An interview with Qberto, Graphics-Designer ^.^

Below is the interview I have prepared for Qberto, our background designer. This won't be published in the magazine, it's for the blog only. ;)

1. When have you started drawing the Winx characters?
>> Wow... It's one of the hardest questions to answer... I guess it started in about year 2005. I saw an ending of the first season's episode, when skipping channels in Deutsch Satelite TV. I was really... "WOW"! I instantly fell in love with the style of drawing and colouring in this cartoon. It was fresh and interesting. Back home, I searched the web looking for the pictures. I didn't focus on the plot to much because I was interested in style, not series.
A couple of months later I decided to try learning the style by my own. 

2. What did the Winx characters look like in the beginning?
>> Oh... It's funny. <laugh> I would show you some of my first drawings, but I will not. You wouldn't want to see those. The anatomy was really unrealistic. You know heads too big, too short, or legs and arms that were too long... I always had problems with hands and hair shape. But when I started chatting with other Winx-fan artists, they all made the same problem. One word - tragedy.<laugh> 

3. How did you master drawing the Winx?
>> Like they say... "Practice makes perfect". In my case it was all the same. I didn't improve much at the beggining. Sometimes I was really sad about that, but then I came up with the measure idea. I printed some official pictures and started to measure and compare the results. Then I tried my best and created the measurements reference sheet for myself. Of course it evolved in time so now I have about 3 or 4 refference sheets <laugh>. Of course right now I use the newest one. 

4. How long did it take you to prepare the cover? (e.g. days, weeks etc.)
>> Oh... the cover. Yes, it took a really long time for me. As you know (or not), I don't have a tablet to use (digital pencil thing) so I am still doing it traditional way. First I have to make a cover sketch by traditional pencils and here I spent about 2 hours (because of the perspective and some details you'll see.) Then I scanned it and started to outline the sketch. If I'd choose the black outlining, it would be easier and faster, But I decided to make it just like Natalie does. (By the way, she's a great artist and a great girl) So outlining took about 4 hours or maybe even more. The colouring with all patterns and whole details was the most time needing part. It takes me about 10-14 hours if I want perfection like this time  
Of course I didn't make the cover at one time. I splitted it into 2-3 hour blocks so I made it within two and a half weeks with breaks.

5. What difficulties did you have to face while making the cover?
>> Well... At first I wasn't sure about the idea for the cover. I had so much ideas that I had to make a lottery. <Laugh> Finally when the idea was selected, I started to think about the composition. I had all previous covers on my deskop, because I wanted to keep the scheme of them. 
I had some problems with suggesting which character on the cover will hold (I won't tell more, to not ruin tour surprise)
The next problem, maybe even the worst one, was hair shading. I really adored the multi-colour shading which Natalie used in previous covers so I wanted to keep it here again.<relief breath>. I hope that readers will enjoy my cover, even If my "Winx style" of drawing is a little different than Natalie's. 

6. Was the digital colouring easy?
>> You know, I'm used to do it by mouse for a long time now so I can cope with this. Like I said, hair shading was the hardest in my opinion. 


Note from Qberto: And finishing, I want to thank Natalie for a great job she always does, while making the cover. Right now I know how much work this demands. Like I told you so many times in the past, I am your number-one-fan, Natalie.