'Teddy and Olive' (webcomic).
Dolo Okęcki is an Argentine cartoonist, illustrator and storyboard artist, working mainly on children's titles with animal adventures. In her home country, she is an illustrator for the publishing house Hidra. Her comics have appeared in the Netherlands in the girls' magazine Penny (2009- ) and in the USA through educational graphic novel publisher Capstone.
Early life and career
Born in 1980 in Buenos Aires, Dolores Okęcki grew up enjoying animation, comics and picture books. Between 1999 and 2007, she studied Visual Arts at the National University of Arts. In addition, she has taken courses in animation and anatomy. She began her career in 2004, working as art assistant, storyboard artist and concept artist through branding and animation firms like Digital Mind, Steinbranding Design Studio, Faustin Bros and The Story Store. In 2008, she participated in the storyboards, animatics and 3D character animation for BigBoom's animated short 'Lumi', about a little creature with luminous eyes, who discovers the world around him.
'Spetter', comic for Penny magazine in The Netherlands.
Illustrator
Since 2007, Okęcki has been working prominently as an illustrator for print media. She has worked extensively for Editorial Hidra, illustrating the 'Luna Moon' youth book series by Victoria Rodríguez Salido. Between 2009 and 2021, she also illustrated books in Hidra's interative book collection 'Tu decides la Aventura' ("Choose Your Adventure"). Her illustrations and comics have appeared in magazines like Sophia Magazine, IAE and El Asegurador Magazine, and in books for UNESCO. In 2011, she made a series of educational strips for the Garrahan Foundation, a children's healthcare organization. Dolo Okęcki has worked on commercial art assignments through agencies and studios like Mov Studio, Pulsar Studio La Celula and Ogilvy & Mather.
Penny magazine
Through Pulsar Studios, Dolo Okęcki has been a regular comic artist for Penny, a horse-themed girls' magazine published in the Netherlands by Holco Publications. Since 2009, she has worked on regular adventure and humor features like 'Paardenvriendinnen', 'Spetter' and 'Puck & Pony'. Among the magazine's main scriptwriters are Nicolle Christiaanse and Frank Jonker.
'El Viaje de Luka' (2019)
Junior graphic novels
In 2019, Dolo Okęcki wrote and drew 'El Viaje de Luka' ('Luka's Journey', Arpías Si, 2019), a black-and-white graphic novel about a young wolf who becomes a human. Pages of her post-apocalyptic children's comic 'Oso y Oliva' ('Teddy and Olive', 2020-2021) have run as a webcomic on Webtoons. Since 2022, Okęcki is an artist of non-fiction junior graphic novels for Capstone Publishers, an educational publishing house based in Mankato, Minnesota. Among the books she illustrated are 'The Little Rock Nine Challenge Segregation: Courageous Kids of the Civil Rights Movement' (2022, written by Myra Faye Turner), 'Moko to the Rescue: Heroic Dolphin of New Zealand' (2023, written by Matthew K. Manning), 'The Lousy Layup: A Basketball Graphic Novel' (2023, written by Jacki Kruzie), and 'Pass It, Please!: A Basketball Graphic Novel' (2023, written by Elliott Smith).
'The Little Rock Nine Challenge Segregation: Courageous Kids of the Civil Rights Movement' (2022).