Luka Cakic, a diamond from Montenegro
Luka is a young student of fourth year in Economics in the university of Montenegro, and combines studying with drawing. Soon we'll know about his upcoming proyects.
This is the full interview in English:
Mario: What was your greatest artistic influence in your early days? And now, which artists do you respect the most?
Luka: In my early childhood the biggest impact on me were through the movies, I love watching movies (sci-fi movies, and movies with medieval themes) some of the first I ever saw were Stargate with Kurt Russell, and Conan with Arnold Shwarzenegger...and later many others, but those were the first two movies that had great influence on my imagination. Even today I love to watch a lot of movies, and when I do, I usually capture the moments and the frames in my head, emotions of characters and such.
I fell in love in comics first time when I was 14 years old, and that was when I had the opportunity to read Jeremiah from Hermann Huppen and at the same age Scorpion from Enrico Marini. Two amazing story tellers. I couldn't take any individual that I respect the most, it is really hard, because there is a legion of artists that I respect, admire, and I consider them as my role models. I am still young so I try to learn from all of them.
Mario: With whom would you like to work?
Luka: With basically anyone who has good creative ideas, and where I can express my artistic freedom trough the story I need to draw. I always try to keep all doors opened. I would love to have the opportunity to work on some movie set where I would be able to design clothes and storyboard for the script, that is some long way goal for me. And with whom would I like to work, I would love to learn from and work with a lot of illustrators, the list is long (Hermann Huppen, Enrico Marini, Mike Mignola, Frank Miller..). And if we speak about writers, of course Alan Moore, that is my dream.
Mario: What do you think of digital comic books ... is the comic industry in danger / crisis with the menace of pirate downloads? How can this affect the work of artists?
Luka: Well I like to think that every change is good, and natural in a way, so every artist should consider today and adopt digital art and that approach of story telling. It has a lot of benefits (for example, much faster finishing the art, colors are amazing in digital, faster way to get comic-book online etc. ). Me personally, I don't like digital art, it will never change pen and paper for me, I just love the feeling of taking my own creation in my hands and not watching it trough the glass of the screen.. But digital is something that I will have to learn with the time (I am doing that even now). I think that digital is the future of comics but that traditional approach will always be present, and even crucial for any kind of progress for artists.
Mario: What are you working on and what are your upcoming projects?
Luka: At this moment I am working on two projects. One is with my friend Goran Jovovic, it's going to be a black and white comic-book, thriller genre, story is set in the New York Harlem,and the main theme is the birth of the rap music. And the second project that I am preparing is for Kick-starter, with my friend Kris Daybeck. It is medieval- fantasy story placed in the fictional earth, and it is going to be a colored comic-book, with a first chapter on 24 pages (can't tell with 100%).
Mario: What are your memories / relationship / influences with Jean Giraud and their artworks?
Luka: As I mentioned before, first impact on me to fall in love in comics and drawings/illustrating was through the movies. Two of the greatest sci-fi movies I watched in my early days were Fifth element and Alien. Movies that are inspired and created trough the great influence of Jean Giraud. Seeing those creations and those worlds left a great mark on my visual approach. I am not a great fan of Marvel Universe, but I love Jean Girauds work on Silver Surfer, his work is a real feast for your eyes, esthetics of lines and color. His work will be inexhaustible fountain of inspiration for me, and as before I will continue scrolling his pages because there is always more to learn.
Now, we can enjoy the quality of Luka, here there are some examples:
