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Interview With A Hellkitty PIA: I've lived here since 1984. I did a brief stint in Seattle from 1995-1998 when I realized that I missed home too darned much and skeddadled back. I've lived all over this city and just can't get enough of it. I love the mountains and the rain and am constantly inspired by it all. Barcelona was great but this place is hands down my favourite on the planet. So Jane and Finch doesn’t rank up there with the rest? What's not to miss about a warzone? What’s your Art Background (your college major was English)? From some of your sample pages [the STARMAN pages looking exceptionally great], I notice a strong eye for detail in regards to architecture. I took art classes in high school, most notably my grade nine class which focussed on exercises in Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain a good if not infuriating book that really helped me improve. In grades 11 and 12 I thought I'd take a 2-D Graphics Communications class to get some experience close to comics but that ended up being a huge mistake because the teacher loathed comics and anything new for that matter (he was two years from retirement). There was no real access to anything resembling modern graphic design or printmaking and all we ended up doing was drawing cheesy posters for the cafeteria "Don't pollute" and junk like that. More than anything, the class that I benefited most from was a high school TV and Film Class which was a miracle in teaching me storytelling. Just the section on storyboarding alone was enough to get me work later with a director in Seattle doing ads for Nautica. Any editor will immediately spot it if you've had film training because it shows. As for architecture, I enjoy looking at cool buildings. I've got photo albums full of pictures I've taken of buildings, partly for reference, partly for how amazing they are to me. It's always been difficult to come up with good backgrounds so I asked many artists in comics how they got through that obstacle and the majority responded "copy from photos, silly!". Yeah it's easier and less time consuming but I've found that it can be relaxing too. When you have a good shot you can use in a panel it becomes like a puzzle; how to get the perspective right so the characters fit, detailing masonry and brick, lighting and texture. You've taken a break from pulling out all this character work from inside you and switch to copying lines. It's almost meditative. Those STARMAN backgrounds came from a book about buildings that no longer exist, some incredible structures that were destroyed in war, outlived their usefulness or simply went out of style. It seemed right for a place like Opal City. I was happy how those turned out. I think a lot of what you see is just an evolution, slowly getting better over time as I figure stuff out. Sometimes I'll approach with a specific tone in mind like the White Wolf illustrations for instance, it was the first gig where I had to ink my own stuff and it scared the hell out of me. I decided to be really tight and specific tone-wise and used National Geographic as a template. I just kept telling myself that I was putting down on paper what I think NG photos of Vampire life would be like and that helped. Over the two years I did those I went from hatching with a crow quill, washwork with a brush to Pantone markers for even greys and brush for blacks. The style changed a bit with each new technique as I learned new ways to streamline the process. The same goes for the Legends of the Five Rings work, which was my first big painting assignment. My friend Gus Norman, who had done some work with them, showed me how Gouache was the thing to use and why it was better than watercolour or oils. I tried to keep in mind a tone similar to Kiki's Delivery Service and My Neighbour Totoro since the colours were so vibrant and the subject matter was similar. I often feel like it was a fluke how it worked out. With comics, that's always changing. If the story is dark then I'll go with Mike Mignola's advice and strive for 60% of the page being black, if it's lighter I'll ease up on the shadows and open things up to allow a colourist to go to town. Mostly I just stumble along until it looks right. Do you have any preference in terms of art tools? Your White Wolf work seems to suggest you’re rather handy with an ink brush. Might want to see above for that answer. In regards to pencils I've gone through so many trying to find the right one. When I started out I had a lot of trouble with tendinitis because I was gripping my pencils like I was on some bloody roller coaster ride. I had to unlearn that habit right quick or be in a lot of disabling pain. The problem was some tech pencils were too heavy or too light causing my fingers to get tired or grip tighter. Strangely enough, the type that worked best were simple wooden Venus Velvets I had in a drawer since I was a kid. Once they ran out though it was a bugger of a time finding replacements but soon I came across some Mirados at the Supermarket that worked great, no smudge, no grit and very even. Every time I see them at the store now I feel I have to buy them up in case they stop production! Artists are neurotic sometimes. Same company but they were yellow, wooden HBs, bought from a teacher's supply store in Manhatten somewhere, they laid down graphite like a dream. I searched online and even e-mailed collectors (there are people out there who collect pencils! Really!) and learned the line was out of production. It sounds silly to go through so much trouble but it's worth it when you can find something you like to work with, especially when there are so many crappy brands out there now. One of your more famous works, are character designs for the X-MEN flick. Were these actual designs for the flick or just designs based on the costumes created specifically for the web? Patrick Sauriol who runs the Coming Attractions movie scoop site is a friend from a while back (we worked on a story called "Void" for an anthology book he produced called Freeflight). He had gotten some costume photos from a high up source on set with permission to release them on condition they weren't the actual photos. The concern was that Fox might sick some lawyers on us so it had to look like they were original sketches from an on site observer. So I took the shots, painted the costumes in different poses and they were released. I couldn't put my name on them at the time and everyone was freaking out and it was just great fun because Knowles was dissing them as a hoax, and Sir Ian McKellen was making statements about "Those internet people" who were insecure men with no lives yadda yadda. Loved every second of it. In this case it was a "Who You Know" situation where I was dating the producer *g*. I usually stay at arms length from Ian's projects because goodness knows I know what it's like to have friends wanting to participate in a project and it's hard telling them they might not be qualified to do so. But then he told me how he was close to getting the show produced and I dropped an offer to sketch the cover of the script (something he wanted to do but was tight for time); three simple panels showing the giant robot blowing up and the Canadian arm that was left. After that he asked if I wouldn't mind doing another sketch here, a design there and before you know it I was given the task of designing the whole show. I did have experience with commercial work and designing spaceships and costumes for a video game so the transition was pretty smooth and I sounded relatively competent at staff meetings. The hours were nuts and I ended up spending several days (and one night) dressing the set, building costumes and props. All the while going through a nasty case of the flu that I had caught from Ian who was recovering from pneumonia. Fortunately I wasn't on a book at the time so I had time to devote. We've yet to hear on the fate of the now finished show. Still in progress, so I won't know how it conflicts with a book until I know. I've been suggested as a penciller for several books over the years through different editors. I tried out for SHADE THE CHANGING MAN, a DIAL H project that never went forward, sent a ton of samples to Shelly Roeberg, and eventually came under the wing of Heidi MacDonald who fought like a demon to get me on NAMES OF MAGIC written by Dylan Horrocks (it ended up going to Richard Case). At one point I was just going to give up on Vertigo for a while and push for the Buffy gig that was waiting in the wings and then out of the blue Heidi gave me a call and said she wanted me on Y. She totally rocks for her persistence and resolve! Do you prefer to work on female characters in your artwork? Well, chicks are a bit easier to draw, but I have no preference really. Now monkeys on the other hand... HA is a comedy about superheroes in group therapy. It's written by Bill Morrison and Scott Gimple and will be six issues in length. The first issue was done by an artist who couldn't complete the series and I was asked to try out for the Gay Avenger story for issue two. I ended up being asked to do all five! So far the GA story is done (very funny) and I'm waiting for the other scripts to be completed. Things have been very busy over at Bongo lately, which is okay for me since Y has me working pretty steady. I'm looking forward to the Beezelbella story about a daughter of Satan who becomes a born again Christian. What is APEX? Your site lists it as being released in March 2001, but it wasn’t solicited through Diamond was it? I really need to update my site *sigh*. Alex Shearer is the writer on that project and by the looks of is on the shelf until he can find someone to publish it. It's a superhero story with a strong NYPD Blue angle to it. Last word was from San Diego. I spoke with Scott Allie who had originally asked me to work on the book as a fill-in artist or possibly to do a one shot of some sort. I was very excited about it since Buffy is just phenomenal to me and I had gotten word through Allie that Joss saw my work and really liked it, which floored me! So I waited very patiently for a couple of years, every few months sending in updates and getting word back that I'd be called soon. So when I saw Scott again last summer he asked me to send more samples! I was a little stunned, I mean, sure understandable he needs to be kept up to date but it felt like a total turn around from "yes, we're going to use you!" to "Ehnn, maybe." Whatever. At present I'm swamped so the samples have to wait. I still hope to work on Buffy someday, we'll see. Maybe the ‘singing episode’ adaptation? But then, a lot of people would like to see a SMALLVILLE comic too… Smallville! They film that here. Every now and then I see the guy who plays Lex Luthor wandering around town, it's great. But as for the comic... ehn, too many Dukes of Hazard flashbacks I think. Though I wouldn't mind doing a Stargate SG-1 comic... or heck, better yet, let's start yelling at someone to put out the new Buckaroo Banzai series once and for all. That's like the hugest dream of mine, to draw Dr. Banzai and the Hong Cavaliers riding against the evil Death Dwarves of Hanoi Xan! Woo baby! Have any advice to offer other artists out there? Possibly on their way to a career in comics, illustration or film? Get a day job, it might take a while. You can spend ridiculous sums of cash going to art and film schools or make-up academies and crap but the best way to break in is just do it. Read everything you can on the subject, never stop looking at what's new (or what's old for that matter) and find ways to do it, even on a small scale. Get some friends together, someone's probably got a camera lying around, write your scripts, order some pizzas and do it. You can also go to the local production unions and find a way to volunteer on sets, if you've built up some credits you can apply for permitee status in different departments and work up, even if it's driving people around. Join in on student productions and most of all MAKE FRIENDS. Talk to people and find out what they're into, you'll make better connections that way (especially if they go on to become famous and need someone to write their next epic) at the very least you'll have a cool bunch of buds to hang with. With comics, it's more about getting your nose in people's faces. Produce samples like hell and every couple of weeks send in four or five pages to editors. Be nice, include a SASE, and LISTEN to feedback. Same goes with conventions, you have to go to them to meet people and joke around and talk geek and then discreetly show a few pages of your best work for a quick evaluation. If you get your 'folio slammed then find out why and learn from it. It's always nice to have friends and family saying cool things about what you do but it's more important to learn how to make it better. After about ten years of this, you too can be a grumpy hermit who never sees daylight wondering when the hell they'll show new episodes of Stargate while you scramble to get ten pages done by the end of the week. Ahh, the sweet taste of success... Parting thoughts? RAHHH! GRRRLLL POWER...uh, whatever. Where's my remote?
 Jonathan Ellis is Interviews Editor for PopImage  PopImage Forum - Discuss this message at the PopImage forum. E-mail Us. - Send us an e-mail, commenting on this article. Hellkitty.com - Offical website of artist Pia Guerra Industrial Archive - Read past Industrial articles |
You might want to prepare yourself if you haven’t seen Pia’s artwork yet.
When I heard from friends in college who were coming up against similar walls I decided to steer away from formal art training and stick with teaching myself through books and talking with other professionals in the field. I didn't want to get caught up in the agendas of others, especially those that wanted me to become the next "Great Canadian Painter". Blah. 
Do you find you’ve developed your own distinctive style or do you tend to fit your artistic style to each project? For instance, your approach seems to vary between your illustrative work, your paintings and comic pages. 
Venus Velvets? Are those the old thick red pencils? 
