Artist Interview with Mars AKA Winzfactor!

If you’re looking for a talented artist to build you a KFC Gunpla kit then look no further! Meet our newest edition to the Artist interview, Mars AKA Winzfactor!

I began talking to Mars a while back and fell in love with their pieces. These are often beautiful works and I’m fortunate She agreed to do this interview! I hope you all enjoy it as much as I do.

Check out the end of the article to find a link to the full YouTube interview!

Q: How do you develop your art skills?

I guess coming from Indonesia I was surrounded by great artists, especially in my hometown of Solo. Solo is the cultural center of Java. I know I’ll say that and there are a lot of people from Jogja that’s like “No actually, we’re the cultural center of Java”. What I guess most Indonesians can agree on is central Java in particular, no matter where you’re from, is a big cultural hub for Indonesia. A lot of the traditional Batik patterns are from there. There are a lot of people making shadow puppets, woodworking, metalwork, and all that stuff. A lot of great artists.

So me, like when I was growing up I guess I always wanted to be an artist in a way, even if it’s a hobby. It might not be a living but I always wanted to do something related to art because I’m surrounded by all these great artists. All this great art on a daily basis.

I remember developing my art the first time I had a mentor. He does murals, like graffiti-style murals. Indonesian style. That’s really my first encounter with studying art. Learning the basics of drawing anatomy from him then color blending and all that stuff. I learned that from him. I actually forgot his name. I’m sure it’ll pop up.

(It did pop up! The artist is Pak Yanto!)

Then as I grew older I wanted to become a comic book writer. So developing my art I learned from local comic book artists back then. A lot of the old-school Indonesian comics. Then I struggled to find an art medium I would enjoy until I came across scale modeling. So I figured I would be more like a traditional artist and comic books and painting. It never quite clicked with me. Maybe I’m not skilled enough or maybe it didn’t quite jam with me until I got my first scale model, the RMS Titanic model. And I’m like “Yes, this is the art medium that I want to develop further. Like I really enjoyed this. I really enjoyed the build process and it sort of clicked.

Even though I did a terrible job on my first Titanic model. My dad saved a lot of money to buy it for me and then I got plastic cement everywhere. Even though I didn’t really paint it or everything. Just the building process was something I really enjoyed. After that, I bought plane models, and rattle cans, and sort of developed skills into more aspects like seam line removal. Decals.

I guess developing my art turned me from a pen on paper, and brush on canvas to building. I guess it transformed into building. Then building to painting. Looking back there’s a very clear progression on what I want to do as an artist even though nowadays I try to hone my sketching and painting skills better. I do like painting commissions on the side, like traditional painting. It’s more to complement or to take a break from scale modeling.

As I grow older I find I like scale modeling more than painting. It’s very interesting because you evolve as a person and your art evolves with you. So now I find myself coming back to what I couldn’t do when I was younger. I want to get better at like painting or drawing. Or making comics because that’s something I didn’t do very well. Now I’m learning again. Also through a mentor in Indonesia how to do graphic design. Also, anatomy because I’ve forgotten.

That’s my development anyway. I develop my art through interactions with other artists and finding what works for myself.

Q: What do you struggle with in the hobby?

I always struggle with scribing. I have a condition in my eyes. Sometimes I can’t differentiate straight lines. So it’s always a struggle for me making straight lines or scribing straight lines because my eyes will tell me they’re straight but my brain will tell me they’re not.

Usually, I’ll have to ask Aidan if it’s straight or not. It’s not like I would get vertigo or anything if I saw a bunch of straight lines all at once. When I do it, in my head most of the time, it always looks and feels like it’s not straight.

Which was actually a problem for me when I did my first flight school. I could never quite line up the aircraft to the centerway of the runway because it’s a straight line. I had to shoot this straight line in the middle and I had to find a way to make it work for me because every time I changed to a different airport it was a different runway. They have different markings.

One thing is the fucking same: straight lines. Straight lines fucking kill me. I remember in my class I took the longest to nail solo landings because I would always be off. I’d land safely but it would always be off. It might be okay for small planes but once I start the big jets it’s really inexcusable. You have to hit the center line but I managed to find a way to make it work. I remember it was a struggle. I didn’t think I would struggle with straight lines outside of scale models but it had implications in real life as well. I still struggle with scribing.

Do I want to get better at it? Obviously but I also succumbed to the fact if I can never do it then it’s okay.

Q: Where are you from? How does that affect your work?

I’m from Solo in Indonesia and with central Java being such a big cultural hub for Indonesia that influences a lot of my work and inspirations. People do shadow puppets and all that stuff as well. There’s a lot of creativity and a lot of colors. Everything is very bright and colorful. I think most of Southeast Asian culture is like that. It’s very bright very colorful. Each region has their own have their own patterns and colors, and Java is no different. Bali has their own color palette. Java has its own color palette. You go to Jakarta and it’s all smoke and depression I guess. Then you go to Sumatra and they have their own color palette. Stuff like that.

