Bay artists make great impressions

STAR ATTRACTION: Becky McEwen was placed third in the NZ ComicCon Art Contest, with this creation.PHOTO/SUPPLIED

Daniel Holland and Becky McEwen did not just head to this year's NZ ComicCon to soak up the lively atmosphere.

The Napier artists won first and third place respectively in the festival's national art contest.

ComicCon featured numerous events throughout Wellington at the weekend, turning the capital into "geek central" for three days and nights.

Winning artworks by Mr Holland, 27, and Ms McEwen, 22, were put on show at the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts as part of the festival.

Mr Holland says his painting was a spur of the moment creation, made using Photoshop and a graphic pad.

"It was kind of a bit of a rushed job. I had just heard about the competition a few days earlier."

The artist works at Resene Paints in Napier and has a passion for 3D art. He has studied animation and dreams of one day working on films for Weta Workshop or Pixar.

Ms McEwen admits her entry was also put together under time constraints.

"I left it to the last minute," she said. "I kind of pulled an all-nighter, because I work best under pressure."

Her work is another Photoshop creation, and draws inspiration from comic books and graphic novels.

She is a pharmaceutical technician and hopes one day to work full-time as an artist. The two artists said they were rapt their work would be on display to thousands of ComicCon-goers. The friends travelled to Wellington from Napier together, having met at media design school in Auckland.

"It's really, really exciting to be able to go and see our work on the wall with lots of other great artwork, and having people able to come and see it," Ms McEwen said.

"It's pretty awesome," Mr Holland agreed. "We have talked about making a group project of some sort but, for the most part we're both looking to pad out our portfolios. Ultimately, we've both got day jobs but the end game is to get into the industry."