Check Out Curt Merlo’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Curt Merlo.

Hi Curt, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today.
I have been into art my whole life, drawing all the time as a kid and going to UC Irvine to study Fine Arts. I wasn’t too enchanted with gallery arts and was always more interested in what fine artists would call low-brow art; Comic books and music/film poster art. After I graduated I worked as a graphic designer at a media company for 3 years.

It wasn’t super exciting but it allowed me to hone my design sense and basically get paid to learn. There I learned about Editorial illustration. I lost that job due to The Great Recession and in 2010 went freelance as an editorial illustrator. I have been doing that for 12 years now and have worked with many big publications during that time. On the side, I have always made art books and in the last, 5 years or so got really into comic book illustrating. This month I am releasing my first graphic novel which I am super thrilled about. Now I am in a transitional period where I am trying to figure out what is next for my career.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It wasn’t smooth at all. My whole commercial illustration career I have constantly struggled with imposter syndrome thinking I was never good enough and that I don’t have a strong enough vision or style to make it. It was about three or four years into my freelance editorial path and another editorial artist who I really looked up to called me out for stealing his style. I was really green at the time and wasn’t trying to jack his style but I know now that I tend to get hyper-focused on a specific style. Try to learn from that style until I master it and at that time that artist was my style of focus. Hearing something like that from your hero absolutely devastated me.

I almost quit but instead just reinvented myself and started over. Which was really good for me and exactly what I needed. Since then I have learned that imitation is natural and how we learn as humans but at the time I got really down on myself. I have also learned not to pull inspiration from only one artist or source because that is how you can turn your inspiration into an imitation. It is true that “Great artist steal” as Picasso famously said but make sure you steal from lots of artists and not just one. Lesson learned.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
By day I am a Freelance Editorial Illustrator which means I make art for magazines and newspapers. I Illustrate articles related to whatever is in the latest news. I was kind of known for doing Weed related for a while but that has kind of died down. This is the commercial side of my work.

By night I make comics and art books for whatever latest project interests me. My most known books are RED FLAG! And GUNK but I recently finished a full-length Graphic Novel with the author J.R. Hughto. The book is called That Distant Fire and it is coming out this month! Please check it out, you will not be disappointed.

What were you like growing up?
I grew up in a small Central Valley town in California spending my time playing Water Polo and swimming. Sports and art don’t typically go together but they did for me. I always had an interest in art and spend a lot of time drawing and copying whatever latest comic book I was reading.

I was pretty shy which explains why I spend my time alone drawing. I was the last of four children so peace and quiet were more valuable than gold. The drawing was my happy place and remains so to this day.

Contact Info:

• Website: Curtmerlo.com
• Instagram: @curtmerlo
• Twitter: @curtmerlo