Manuela Otero Duque had this to say about what inspired her to study Illustration & Storytelling for Sequential Arts and why she chose to attend Max the Mutt:
“Illustration as an art demands a lot of knowledge that is useful in other types of media and therefore would not confine me to only one type of graphic art, which also appealed to my more ambitious side.
Being Colombian and having decided to pursue my passion, forced me to look for art education elsewhere. Especially since any form of graphic art has not surfaced as an industry in my country so far. I was lucky to be able to go to Belgium and study in an art school.
Nevertheless I didn’t feel ready yet to work in the field of my choice. So I looked for a more technique oriented school. A teacher of mine suggested Max the Mutt and it’s curriculum offered what I needed from a school.
After finishing Max the Mutt I hope to get work at a studio here in Canada. In time, I hope to publish my own comic book, but that will be a dream for another day…”
Manuela Otero Duque is one of the two 2020 recipients of the Bradley Mark Johnston Memorial Scholarship.