Tim Bradstreet on Drive, Determination, Craft and Red Sky Diary Part 3

By Richard Serrao and Jason Thibault

In the first part of this 3-part conversation with Tim Bradstreet he talks about the tools he uses to create his highly realistic pen and ink work. In part two he discusses his influences and process. In this third and final part Tim hands off advice and wisdom for aspiring artists and talks about recent and upcoming projects.

What would you tell an aspiring artist who is working his ass off but still needs and wants to break through to the next level?

Just keep punching away. It’s easy to get discouraged, but no one worth a shit ever got there the easy way. When you want something bad, it burns brightly inside you, drives YOU, that’s a sign that you’re passionate. Very important. If you don’t have the passion . . . that drive and determination, then do yourself a favor and go back to college. Get a degree and then call me, you can help me with my taxes

Seriously, you HAVE to want it. Set a goal, work HARD, work every day, put away the girlfriend/boyfriend, hang out with your friends a little less and put in the time. If you love doing it then it’s not difficult. You can stand in portfolio lines, send jpeg samples to editors, ask artists to look at your shit, start a Facebook page and promote your work, network like a demon (but don’t be pushy), all those things are a part of the process.

A cover image from CRIMINAL MACABRE

But the real way to step up to the next level is to earn it. If you can’t get motivated then go flip burgers. If you work at your craft and remain open to learning (even from mistakes), then you are going to find it a lot easier. The harder you work the more likely that some editor or other artist is going to look at your stuff someday and SEE IT. See the work. Know you’re not a pretender. Look at and study your inspirations, be a student of the game, you gotta keep that fire hot.

A conceptual illustration for THE PUNISHER movie starring Tom Jane.

One of my favorite things to do was go to conventions and meet my favorite artists, show them my work, take the crit, eat it even if it tastes bad. That’s just fuel. Just seeing those guys sketching, looking at their originals, talking to them . . . Man, you walk out with a high that makes a night with Mary J seem like sleeping

A BLADE 2 pre-production illustration

Are there times when you’re working on a personal illustration that you’ve had to stop and walk away from it for a period of time? How do you pysche yourself up to finish it later after some time has passed?

I don’t have this issue very often. For a long time I wasn’t making time for personal illustration and it’s only been in the last 6 months that I recognized a problem with that. Now I’m making time for it but so far it’s been very rewarding. Essentially I’m back to where the real roots of my passion for this craft began, with pure black and white illustration. Right now there is no block, only a massive compulsion to create and illustrate. I’ve never really had issues with having to pysch myself up, it’s my default setting.

Horror Icon Jason from FRIDAY THE 13TH

When you do an illustration, you follow a process rigorously. Over the years have you changed the way you approach and work on an illustration? And if so, how?

Everything changes, but the same basic process is still at the core of my approach. What really changes is the results, according to what I’m absorbing day to day, what inspires me, and my own technical growth and experimentation. I’ve been drawing for a purpose pretty much constantly since 1986, I work at it every day. That forces you to periodically throw a change-up into the mix to keep it all fresh, the idea is to never sit back and settle in completely.

EL BORAK title image

Over the last few years I’ve been trying to get a lot more organic, playing with textures on the terminus of light and shadow. Prior to this the work was getting too technical for my liking and it needed a bump in another direction. Consequently I’ve gotten a lot more into dry brush techniques and using that organic feel to advantage with big slabs of black, but also with white.

The El Borak job got me thinking a lot more about blowing some defining line-work completely out of the illustration, letting the eye follow the course and do the math. This was a very difficult technique to jump into as a guy who’s used to defining everything with line But I really dug it, the results were simple, bold and powerful. I’ve always had a great love for the ‘invisible’ line but had never before thought about going farther with it. It’s got me in a new direction I’m real excited about.

Image from Robert E. Howards Swords of Shahrazar

Your illustrations for Robert E. Howard’s -El Borak, and other Desert adventures had a bit of a different look to all of your other work. Could you explain what you did differently and what tecniques you employed for the El Borak illustrations?

