Zoltan
This month we look at Zoltan, an artist from Hungary who has captured a
sizable fan following after just a year on the Archive and a few dozen
pictures. He's proof that you don't need a huge number of pictures to get
recognition, if your art is good enough!
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In the Artist's Own Words:
| “ | I had been waiting for some important letters for days, when I opened the
mailbox. I more than gladly noticed that finally I found other things
apart from spam, and a name caught my attention in the column of
"sender": Brian. I was like: "What the... Did I make something
wrong? ...General notification for TLKFAA members? ...Or... AotM?" In
that very moment I thought to myself that "Man, come to yourself,
that's impossible!" And I clicked on it and found: You're chosen to
be the featured artist of the month.
All I can say about it is: thank you all for you voting for me to be the holder of the Artist of the Month title, showing me that you like my art really and you find it worthy enough. I would lie if I said that I have never thought about getting the AotM title, but at the same time I hardly expected to get it such early - although I have been a member of the archive for more than one year. I wanted to prove more before you, to finally feel eligible to "race" for the title - considering it as a challenge, because why, I like challenges! ^^ I think without this philosophy I could have never gotten so far even in drawing or even in anything else. And of course even with the honour of getting this wonderful present from you, dear members of the archive, I still can't and won't say that I arrived, I finished, I reached the top or anything like that, because there is one sure thing in life, so in drawing: You must keep on fighting for the better, and for getting better. On the other hand it means a lot to see the reactions of others, thus you; your comments that sometimes give me ideas, make me think about things or just simply make me laugh and conjure a smile on my face! Looking back, I must say: yes, numerous times it was you inspiring me... I've learnt much from you. Thank you.. And last but not least thank you too, Brian, for this awesome place, a little island for such Lion King World addicts like me or everyone else on this site. I've already met, and still surely will meet lots of fantastic people here! Thank you for creating, maintaining and taking care of this important bastion, dedicated to our most beloved Disney classic ^^ You rock, man, and you have all my respect for this! Thank you all again, and after this, with a sweeter taste in my mouth, I'll keep on drawing here and try everything to surprise you with newer and newer lovelier and lovelier pictures again and again! Uff >3 |
” |
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Some of the best pieces in Zoltan's gallery, indeed, are the ones in pencil or charcoal, which convey a sense of energy and movement that can become muted in the complete color rendering of a finished piece. Yet Zoltan's sense for lighting and coloration is also top-notch, resulting in many finished pieces—such as the bug in the third picture from the top left—that make the viewer stop in his tracks. There's hardly a piece in his gallery that doesn't show mastery of whatever medium it's rendered in.
Drawing inspiration from sources such as The Lion King on Broadway and real-life historical events, Zoltan has explored numerous creative avenues in Lion King art such as alternate universes where the characters shift genders and other characters are rendered in human or anthropomorphic form. But Zoltan takes his exploration of these creative outlets even further, making music videos and working on collaborations with other artists, and even developing a Lion King-themed online role-playing game, for which he's currently soliciting for programming help in his Artist Comments. One of the things so frequently noticed about Lion King fan-artists is how multi-talented they are; surely Zoltan provides one of the best illustrations of that observation.
Zoltan is living proof that with enough hard work, it's possible to gain even more fans than you have pictures uploaded! His will be an artistic career that ought to be fascinating to watch. Best of luck to him, and congratulations!