Marcin Podolec

• born 1991
• born in Jarosław
• he lives and creates his works in Łódź
• he specializes in comics, illustrations and animation

“I can’t sing, so I make comics”.

In 2015, he graduated from animation and special effects, supervised by prof. Piotr Dumała, at the Direction of Photography and TV Production Department at the Film School in Łódź, where he works as an assistant teacher at present. Two of his films, i.e. “Dokument” (2015) and “Olbrzym” (2016), were awarded over 20 prizes all over the world. He has participated in exhibitions both in Poland, including in Łódź, Radom, Białystok, Poznań, and abroad, including in China or Israel. He runs the Yellow Tapir Films animation studio.

The most important publications: “Czasem” (art), story by G. Janusz, Kultura Gniewu, 2011; “Fugazi Music Club”, Kultura Gniewu, 2013; “Podgląd” (art), story by D. Chmielewski, Kultura Gniewu, 2015; “Dym” (art), story by M. Podolec, M. Węcławek, Kultura Gniewu/Karrot Kommando, 2016; “Morze po kolana” (art) story by M. Kołodziejczyk, Wielka Litera, 2016; “Bajka na końcu świata”, Vol. 1‒4, Kultura Gniewu, 2017‒2019.

The most important awards and distinctions: Comics Album of 2011, Łódź, 2012; the 2nd place in the competition for a short comics, Łódź, 2012; “Złoty Jantar” for the best animation, Koszalin, 2015; Grand Prix in the short film competition at the “Transatlantyk” festival, Łódź, 2015; Grand Prix at the “Okiem Młodych” festival, Świdnica, 2015; Audience Award, Polish short animation festival ANIMA.PL, 25th International Film Festival Etiuda&Anima, Krakow, 2018; Grand Prix at IAFF Banjaluka, 2018.

Marcin Podolec uses mainly digital techniques, but sometimes he also creates images with pencil or ink. The artist has developed his style by oscillating between non-realistic, delicate and thin strokes, resembling a sketch, and more expressive lines and simplifications characteristic for cartoons or animation. His drawings are equally suggestive when he uses black and white or a blue-grey palette, sepia tones, or strong contrasting colours. He is the comics artist who experiments with the form the most. He stands out owing to the nonchalant treatment of the page composition; he breaks off with the division into frames and panels and, as a result, his images achieve an unusual spatial effect and dynamics close to animation. What is also close to animation is the repetition of subsequent panels, similar in terms of content, with short intervals of time between them.
Podolec plays with the layout of a page using original montage. This sometimes involves regular tiers with a single panel or two panels; sometimes, he draws panels of different sizes, or smaller panels are thrown onto a whole-page panel. Splash and double splash pages are typical of him.
His formal plays also involve speech balloons, which contain onomatopoeias in his case. And when e.g. a character moves up and down, the elongated balloons are directed towards the upper border.
He frequently uses pages with no illustrations but with speech balloons, clean pages with a single small panel or with characters only, empty balloons, or silent panels. Podolec has mastered visual narration, i.e. the skill of telling stories using only images.

Marcin Podolec Gallery

More information about the artist: marcinpodolec.pl