Mark bartle - artist biography
Fantasy / Comic Book Art
Mark Bartle (b. 1984) is an illustration and visual art coach. Born in Cebu, Philippines, he grew up in Sydney, Australia, where he still lives today.
When he was a young child his older cousin Craig introduced him to comic book art through Marvel comics and also trading cards. This was in the 90’s, a booming period for the comic industry.
Mark Bartle’s dad was an amazing artist with his traditional oil paintings and also a superstar animator in Australia. But, Craig really set a good tone and memory for him of the nostalgia and fun of Marvel and DC comics.
Every weekend, Mark would help his grandmother do the grocery shopping. And as a result, he would get a couple of dollars as a reward. He would then get the fortnightly X-Men comics and read that for the whole weekend. He would copy and draw almost every single page of the comic book.
This actually built up his English vocabulary, his knowledge of the artists of that time, and his love for Western-style comic inspired artwork.
As he grew up, Mark Bartle always drew comic art to relax, pop in the local comic store and read Western as well as Eastern-style comics.
As for any kid in the 90’s, the X-Men series animated works and films really influenced him as a child.
The mid 90’s were a very first level step into the X-Men world which he was already advanced in the comics. But, this cartoon series was a very general stepping stone introduction to the X-Men in the comic world.
His friends started getting into it but had no idea about the X-Men. Mark enjoyed teaching them about the X-Men comics themselves.
The Western audience was used to the Disney Warner Brothers and Saturday morning cartoons. Then the Japanese put their skills in films of the anime industry: Akira, Space Cobra, Neon Evangelion, and The Studio House of Ghibli with for example Princess Mononoke.
The Castle In The Sky by Hayao Miyazaki really influenced Mark as a Westerner. He could see the Japanese art trend as he was growing up. You couldn't stop Japanese animation.
One night Mark’s dad took him to the Dendy cinemas in Glebe, Sydney, to watch the 1982 Japanese animated science fiction film Space Adventure Cobra by Osamu Dezaki, and based on the 1978 manga Cobra written by Buichi Terasawa. Cobra, a famous space pirate with a psycho-gun hidden in his left arm, supposed dead for two years, is back in action. He falls for bounty huntress Jane Flower, whom crime lord Necron wants dead, and tries to help her save her world (IMDb). As a traditional artist, Mark doesn't think his dad liked it. But, he respected the Japanese form because of the techniques.
Mark didn't say a word but he secretly loved every minute of it. And, if you happen to watch Space Cobra, it's pretty dark.
In High School Mark Bartle enjoyed traditional arts and music, especially the electric guitar.
For half a semester during his studies at Nepean Creative and Performing Arts High School, Mark Bartle went to Sydney National Art School and studied life drawing. “This was an intensive course: I have never drawn so much in my life.”
Mark studied anatomy life drawing from the mediums of graphite pencil and charcoal. This is where his love for charcoal was really cemented.
After graduating from High School, Mark Bartle’s journey towards graphic design and visual communication started. Mark holds a Bachelor of Design and Visual Communications (Design, Graphics, Publications and Animation) from the Western Sydney University. At the university, traditional art, fantasy and comic inspired art were really pushed into his mind.
After an extensive experience in the graphic design industry working as graphic designer, lead designer and art director in Australia and Europe, Mark has explored more of his artistry and reconnected with fantasy art and comic art.
Mark Bartle went to Japan in the mid-2000s with five friends he was sharing a house with in Hazelbrook, Western Sydney.
At that time, Mark was working as a graphic designer. As an anime fan, he was collecting mecha, these advanced robotic and transformable toys influenced by anime. His favourite mecha anime was Macross, in Western audiences also called Robotech.
Mark Bartle’s friends and him loved japanese art, especially Shōji Kawamori, the Japanese concept artist and mechanical engineer designer of the whole series. Kawamori designed the mechanical transformations for the original Transformers Generation 1 in Western audiences.
Optimus Prime and Bumble Bee anime characters were designed by Shōji Kawamori, and he is still designing mechanical figures to this day in Japan. One of his famous transformations besides Transformers were planes that transformed into robots.
This was something Mark Bartle watched as a kid. There was “Inspector Gadget” , then “Robotech” would come. Little did he know at the time there was a hard core version in Japan which was the pure version called Macross. This was the clean version for little kids. Macross was mature, more love and romance orientated, and centered around music. And of course, Mark loved mechanical transformable airplanes. Yes, it’s for anime fans, it's very geeky :)
Traditional Art: More recently, Mark traveled to France and didn't know how much of an impact French art would be.
It rekindled Mark Bartle’s passion for traditional art. Mark saw the masters he had once studied. He had once been to Paris and visited the Louvre. That was such an influential and inspiring experience.
Some of the traditional painters and artists that have always drawn his eyes are the French impressionist Monet, the French and fauvist colorist Matisse, and the Dutch Baroque painter Rembrandt.
This time Mark Bartle was able to look at Monet's art at the Musee de l'Orangerie: four of his massive works in person, and to study in close detail, the Water Lilies.The detail and the execution at such a grand scale really influenced Mark’s idea of the artwork he would like to do.
His passion for drawing combined with his love of sharing inspired him to launch Mark Bartle Art, with tutorials that introduce techniques, skills and materials, and with a gallery and a shop to sell his art and offer commissions.
How to draw thor
Discover How to draw Thor: An easy 5-step process on my YouTube channel using cross hatching to create tonal or shading effects.
Check out more video tutorials.
Live drawing, Sydney. Discover how to draw Thor: an easy 5-step process. Cross hatching to create tonal or shading effects. Check out this tutorial video to draw Thor in grey scale...