February 4, 2025

Let's Talk Illustrators #311: Marcelo Tolentino

I guarantee that the moment you see Marcelo Tolentino's artwork for the first time your breath will be taken away. His picture book Sunday is no different! I'm so pleased to share my interview here with Marcelo about this stunning book that transports readers to a new kind of Sunday. Enjoy!


About the book:
Martin and his family spend every Sunday together and every Sunday they have the same routine. Not this Sunday, he decides while everyone else watches TV, cooks, and folds laundry.

Instead, Martin invents a world adventure with his dog, Maize, braving extreme cold alongside penguins on ice caps, facing a dragon, confronting pirate ships, and crossing an arid desert on a camel's back. When he returns from his travels happy and exhausted, he recounts his magical journey with Grandma, who marvels at his courage and wonders where he will go next.

Check out the endpapers:



Let's talk Marcelo Tolentino!


LTPB: Where did the idea for Sunday come from? How long did you work on it before it published?

MT: The idea for Sunday emerged in a very specific context. We were in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, and I was about to become a father. My thoughts were entirely focused on childhood and what that beginning would look like in such a challenging scenario of confinement and uncertainties.

During one of those musings, I imagined a little boy who, looking at the lines on his palm, interpreted them as a map and decided to embark on a journey. At the time, I started thinking about other parts of the body that could serve as metaphors for a journey, and a few interesting images came to mind, like the galaxy eye and the desert bald head.

Gradually, I expanded the idea, and inspired by the account of a solitary journey by Amyr Klink, I realized that the boy's journey could include elements from the house, not just parts of the body.

The house where the story takes place is the same one where I spent my entire childhood and youth, so it was great fun to revisit my childhood games and fantasies to create each step of the protagonist's journey.

Drawings and paintings of my wife and son.

The drawing that sparked the idea for Sunday and the first script study.

My cousins and I at the house where I lived until I was 18, which served as the inspiration for Sunday.


LTPB: Can you talk a little bit about the visual evolution of the characters and the story? How did your illustrations evolve as you got to know the characters and story better?

MT: This was one of the most challenging and enjoyable parts of the process. Portraiture has always been part of my artistic practice, and throughout my life, I’ve often drawn my closest family members. When structuring the book, I aimed to blend some characteristics of my relatives to shape each of the characters.

The grandmother is a mix of my mother and my own grandmother, and the grandfather combines traits of my father and my grandfather. Although I don’t have a dragon tattoo, the father is a self-portrait, and the mother is my wife.

Creating the boy, Martin, was a delightful exercise, involving looking through many childhood photographs of myself and imagining what my son might look like at that age.

I also consider the house a character in the story. It was drawn from memory, and since I was in isolation at home, I relied on the invaluable help of my mother, who took photos of various parts of the house as I requested them.

Oil painting and watercolor of my grandmother.

Self-portrait and painting of my grandmother.

My uncle, my brother and I, my wife.

My childhood in the house and the Labrador I had, which inspired the dog in the book.

Early concept of Martin and Maize


LTPB: What did you find most difficult in creating this book? What did you find most rewarding?

MT: Finding what this story was truly about wasn’t easy. I often feel like I work as a paleontologist—discovering fragments, jotting them down, drawing them. Sometimes, they don’t lead to anything more, but other times, I manage to piece together the entire skeleton. (I think this metaphor came to mind because I’m currently trying to develop a book about dinosaurs.)

In the case of Domingo, the story began to flow when I understood the house as the central element of the narrative.

Without a doubt, the most rewarding part was feeling that I had created a story that, if not universal, comes close to being so. People of completely different ages and backgrounds told me how connected they felt, how it reminded them of family Sundays and their relationships with their grandparents.

In the end, knowing that the book found its readers is always deeply gratifying.



LTPB: What did you use to create the illustrations in this book? Is this your preferred medium? How does your process change from book to book?

MT: The first version of the book was drawn with fineliners in a pocket-sized Moleskine notebook. Since my son was a newborn, this was the most practical way for me to keep the work within reach during his nap times. I tested digitally coloring these sketches to present them to the publisher and loved the result.

For the final version of the book, I redrew each scene using ink on a larger scale to add more detail through cross-hatching and kept the idea of digital coloring. I adopted a palette that gave the story a vintage/timeless feel.

I really enjoy working on volumes in my drawings using cross-hatching. However, I generally use the computer very little in my work, as I prefer coloring with traditional methods like watercolor, gouache, or other hands-on processes.

I also like having the freedom to explore different techniques and styles depending on the book I’m working on. I believe the choice of materials and techniques tells its own story, and I always try to remember that most of my audience is made up of children. If I want them to have fun reading, I also need to have fun creating.








LTPB: What are you working on now? Anything you can show us?

MT: At the moment, I’m working on a few different projects. I continue teaching art at a school, and in the first semester of 2025, I plan to complete three books.

One is an authorial project featuring a boy around Martin’s age who is going through the end of a friendship. The other two are collaborations with writers.

For one of them, I’ve been doing extensive research on Brazil’s northeastern backlands to create the illustrations. The second is a cumulative tale I’m working on with my friend Yuri de Francco, with whom I released my last book at the end of 2024.




LTPB: If you got the chance to write your own picture book autobiography, who (dead or alive!) would you want to illustrate it, and why?

MT: This is a very difficult question because of the sheer number of artists I admire. I’ll give you a few options.

One would be Odilon Moraes, a Brazilian artist who was my teacher and has an unprecedented sensitivity for drawing and narratives that blend text and image.

Another would be Renato Moriconi, an incredibly talented and versatile artist. I would love to have him as the illustrator because of the unpredictability of the style he might choose.

Lastly, I would be thrilled to have the Japanese artist Akiko Miyakoshi illustrate my biography. She draws the most human-like animals I’ve ever seen, and I’m curious to know what my animal version would look like in her style.

A million thanks to Marcelo! Sunday published last month from Blue Dot Kids Press!

Special thanks to Marcelo and Blue Dot for use of these images!



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