More Answers

Ok, I’ve been getting a lot of questions submitted to me here, and I’ve finally got some time to answer a few of them (I promise you I read every single one of them). If you did ask a question and you dont see it up here, it’s probably because i answered a similar one last time and I don’t want to be repetitive. I figured it would be easiest to answer them in one post as i did before here. My answers are marked in bold.

——What mediums do you work in?

I pretty much always work strictly in graphite. For publications and illustration jobs, it’s generally a graphite drawing with digital color applied to it. When I need color for any gallery work, I’ll throw some acrylic washes and colored pencil over the graphite drawings. To be honest, I really dont like painting. It makes me feel really stressed out, so, probably the exact opposite of what doing art should make you feel.Maybe one day that will change.

——How do you make your graphite, uhh, ‘un-shiny’?

Mmm. Good question. While there’s no way to completely remove that gaudy reflectiveness that comes with using graphite, there are some tricks I use to help it from being too distracting. I usually use powdered graphite whenever i need large areas covered in a drawing, because it tends to go on a little ‘flatter’ than if I were to use a pencil and it also saves time, not to mention making large dark areas a little more unified. Another tip is to use carbon pencils if you know you’re going to need some super dark darks. The thing with graphite, is the thicker you lay it on, the shinier it gets, so generally, your darkest areas will be the most reflective which is the most frustrating. Carbon is somewhere in between graphite and charcoal in its consistancy and can give you some really nice pitch-blacks without looking too slick. I haven’t used carbon too much in the past, but lately I’ve ben playing around with it more and really enjoying it.

——I read that you sent your work out in your Freshman year. I was wondering did you make postcards? and did you send them to publishers, galleries?

Well lets see, by the end of freshman year of college I had a website with my portfolio, a stack of business cards and a few mailers. I will say that I think it’s a really important thing to start a web presence as soon as you can since it’s so available. HOWEVER, one should not be too overzealous about it too soon because your art during your college years matures so rapidly, that the work that you send out at any given moment will be remarkably better than the work you had one year prior. If you’re super determined to get your work in front of people in that period of your life, that’s a great attitude to have, but you really should focus on yourself even more. In the first 3 years of school I sent out countless mailers and contacted countless blogs to try and get my stuff featured. In return I didn’t get shit as far as work goes. But what I didn’t realize is that you’re not supposed to (im speaking in terms of your first 3 years). You’re in school. Even if you were the next Rembrant, nearly every art director wouldn’t give you the time of day. And when you look back at the stuff you sent out a year ago, or 6 months ago, or 3 months ago, you’re going to say ‘man, I could do WAY better than this’. So this is what you do. You work. You work your ass off, but dont do it for anyone. Do it for you. This time is about you. Maybe towards the end of junior year you can shift your priorities around, but honestly, you know your art can get better, and you know it will, and most importantly, you want it to be better. So just keep drawing, for right now at least. You’re a Venusaur and you are charging up that solar beam. It’s gonna take an entire extra turn for you to take in that sunlight, but damn, when you get all the energy you can, and that thing hits, it’s going to obliterate everything.

Stay eager.

When you do hit the point where you think your work is at a place that you should really start pushing your promotion, I’d say the most important part is compiling a list of clients you really want to work with and who’s publications could really use work similar to yours. I’ve never gotten work from sending out hundreds upon hundreds of postcards, but there’s something to be said about handmade mailers that really show that you’ve put effort into reaching out to certain publications.

As far as getting gallery and fine art work, thats an entirely different world. My advice is to go parties, make as many friends as you can and practice your schmoozing abilities in the mirror with a bottle of wine. 

——Hey man, if you would be into doing comic work what kind of stuff would you like to do?

I havent made much of an attempt at any sequencial work (but maybe some day), so I’m pretty much just focused on cover work right now. That tends to be my favorite stuff to do.

——Will you make a post on tumblr when you livestream?

I most definitely will. I have no idea when my next livestream will be but when I do I will post a date and time here

——What sort of music are you in to?

I think I could say that I’m into everything, and the list of my favorite bands would probably take up too much room. In an attempt to not be so vague, I’ll say that in the past 6 months I just cannot get over Pierce the Veil. So, so so good.