You're reading: Ukrainian artist draws iconic super heroes, villains for Marvel

Denis Tsiperko started to take drawing seriously 15 years ago, when he was just 13.

Today, his job would make any teenager envious: He draws superheroes and monsters for Marvel Entertainment, the company that created Spider-Man, Avengers, X-Men and many other comics. Marvel pays Tsiperko $25 an hour to create images for the studio’s animated films and mobile phone games, 17 times more than what the average Kyivan earns.
A typical assignment for the 28-year-old animator includes drawing a scene involving a Marvel character. This could take up to five days. Tsiperko works from home in Kyiv.
Marvel discovered his talent eight months ago on artstation.com, a leading showcase platform for games, film, media and entertainment artists, where he had posted some of his work. “They emailed me and asked if I wanted to create a few characters similar to Avengers,” Tsiperko said.
Leading up to this opportunity, he had been honing his artistic skills for 15 years, including four years in the computer games industry. He even tried his hand as a tattoo artist when attending the National Aviation University in Kyiv, applying ink to fellow students to buy his first graphics tablet.
He calls himself a concept artist, a feature that he says sets him apart from “plain artists.”
“A concept artist must be not just a painter, but also a designer,” Tsiperko told the Kyiv Post. “You need not just to draw, but also to have a good imagination and think commercially. A good concept is not just a beautiful image – the picture must be functional.”
His most recent project is devoted to creating illustrations for the “Marvel War of Heroes,” a card battle game based on the Marvel Universe, featuring Spider-Man, Hulk, Iron Man and many more world famous comic book heroes.
As a Marvel artist, Tsiperko has already drawn many superheroes and villains from the Marvel universe, including the rest of the Avengers, as well as Black Bolt, Quicksilver, Wolverine, Sandman and hordes of vampires and werewolves.
“All I need to create them is my Wacom graphic tablet and Photoshop,” the artist said.
Tsiperko also creates original designs and concepts for games studio Riot Games, a U.S. games software company most famous for its “League of Legends” online video game.
“For them, I create the designs of characters, and also draw various kinds of illustrations,” said Tsiperko.
Tsiperko is enchanted by animation, video games and movies, so he really enjoys his job even though it is taking more and more of his time
“I’m wrapped up in my work,” he says. “I have several projects – creating concepts for various animation films, games and so on. I can’t talk much about my work because I’ve signed several non-disclosure agreements.”
Tsiperko has found a market for his talents outside of Ukraine because, he says, the art industry at home is full of traps and pitfalls.
“For example, a client wanted me to create an image in Pixar Studio’s style. I drew him an image in the Pixar style. But then I discovered that he just wanted me to copy an already existing character,” Tsiperko said in an interview with the Buro247 website.
Ultimately, Tsiperko said he wants to team up with friends and start his own art company in Ukraine.
Kyiv Post staff writer Veronika Melkozerova can be reached at [email protected]