We are thrilled to announce the latest interview on the Vieunite YouTube channel, a fascinating conversation between our Cultural Director, Dr Benedict Carpenter van Barthold, and the wonderfully talented ArtShine animator, illustrator and artist Marta Tesoro.
In this in-depth discussion, Marta invites us into her Melbourne studio—complete with a Cintiq tablet and a skeleton she humorously calls ‘the management’—to trace her incredible journey from a young artist in the Philippines to a successful, multi-talented animator, illustrator, and surface pattern designer.
Born in 1981, Marta’s passion for art began early. She recounts attending a secondary school where academic pursuits were prioritised and art was seen as a mere hobby. Yet, her creative drive found an outlet. At just 15, she landed her ‘first gig’ selling fan art to friends, honing her skills by drawing a vast array of cartoon characters and teaching herself watercolour. It was through copying figures from the iconic Dragon Ball Z that she mastered male anatomy, a testament to her resourcefulness and her admiration for the late, great manga artist Akira Toriyama.
Fuelled by a determination she laughingly describes as ‘spite will get you far in life’, Marta fought for a place at art school in Australia. The interview is packed with invaluable, hard-won advice for any aspiring creative. She discusses the critical importance of a compelling showreel (short, impactful, and packed with your best work in the first 10 seconds) and offers a crucial warning that inspired the video’s title: always read the contract and understand what you’re signing away.
Marta’s creative process is a disciplined yet passionate blend of the analogue and the digital. She maintains a strict 9-to-5 schedule for studio animation projects before dedicating her evenings to personal drawing, deliberately splitting her time between digital tools and traditional hand-drawing on paper. This commitment to foundational skills is at the heart of her artistic philosophy. As she wisely notes, ‘…photoshop can only fix so much. A dodgy drawing is still a dodgy drawing.’
This principle shines through in her stunning surface pattern designs, a significant part of her current work. Viewers will get to see the story behind her ‘Mecha Sealife’ series—a darkly humorous collection of mechanical fish skeletons powered by zeppelins. This intricate design found a new purpose, evolving from a zine she created years ago after a breakup. It’s a perfect illustration of one of her core beliefs: ‘…save your old artwork. You never know, you could always give it new life.’
The conversation explores her journey with ArtShine, the agency that led her to Vieunite, her views on AI and copyright, and her belief that creativity in any form is valid. In her own words, ‘Art is subjective but anything that requires any form of creativity is actually art’
Join us for the full, inspiring conversation with Marta Tesoro, embedded below. Her work, including the captivating ‘Mecha Sealife’ series, is available to license and enjoy in the Vieunite library.
Benedict is Vieunite’s Cultural Director and a lecturer at Nottingham Trent University.