Marko Djurdjevic

Marko Djurdjević
Marko Djurdjević at Lucca Comics & Games 2016
Born	January 23, 1979 Koblenz, West Germany
Nationality	German
Area(s)	Penciller, Concept artist

Marko Djurdjević (born January 23, 1979) is a German illustrator and concept artist of Serbian descent, best known for his character designs. He works for Marvel Comics, and has produced a large body of cover art, as well as promotional designs, character concepts, and interior artwork. He resides in Berlin with his wife Jelena Kevic Djurdjevic.

Djurdjević was born in Koblenz, West Germany. As a child he exhibited a talent for drawing, inspired by cartoons such as He-Man. When Marko was 11, he discovered Burne Hogarth's book Dynamic Anatomy (1958), a major turning point in his self-education. Studying the guide for two years, Djurdjevic then put the book away and began to add a layer of realism to his drawings. He used what he learned from Hogarth as a foundation, while at the same time pulling ideas from his everyday life observations.

As a teenager, Djurdjević became influenced by American comic books such as Spider-Man, a foreshadowing of his later career as a Marvel Comics illustrator. He rejected the comic style of drawing a couple of years later, citing it as "too stylized" and "exaggerated", which was contrary to his training early on. At the age of 17, Marko began working professionally as an illustrator. He mostly produced black and white drawings for tabletop rpg companies such as White Wolf, Inc. and FanPro Games.

Djurdjević continued working in Germany as an illustrator for the next few years, building upon his personal style which took on an almost sketch-like quality while retaining anatomical accuracy. He was convinced by a friend to begin posting some of his designs and pictures on a relatively new online art community called conceptart.org. He gained immediate recognition for his ability to conjure extremely believable figures from his imagination in a short amount of time. Djurdjević's popularity was noticed by the founding members of conceptart.org, Jason Manley and Andrew Jones. The two had been creating a network of friends through their website, and were in the process of forming a company devoted to producing concept art for videogame companies and the film industry. Djurdjević was offered a position in the group as a senior concept artist, focusing on human character and creature design. He accepted and became one of the original members of the company now known as Massive Black.