Artist Close Up: Alain Norte
Acquired by Monica Magtoto
My name is Alain Norte and I am an illustrator and designer from Los Angeles. I grew up pretty normal I guess. I’m a huge comic nerd and have a horrible addiction to variant covers although I have cut down on my overall comic purchases lately. I play videogames but not too much anymore. I do go to the gym a whole heck of a lot. I love it. When I’m not doing any of that stuff I’m drawing and sketching. I’m sketching right now! Haha! I also like MMA and feel like if I wasn’t an artist I might have been a fighter and a good one. I still might who knows. Probably not. Art is in my blood. There are a lot of artists in my family.
My dad was my first real teacher. He pretty much started it all for me. He also was the one who got me into comics. My mom however was the one who put me into the right schools and always pushed me to do my best in my education. So both of my parents had a very large part in getting me into the arts. I went to an art high school here in Los Angeles, were I got a lot of the basics down. I had some cool teachers and fun times there. I then went to Otis College where I studied Toy Design. That was pretty fun too but it was my years there where I realized that toys weren’t for me.
I had one of the worst WORST crits of my life during my senior year of Otis that pretty much sealed the deal for me that I wasn’t going to be doing toy after graduation. It was my first semester final where I had to present my “girls toy product” to my teacher the chair of the toy department as well as actual Mattel girl’s designers. It was pretty intimidating to say the least. I had about 30 minutes of sleep the night before due to me working like mad to get my project finished. Which I didn’t. I remember just trying to get through my presentation as fast as I could. Afterwards they literally told me I failed and that my idea was terrible. When they told me that I felt hurt angry crushed all at the same time. They told me that I should have stayed with my original idea that my teacher had told me to change half way through the semester. I looked at her while they were telling me this and she played it off like I was the one who messed up. I would have had a good product if I hadn’t listened to her. Anyway that still really burns my cookies when I think about it. The best crit I ever had I would say was that same crit though. It made that click happen.
From that point on I did what I wanted to do. I knew I wasn’t going into toy design so I just had fun my last few months of school. I made monster baby sculptures that I wanted to put on my shelves. I couldn’t have cared less if nobody wanted to buy them. They were cool and I liked them. I still have them on my bookshelf. Now that I have graduated I really dont see myself ever EVAR getting back into toys. My style doesn’t fit into most of the toy companies out there. I really feel like comics is where I am going to shine. That’s what I grew up with and where I found most of my inspiration for my art growing up.
There were and still are so many artists that fueled the fire for me. First of all and most importantly I would have to say my dad. He was my first inspiration and his artwork is amazing. Then Frank Frazetta, Harvey Kurtzman, Dean Yeagle, Frank Cho, Michael Turner, Gary Geraths, J.Scott Campbell, Mark Silvestri, Joe Mad, Randy Green and literally about 100 others. There are also people who pushed me and motivated me that aren’t “artists” but very important like Vince Hernandez who sent me home from the cons back to the drawing board a few times after ripping my portfolio to shreds. Thanks Vince. Also some of the most important if not the most are my grandparents. They made it possible for me to be here and think about them everyday. All those people are what is driving me to make it.
Each year I get closer to that goal of one day making it big and making an impact in the comic industry. I do have some Indy work under my belt though. I have two published comics right now, which are: Cold Blooded Chillers 1 and 2. I did lettering in issue 1 and then art and lettering in issue 2. I also have done art for a small trading card company by the name of Sadlittles. I have done work so far for four of the card sets they have produced and will probably keep working with them. I am also working on some submission samples for this years San Diego comic con as well as working on my first art book that I am going to debut at this years Anime Expo in Los Angeles in a few weeks. I’m also taking commission requests and selling stuff on eBay all the time so I get pretty busy.
To see more of Alain’s work visit:
