Jozef Szekeres (born 4 July 1970) is an Australian artist,
animator, writer,
toy designer, sculptor,
creative director
A creative director (or creative supervisor) is a person who makes high-level creative decisions and, with those decisions, oversees the creation of creative assets such as advertisements, products, events, or logos. Creative director positions ar ...
and arts lecturer, and a director of the Black Mermaid Productions creative team based in Australia. He is best known for his doll creation Elizabet Bizelle, launched through his company Jozef Szekeres Dolls in 2003. He was a finalist in the 2011 Australian Cartoonist Association Stanley Awards, with nominations for Best Australian Illustrator and Australian Comic Book Artist.
He co-created and illustrated the comic book series
ElfQuest – WaveDancers circa 1993–94, and is currently in production of a new comic book series called ''Elf-Fin: Hyfus & Tilaweed'' in collaboration with co-creator
Julie Ditrich, using the original characters and concepts they created for the previous series. A preview was released in April 2011, with a later edition released in May 2013.
Early life
Szekeres was born in Blacktown, Sydney, and grew up near Gosford on the Central Coast of NSW, graduating in 1988 from the Central Coast Grammar School in Erina, Central Coast. He attended the Sydney Conservatorium of Music in the Music Composition School but did not graduate. In 1989, he moved to the Sydney CBD to work at the Walt Disney Animation Australia Studio, now known as
DisneyToon Studios, and was the youngest animator employed there at that time.
Career
Animation
At
Walt Disney Animation Australia, he was a principal animator on a series of films and TV series.
On
Aladdin: The Return of Jafar and
Aladdin and the King of Thieves, he animated both Jasmine and Aladdin, creating reference maquettes of both characters. He did development work on Belle for
Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas 2. On
The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea, he animated the Ariel, Melody and Prince Eric characters. On
Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure, he focused on human characters, such as the adult Wendy and the mermaids in
Return to Never Land
''Return to Never Land'' (also known as ''Peter Pan in: Return to Never Land'' and later retitled ''Peter Pan II: Return to Never Land'' on current home video release) is a 2002 American animated adventure fantasy film produced by Disney MovieToon ...
. He also sculpted a reference
maquette
A ''maquette'' (French word for scale model, sometimes referred to by the Italian names ''plastico'' or ''modello'') is a scale model or rough draft of an unfinished sculpture. An equivalent term is ''bozzetto'', from the Italian word for "sketc ...
of Wendy. His final work for DisneyToons Australia was on
The Jungle Book 2
''The Jungle Book 2'' is a 2003 animated adventure film produced by the Australian office at DisneyToon Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures and Buena Vista Distribution. The theatrical version of the film was released in France on Febr ...
as senior animator on Shanti.
Szekeres began working on Disney television productions such as title and episode animation of both Tarzan and Jane for
Tarzan & Jane. He did character development work and animation on the lead female role Dylandra for ''
Bonkers'', and Jasmine and Aladdin on the
''Aladdin'' TV series. On ''
Gargoyles'', Szekeres animated key sequences of Elisa Maza and Goliath for the "Seeing Isn't Believing" episode. Other television work includes Goof Troop, Darkwing Duck, and
Winnie the Pooh
Winnie-the-Pooh, also called Pooh Bear and Pooh, is a fictional Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic teddy bear created by English author A. A. Milne and English illustrator E. H. Shepard.
The first collection of stories about the character w ...
.
As a freelance 2D animator and
Animation Director
An animation director is either the director in charge of all aspects of the animation process during the production of an animated film or television, and animated segment for a live action film or television show, or the animator in charge of co ...
, he created television commercials for both Australian and international markets. Most notably
Finlandia Vodka Pulp,
Mr Sheen
Mr Sheen is the brand name of a range of cleaning materials, mainly floor and furniture polish, created in Australia in the 1950s by Samuel Taylor Pty Ltd. An aerosol, the product uses a combination of silicones, waxes and solvents and is curren ...
,
Strongbow Cider
Strongbow is a dry cider produced by H. P. Bulmer in the United Kingdom since 1960. Strongbow is the world's leading cider with a 15 per cent volume share of the global cider market and a 29 per cent volume share of the UK cider market.Alcoholic ...
''Cyborg'' and ''Blowtorch'', ''Cafe with Billy'' for
Nescafe, ''The Fifth Finger'' for
KitKat
Kit Kat (stylised as KitKat in various countries) is a chocolate-covered wafer bar confection created by Rowntree's of York, United Kingdom, and is now produced globally by Nestlé (which acquired Rowntree's in 1988), except in the United S ...
, and FantasticRiceCrackers for Fantastic.
Szekeres animated the full episodes of Boy from Woy (1999 TV Series) (with additional animation done by Steve Moltzen) for Mudfish, and for Catflap Animation Petals: Windy Weather (1998 TV Series). Outside of animation but still in the
film industry
The film industry or motion picture industry comprises the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking, i.e., film production companies, film studios, cinematography, animation, film production, screenwriting, pre-production, p ...
, Szekeres was also a conceptual designer on the feature films, Dark City and Cut, and has worked occasionally over the past 15 years with MEG (Make-up Effects Group Studio) on their
commercials and feature films as a conceptualist and sculptor.
Comic books
Szekeres left
Walt Disney Animation Australia in 1993 to illustrate the comic book series
ElfQuest – WaveDancers, which he co-created with Julie Ditrich and Bruce Love. The rights to the WaveDancers' characters are now held by Black Mermaid Productions in Sydney Australia.