I guess I kinda just touched on that. For The Desert Adventures it was all about finding a bold style that lived in the desert environment. I wanted the illustrations to feel like the sun was beating down mercilessly in the scenes. The desert is BRIGHT. Subsequently, whatever blocks that brightness would create deep shadow. I needed it to be high contrast, wanted it to feel like it was carved out of rock. I felt it also had to be somewhat strongly tied to classic illustration, it couldn’t all be simplistic, massively bold shapes so texture became a big part of it too.

An EL BORAK illustration

I’d been experimenting with different inking techniques prior to beginning the job, attempting to bring a more organic feel to my work. I went back to basics to a degree. Jim Steranko’s work on El Borak was always in the back of my mind. His work was very bold, but I also had Kaluta, Gianni, Wrightson, and Mark Shultz hanging over my shoulder. Gianni and Schultz ’cause they’d gone down a similar road illustrating Howard books of the same line. Kaluta because he was the only other artist that I really knew of that had defined the Kirby O’Donnell character. Wrightson because when I think of pure illustration I think of Bernie. The work had to be uniquely mine but it also very much needed to be connected to these types of “masters of illustration”.

An illustration from The Fires of Asshurb from EL BORAK

There is a whole subculture of Howard enthusiasts that are into the whole history of the illustrated pulp adventure, and their standards are high. So my goal was three-fold, I wanted to please myself and make the “job as a whole” a sheer joy to work on. I wanted to do these other illustrators some justice, and I didn’t want to disappoint the fans of the writing. I felt that the direction I keyed into was covering all of that.

At first I did some warm-up pieces to get my feet wet, a lot of which were not used for reasons of continuity, those were really fun and challenging. I knew right away that the job was going to be a delight. Then I did the vignette (spot) illustrations, and that really set the tone. I couldn’t just draw inside a box like you tend to do with a cover, etc. It had to have no real defined borders so it could float. That was really liberating. I created a bunch of dry-brush ink swatches and added a little of that to the backgrounds digitally.

An illustration from Robert E Howard’s EL BORAK

Doing those first swatches separately gave me the confidence to employ the effect into the actual pieces as I continued. I also added another digital element, very simple. I took a piece of gessoed illustration board, made it real rough so you could see all the little back and forth chaotic brushstrokes and then scanned it. Then I inverted it so it was mostly black, with all the tiny little bristle lines going to white. Then I screened it over portions of my images (mostly backgrounds). I wanted to add a layer of chaff, like blowing sand, grit, etc . . . I needed something to really help give the environment a feeling of substance. It worked better than I’d hoped. People ask if it’s scratchboard. Now THAT would have been insane, but truthfully I didn’t have the time to go that route. AND, I’m not that brave yet.

I couldn’t see scratching or sandpapering that texture all over my originals. What if I screwed it up? Yikes! Most all of the work you see published is present ‘physically’ there on the board. I wanted the originals to be as complete as possible. All of that really took off when I slid into the larger images. I started to get really bummed out as I neared the finish line. I could sit around and draw that stuff forever. Love the period, love the desert environment, hopefully that passion shows in the artwork. There are lots of bold shapes and lots of brushwork, but 90% of all that work was done with a tiny little crowquill nib. It was a noodler’s dream

Your Red Sky Diary work employs different mediums. I know at this point it’s early but if you had the chance to do just Red Sky all of the time non-stop until it was finished would you make it into a series of volumes or would you stop at one Volume?

The plan is that it will be a series of volumes (Novels), but not necessarily in the way you might think. The first book is like DUNE. It establishes a certain time frame (the mid to late 19th century), a certain story. The MAIN story. It’s basically the final chapter of a 600 year war. After I establish that story and the characters I’m going to go backwards 600 years and start at the beginning with a line of prequel books. The tentative title for the first prequel is, Red Sky Diary: Book one – Progenitor.

An illustration of ‘Polidouris’ from Tim’s Red Sky Diary. Pen, ink and watercolor.

This line of books will trace events that lead up to the aforementioned main story. RSD is a mythic, epic in scale chronicle of a dynastic succession of Clan leaders, warriors known as the “Ulaan Bataar”. The firstborn male of each generation in the succession is tasked with carrying on a desperate guerilla-style war against a clandestine society of nocturnal creatures (known as The Mudir) who’ve prowled the shadow realms between reason and superstition since the dawn of civilization.

