Paulo Cesar Hiroshi Arashiro

Web Designer, Penciller

Where were you born? Where did you grow up?
Born and always lived in São Paulo

Schooling? Art training?
I studied illustration during 3 years at Escola Panamericana de Artes (Panamerican School of Arts) concluding the course in 1996 and after that I studied Photography and Comics at Academia Brasileira de Artes (Brazilian Academy of Arts) in 1998. Already studying Plastic Arts at UNESP (São Paulo State University)in 2001 I had a period of training at restoring afrescos. I concluded my course at UNESP in 2002.

How long have you been working professionally in comics?
I’ve been working with illustration since 1998 and web design since 2000.

What things — both in art and otherwise — have you worked on besides comics? Are comics a full-time gig for you or part-time?
I alternate my time between two areas that I like a lot: Illustration and web design. When I’m not creating layouts for sites I’m painting some book covers, cd covers or some illustration for the institutional market

Talk about how you broke into the business –was it easy? Hard? Ups? Downs? Any interesting anecdotes? When you held your first published work in your hands, how did you feel?
Working as a freelancer is not very easy, specially when we talk about payments. You can’t always count on fixed payments, unexpected things can always happen and it’s important to know how to control this. But with the time you get used to preventing these “unexpected ones”. Moreover you have to know how to deal very well with the time separating the hours between drawing, having meetings with customers, sending budgets, doing some sites maintenances. Besides you have to know how to deal with eating and sleeping little sometimes. But all that is worth it because I love what I do. When I held my first published work it was a special moment and I felt fulfilled and I was proud of myself. It was a dream coming true because I always liked to draw and see a work you’ve done published is always very good. It’s a professional accomplishment to any designer.

Did you work as an assistant to any other artists? If so, please talk a bit about those experiences.
No, I didn’t.

How did your parents take to the idea of working in comics?
They always liked very much and have always stimulated me to work doing what I like. I’m very grateful for everything they have done for me.

How would you describe your workspace? Is it part of your home,
or do you go “to the studio”?

At the moment I’m working at home where I have a drawing table, many painiting books, comics and magazines, painting and drawing materials, my computer and a little space for my bed lol.
What job are you the proudest of? What’s your most embarrassing?
One of the works that I like the most is a cd cover for a heavy metal band called Mad Dragzter. It was an amused work with a good time limit. I had around 2 months to finish it which is very rare to happen. Time more than enough to create sketches, references, paint and do the final retouching. The cover idea and the final result pleased me a lot. The work that I liked less was made for a newspaper of São Paulo, where it had to be done in a childish style and I’m not good at drawing this kind of style.

What are you currently drawing? Comments on that project?
I have done some illustration works for the Brazilian market, mainly for advertising and private companies. Moreover I am taking some courses to improve my techniques of drawing and painting. I also manage a site, Centraldequadrinhos.com, and have to work on it every day.

Talk about your family: Parents, siblings, home situation. Are you married? Have kids? Names? Anecdotes about married life, how it relates to your busy schedule, etc. If you have kids do they understand your job? What do they say about it? Do they read comics?
Well, at the moment I’m a single person and I’m not planning to get married so early. In the next five years I ‘m intending to devote my life to work and spending my free time studying. And then after getting all the experience that I need I will think to get married.

What projects do you hope to work on in the future?
I hope to be working illustrating characters like Batman, X-men, Sandaman, Constantine, Conan and others.

Where do you see yourself in five years? Ten years?
I can see myself working with illustration and making covers of magazines or books and pin-ups to the main publishing houses. I’m intending as well, to work with nap art (concept-art for games and films), and carry on keeping my web site about comics. It has been on since january of 2000.

What is the interest in comics where you live? Do friends and neighbors know you draw comics for a living? How do they react?
My parents have always motivated me to draw and I’m very grateful to them for this. I’ve never had so many problems related to comics, and my friends have backed me a lot even if some of my friends at the beginning thought that it wasn’t a great deal to do for a living.

What’s 1 thing you’ll always find in your refrigerator?
Coke(soft drinks), a lot coke to be awake at night, beyond candies and anything eatable.

What’s your favorite food?
Japanese food and Barbecue

What are your favorite interests –Movies? Music? TV? Any hobbies? Sports?
In my short spare time I like to watch filmes, programs TV, TV series like Friends, Supernaturals, Simpsons and Smalville. I usually buy some special edition comics of Batman, X-men and also mini-series. And other thing that I like to do is surfing.

Have you ever thought of writing your own stories?
Yes I can image this situation. I’m planning to write my own stories and I hope that don’t take so long.

Ever been in a gang?
I’ve never thought been in a gang, perhaps because ….

What’s an average day in your life like? Walk us through a typical day.
I don’t have the right time to work, but usually I wake up at 7:30 am. or 8:00 am. and start to work about 9:00 am. After I take a lunch break, and then I work more a little bit and then go to the gim. Come back to work and I stop at 21:00 pm, have a dinner and watch tv or a film. About 23:00 pm I come back to work until 3:00 am or 4:00 am it depends of how much work I’ve got to do.

Do you have any great, unsold projects in your files that nobody’s gotten to see published?
Yes I have a few.

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