Like many of the artists I’ve talked to, Alex comes from a family of artists including his uncle and father. He developed his skills through art school and suggests live drawing classes and persistency to improve one's skills. He mentions that the biggest focus shift in his art career has been adapting and following the deadlines that keep him from vacationing or traveling. When he’s not super busy with work and meeting deadlines he meets other artists at Cons. He also claims that art gets noticed through pure luck but I disagree. Looking at Alex’s work it is obvious that his skills are very developed in texture, figure, and shading. I have concluded that it is not luck as he has said but hard work and mastery. I haven’t been able to find very much info about him so I don’t really know what school he graduated from or what he took other than he majored in printmaking.
Although I am very grateful that Alex Maleev took the time to email me back while he is obviously very busy, I really wish his answers were just a bit more complete and explained. Unfortunately, there isn't much info on Alex on his web site or my trusty wikipedia site. Due to my very obvious weakness for sketches and sketch books, I mostly enjoy Alex’s black and white- they seem too professional looking to just call them sketches but anyway- marker sketches. Just the clean cut effect that he uses with what I’m guessing is some sort of brush pen is very interesting and bold.
As for rating Alex Maleev’s work, I would give him a four out of five stars. I really can appreciate his work and style. It is also evident that he had a very high level of basic technical skills and knows how to grab peoples attention, but also being able to make his work seem so, not simple, but easy to digest. All of these qualities are things that I strive for in my work. Although his work is amazing, I would only give him a four out of five is because his style seems so similar to many other high ranking comic artists that it isn’t as awing to see some of his work. Don’t get me wrong, the classic dynamic style of Alex’s work is beautiful but it just doesn’t have that spark that makes me want to jump up and down every time I see it.
.Any Final Advice?
Don't drink cheap beer.
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