Q: What gundam would you take on a date?

I would take the 00 Raiser on a date. Why else would I have a tattoo of a 00 Raiser head with a skeleton coming out of it if I’m not going to take it on a date. I like it. I feel like the 00 series is underrated and people only know like the Exia for some reason.

People seem to know the Exia more than the Seven Swords, Raiser, or Qan T. The amount of people when I posted that tattoo said to me “Nice Exia” I don’t even know if they’re trolling or they actually don’t know.

Q: What do you listen to when working?

Ah, shit. Well, I listen to serial killer documentaries. I’m not a serial killer. I want to put a disclaimer that I’m not a serial killer. I really like Coffee House crime. It’s one of my favorite channels. I keep up with all those videos. I also listen to really weird shit like the Chris-Chan documentary. I’m four episodes behind at the moment. I’ve been sidetracked by Malaysian 370 documentaries because it’s the tenth anniversary. I can’t go past any good aviation documentary. I’m listening to three of them.

Q: How do you think art is important to society?

I feel that in current society where literally everything is designed to make you either angry, depressed, or both. Art is even more important than ever.

I’m gonna be like “Let me tell you a story from when I was a kid” but then I’m not that old. Me saying this now makes me feel like 65 years old. I remember in the 90’s there was no internet. Not everyone had internet. I remember the way you enjoyed art back then in its simplest form to go out to a concert, go to a movie, or go to an art show (at least in my hometown). There’s an art show every year, dancing, and traditional music with traditional food. Or even going to the cinema.

You take time out of your day to go to a cinema to sit and enjoy art. Even if the art is a stupid Power Ranger movie. It’s still art. You go out to a concert, right, because back then there was no streaming yet. You stream anything. Stream movies from the comfort of your own home. You can enjoy all this stuff but at the same time, it’s hard to detach yourself because everything is so convenient. I can consume all this media that’s freely available to me. I feel like a lot of that is missing the “ I. AM. GOING. OUT. TO. ENJOY. ART”.

Do I make sense?

It’s so much like rage bait and drama content. Especially these days. Now with AI art as well. To me, personally as a creator and as a fellow artist, now that AI art is everywhere I find it really annoying that now every time I see something cool online I have to do a double take to make sure it’s not AI art. I can’t just enjoy art on the internet. I have to scrutinize it. It’s lost a lot of “oh wow that’s good art. That’s a good internet picture.”

Now I have to be like oh shit it’s AI-generated. Oh, look a cool gundam kitbash. Oh, it’s AI art. It’s very disappointing to me.

Now art as a medium is even more important.

Q: Tell me about your favorite medium.

My favorite medium is still scale modeling. I think that’s a medium? I also like watercolor. I think watercolor is something I’m trying to get better at. I do it. I’m not very good at digital art. Every time I design I always sketch it. I would ask Aiden to vector it in Photoshop and kinda trace over it. I don’t know why. I really tried to get into digital art because, ironically, I wanted to be a tattoo artist. Everyone uses tablets now because it’s faster and more efficient.

I remember trying to build my portfolio and I have to paint or draw manually on paper. This is not good because I’m not efficient. If I have to use pencil and paper every day then I’m not going to get as many clients. I need to learn digital art but I don’t enjoy using digital art as a medium. I always come back to pen and paper.

But yeah I really like watercolor. I really feel like when you put watercolor on paper the colors come together. It’s different than oil. It’s different than a pencil. It’s kind of like it’s predictable but it’s not. You can put two colors and they spread everywhere. There’s this spontaneity in watercolor on paper. I really like that. Seeing all the colors clash. The paper curls as well so it gets this rustic look.

Scale modeling for me is a great medium as well. In gunpla, you can paint it in any color. I find it’s a nice break from watercolor and realism. It’s two avenues that balance each other. If I want to do something crazy I can do it on a gunpla. If I want to do something a little reserved I can do it on paper. It’s bouncing between two things.

Q: What tools are crucial to you?

I really like my masking template. Especially recently. It’s basically like a template you put your masking tape on top of it. Then you run your very very sharp surgical blade over it to make patterns. I’ve been using it more and more ever since the full-detail Sinanju. I realized they made precut masking tape but someone told me halfway. I couldn’t get it. The triangles and lines are my favorite type of templates. You can pretty much cover anything with lines, grids, or triangles. It’s so good.

Q: How rewarding do you find your commissions?

