that that I am passionate about fantasy literature and Science Fiction and that I really wanted to draw everything that Xavi was going to capture in the book, it was inevitable to join the project.

3.- THE COMMUNITY IS LOVING YOUR WORK, COULD YOU TELL US WHAT PROCESS YOU FOLLOW FROM THE TIME YOU START WITH A CONCEPTUAL ART OR AVATAR, UNTIL YOU COMPLETE IT?

The first thing is the documentation phase, in the case of the characters I like to work with reference photographs because it gives them character and you don’t end up drawing just a tall, strong guy or a pretty, blonde girl as happens in mainstream American comics, the Working based on real people forces you to capture the character’s personality in each drawing. Sometimes it is the author who, through photographs, suggests faces, whether popular or not, and other times I look for them based on how I imagine each character. Among the avatars of The Mark of Odin there are a good handful of film and television actors and some real people from Xavier Marcé’s environment or my own.

As for technique, I like to do the sketching phase by hand, despite having integrated digital techniques into my work process, for the initial moment of creation there is nothing like a pencil and paper. Later I scan and finish with the computer (especially ink and color). Sometimes the drawings are a Frankenstein of sketches over several pages and I just put them together digitally.

In the case of Concepts with a lot of architecture, I usually fit the volumes and perspectives with a 3D program, I make a basic render and then draw on top, that allows me to work much faster and then entertain myself with the details.

4.- WE KNOW THAT YOU HAVE ALREADY READ ‘THE MARK OF ODIN: THE AWAKENING’, WHAT DID YOU THINK?

I am in love with the saga, the combination of everything we like that Xavi has done is very engaging. He has simmered it and then opened the valve in the middle of the book. If he maintains this pace I don’t want to imagine how devilish the rest of the deliveries are going to be. The detail that the action takes place in Seville is a wink that brings me even closer to the plot since it is my city.

5.- COULD YOU TELL US WHERE YOU THINK THE SAGA IS GOING TO EVOLVE? DO YOU SEE YOURSELF PREPARED TO FACE AS AN ILLUSTRATOR THE CHALLENGES THAT THE EVOLUTION OF HISTORY MAY BRING?

Xavi, in addition to being a writer, is a fan of science fiction and fantasy, so he knows very well what the reader likes because it is what he likes. I imagine the future of history far from earth. But even if this is not the case, I have no doubt that we will have double or triple what we had in the first volume: More technology, more adventure, more of “those” unexpected visits and more mythology. And of course I’m looking forward to drawing and sculpting each one of them.

You can see more works from Manu Nieto at Titus Magnificus.