Szekeres then worked with
Sirius Entertainment
Sirius Entertainment was an American comic book company which operated from 1994 to 2007. Sirius Entertainment was founded by Robb Horan, Joseph Michael Linsner, and Larry Salamone, Fassbender, Tom. "A Sirius Interview: With Two Sirius Guys," ...
on two issues of the Safety-Belt Man comic book series before undertaking
Erik Larsen
Erik J. Larsen (born December 8, 1962) is an American comic book artist, writer, and publisher. He currently acts as the chief financial officer of Image Comics. He gained attention in the early 1990s with his art on Spider-Man series for Marvel ...
's character in the
Dart miniseries published by
Image Comics.
Szekeres returned to
Sirius Entertainment
Sirius Entertainment was an American comic book company which operated from 1994 to 2007. Sirius Entertainment was founded by Robb Horan, Joseph Michael Linsner, and Larry Salamone, Fassbender, Tom. "A Sirius Interview: With Two Sirius Guys," ...
in 1999 to work with
Joseph Michael Linsner and his
Dawn
Dawn is the time that marks the beginning of twilight before sunrise. It is recognized by the appearance of indirect sunlight being scattered in Earth's atmosphere, when the centre of the Sun's disc has reached 18° below the observer's hori ...
character, and created new mermaid representations of the Goddess character for two publications, ''Dreams of Dawn'' Wizard #1/2, and ''Dawn: Return of the Goddess'' #3.
Szekeres returned to work with Julie Ditrich on Elf-Fin: Hyfus & Tilaweed, first published in 2011.
Illustration
Szekeres' illustration works have been collected several times in books, magazines, and journals, highlights being ''Stripped Uncensored'' and ''Completely Stripped'' published 2009 and 2010 respectively in Germany by
Bruno Gmünder. Szekeres also featured in leading campaigns, such as the
2007 Sydney Mardi Gras, and 2008 Sleaze Ball (which is also part of the
Sydney Mardi Gras). For the 2008 Sleaze Ball, titled ''Villains Lair'', a collector card set consisting of 16 of Szekeres's villainous artworks created specifically for the event were released for members and partygoers. Szekeres released his own collector card set (or loose leaf book) ''The Art of Jozef Szekeres: Mermaids & Mermers'' in 2008 collecting 100 artworks. They range from unpublished pieces early in his career to his most recent published works of that time.
Gaming
Szekeres worked in the gaming industry as a senior illustrator/animator for
Aristocrat from 2001 to 2006. His work includes: ''Dinosaur'', ''Queen of Sheba'', ''Antony and Cleopatra'', ''Butterfly Kiss'' (cover of the Aristocrat 2008 NSW Catalogue), ''Love Stuck'', ''Wild Waratah'', ''Heart of Vegas'' (used for an Aristocrat Catalogue cover), ''Miss Kitty'', ''Moonlight Waltz''.
As a freelancer, Szekeres created gaming art packages for ''The Last King of Egypt'' and ''Treasured Discovery'' for NexGen. He also released game highlights for ''TrueBlue:'' ''Fire Chief'' for Atronic 2009, ''World Safari'' for IGT 2010, ''Aztec Beauty'' for Aruze 2011.
Sculptor and toy designer
Szekeres has had a fascination with figural sculpture from childhood. Early in his career he sculpted maquettes for Disney's Aladdin and Jasmine, Dylandra, and adult Wendy. Szekeres further explored sculpture adding new sculptural elements to
Barbie
Barbie is a fashion doll manufactured by American toy company Mattel, Inc. and launched on March 9, 1959. American businesswoman Ruth Handler is credited with the creation of the doll using a German doll called Bild Lilli as her inspiration. ...
and
G.I. Joe
''G.I. Joe'' is an American media franchise and a line of action figures owned and produced by the toy company Hasbro. The initial product offering represented four of the branches of the U.S. armed forces with the Action Soldier ( U.S. Army), Ac ...
purchased toy parts.
In 2003, Szekeres released his first fashion character/doll Elizabet Bizelle (with sister character Kotalin Bizelle) titled ''Dangerous Discovery'', the first Australian created fashion doll.
In 2006, Szekeres released his doll editions Elizabet Bizelle ''Lady in Red'', and Kotalin Bizelle ''Birthday Bash''.
In November 2020, Szekeres released his GlamourOZ Dolls Collection of 10 editions. It reintroduced his new sculpts of original caucasian characters Kotalin & Elizabet Bizelle. It also now includes two new characters, Asian Lucielle Lei and Australian Aborigine Bindi Merinda (which reflects Australia's cultural diversity). The Kotalin Bizelle doll "Ribbon Reveal" was the recipient of the 2020 DOLLS Award of Excellence Industry Choice Winner. Ten editions were released. Eight titled mainline editions were released, each edition numbering 375. Two variant editions each numbering 100, featuring hair color variations.
2000 Sydney Millennium Olympic Games
The
2000 Sydney Mascots, Ollie, Syd and Millie – three native Australian animals that represent earth, air and water – were designed by Jozef Szekeres and Matt Hatton. Szekeres also created the original three-dimensional physical sculptures/maquettes of these mascots.
Exhibits
Szekeres had his first solo art exhibition in Sydney, Australia in November 2011. The guest speaker at the launch night was
Colleen Doran
Colleen Doran is an American writer-artist and cartoonist. She illustrated hundreds of comics, graphic novels, books and magazines, including the autobiographical graphic novel of Marvel Comics editor and writer Stan Lee entitled ''Amazing Fant ...
.
The Exhibition was curated by Charles Heyen.
See also
*
Elfquest
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Szekeres, Jozef
Australian artists
Living people
1970 births