I feel like I need to tell the context behind all these commissions. When covid hit I lost my job as a pilot. Me and a hundred thousand other pilots around the world. I basically got given an option you can either quit now and take a redundancy bonus. It’s basically getting people to quit and giving you a nice big paycheck of money. Or you can stay as a pilot. But if you’re not flying you’re not getting paid and we don’t know how long it’s going to take. So it’s either get six months of unemployment because you’re probably not going to get any flights or quit now and get a bonus.

I thought “I’m going to take a gap year”. Stupid me. I took the redundancy and got a package. I’ll take a gap year where I’ll explore my artistic nature and I’ll open commissions. That was the plan, right?

So I opened my commissions and it was filled, 47 commissions. Which I’m still doing to this day three years later so it was a mistake. At first, I priced my commissions really really cheap because it was something for me to do so I don’t go crazy because I’m locked down. The lockdown in Australia ends up being a yearful.

My first lot of commissions were rewarding once they were completed but it wasn’t rewarding financially because I was just trying to get something to do. That’s the underlying reason.

Q: How do you balance creativity and commissions? How do you balance personal projects and commissions?

I sometimes struggle with it still. It’s a very delicate balance. I feel like if I lie in one aspect it drags the others along with it if that makes any sense.

I remember in 2020 when I opened my commission when I got my first twenty commissions it got to the point that I stopped accepting commissions because my wardrobe was filled with other people’s kits. Aiden told me “Stop. No more commissions” because we’re running out of space.

(Check out 1:11:02 on the interview to hear more about Mar’s process on painting commissions!)

Q: What motivates you to create? What burns you out?

I create a gunpla. I’m a casual painter most of the time. What inspires me is sometimes I’ll take a break and look at tattoos, color schemes, or racing decals. It really inspires me. I’ll look at KFC racing decals and be like “ I want to make a KFC gunpla” like that’s what really inspires me. I’ll look at Garfield decals and be like “If I could get a Garfield decal made on my gunpla how cool would that be.”.

It’s like those sorts of things inspire me. Looking at tattoos inspires me because you see a sick design and be like “Oh I can see that on a Jesta!’. Super cool colors. Some of them are just so vibrant.

(listen to more at 1:23:00 where Mar’s explains their burnout and an issue with a resin kit!)

Q: What does your artwork represent? Are there themes or messages?

Some of them do like my diorama builds. I try and convey a story with my builds as much as I can. I haven’t really made dioramas lately. I would love to make one this year for myself. Maybe a couple because I really miss that because I’ve been trying to churn out my commissions. Dioramas take a lot of time. My first big diorama which is the blue angel conveys a story of a flight-like formation flying like the blue angel. People really liked that That was like a two-year project that finally got done.’

My first cerulean project build was a Megami device kit like this girl with a big axe through a graveyard. A demon hunter girl hunting down skeletons. That was pretty cool.

Q: Who are your biggest artistic influences?

I can do a meme answer lol. Honestly my big influence artist in Indonesia. There’s this political illustrator called Benny & Mice (by Benny Rachmadi and Muhammad “Mice” Misrad). I really like his art style and how he makes fun of Indonesian culture and political culture.

Growing up in Indonesia he was my first artistic inspiration because he would publish all these parody books like a “foreigners guide to Indonesia” and it’s like looking through the lens of a typical Bali tourist. It’s so funny. He would just dissect what an Indonesian would wear, and what they eat, it’s very humorous.

The art style is very rushed but like very unique. Usually, comics in newspapers were black and white but there were instances where some instances where their comic was in color on the newspaper. Which was something I had never seen before. I got drawn into their comic.

Betty & Mice is a comic strip where they’re not scared to make fun of politics. Make fun of how shit living in Indonesia is. Stereotypes. Sometimes they would ask big questions like “How come it’s so corrupt?”. They’re asking some good political questions and they’re Indonesian comic artists so it’s more relatable to the people. These comics were lumped together with like Peanuts, just translated to Indonesian. They were like the first political Indonesian comic sort of thing.

(this continues on 1:43:00)

Q: Do you have tips for other artists looking to connect with their local art scene?

I guess the best way is to join your local scale model club if you’re a modeler. It opens up to other art avenues as well. Some people know people in galleries. If you go to a scale model club chances are you’ll see other artists there too.

Q: How do you define success as an artist?

Oh. I’m gonna get a cup of tea.

(goes to get a cup)

To define success, for me personally, is seeing my vision come to life. If it comes to life and I have something in my head, executed it, and it works? Then I succeeded. I’m a simpleton. I’m that simple. I don’t care about followers. I don’t care about reach. I don’t care about engagement monetization or sponsorship.

If I told my client that I’m going to make a KFC gunpla and it’s going to look sick. I have Colonel Sander’s face on the shield. If they’re like “Cool, make it work” and I made it work and it looks awesome. Then I succeeded.

I’m simple.