Tim Bradstreet’s character ‘Polidouris’ from his upcoming saga Red Sky Diary

The main story features the greatest warrior of them all, Gallows. His fate is of singular significance in the epic war that’s about to come full circle. It’s huge. And the first book (main story) isn’t the end. Once I’ve completed the entire story from 1281 AD to the latter 19th century everything will pick up where we left off with the first book. Where that first story ends is a real gut-punch. Things will really get turned upside down and it will be a great launching point for the next set of volumes.

My hope is that we’ll begin to adapt the novels into sequential form while simultaneously developing the prequels for TV mini-series. Then do the main story as a film. Then it’s anybody’s guess. I really want to do a video game too. But first thing is first, get the story out there as an illustrated novel. I was just speaking of how much I loved working on The Desert Adventures, well, Red Sky is my absolute favorite subject to illustrate. I put everything I have into the work. This project has been hanging around in my consciousness and on my back-burner for nearly 20 years. The time is finally now.

Illustration from Tim Bradstreet’s property Red Sky Diary

As an artist you continue to grow and evolve while some others stagnate and plateau. What do you feel has always been your driving force to push the boundaries of your own personal limits?

I’m just never necessarily satisfied with where I am as an illustrator at any given moment. I’m inspired too easily There may be work that I am proud of, where everything came together and the work resulted in something that was fortunate enough to gel in all the right ways, but those successes are all too rare. When they happen they propel me forward another step. The challenge is to make that success the norm until you’ve taken another step, and so on. Truthfully I don’t even think about it. No one should. It should be automatic. I look around and I see literally thousands of artists out there who’s work really blows my mind and I think, how could anyone not feel inspired and challenged by that? With me it’s all about chasing a vision, and it’s still ahead of me.

Another cover from CRIMINAL MACABRE

Apart from Red Sky,if there was any other dream project or character you could work on who would it be?

I’ve almost gotten over the need to draw cool and awesome characters I don’t have a stake in. Not that I don’t absolutely love illustrating characters like The Punisher and Hellblazer, nor would I turn my back on the opportunity to do Deathlok, Nick Fury, Jonah Hex, etc . . . BUT the true dream projects are things I’ve had a hand in, like Red Sky, or like this other thing I cooked up called The Devil’s Commandos.

Some people satisfy themselves with achieving the goal of drawing Superman, or writing Green Lantern. I’ve spent almost 25 years working on other people’s characters and it pays the bills, it’s great. But I want to make the myths. That’s the dream. Way back before I became a professional artist I used to look at the drawings in role playing game manuals and think to myself, I can do better than that. Even if I couldn’t really at the time I knew that I could eventually

I set that goal. Once you prove to yourself that you can set a goal and achieve it, then the sky’s the limit. And there are many more goals ahead. Having said all of that, I’ll give you a simple answer too. I’d love to team up with Tom Jane, a director and writer of our choosing, be handed a decent but modest $30M budget, and make the penultimate Punisher film. And yes, I’d want Ray Stevenson to be in it too, not as Frank Castle, maybe as the VILLAIN. That’d be fucking bitch-tastic.

Cheers – Tim

For more info you can visit Tim Bradstreet’s website or head on over to his company page for RAW Studios.
Read Part One of this Tim Bradstreet interview.
And then part two.

Tim Bradstreet; A Master Class in Pen and Ink Realism

By Richard Serrao and Jason Thibault

*Note* this is part one of an epic 3-part interview. Here is part two and part three.

Tim Bradstreet. What can I say about this awesome artist that hasn’t yet been said by people much more talented than myself? Quite a lot actually. There have been a lot of artists in my lifetime that have influenced me in so many ways BUT overall Mr. Bradstreet has been the single biggest influence on how I work and draw. The first time that I saw his work I was already heading in that same artistic direction. He just helped to take all of the other artists that I loved from my teenage years such as Paul Gulacy, Gene Day and Al Williamson and smack me in the face with the outright bodacity that he was incorporating into his work while still retaining the qualities that I had loved about these other artists but had forgotten.

I have heard from a lot of people that seeing his work for the first time is so powerful that words cannot it describe or do it justice. So, without further babbling on my part I’ll let HIS artwork and words seer into your brain like it did mine. He truly is a MASTER of INK.

Tim, what inspired you to first start drawing? Did you struggle in your formative years or did it come easy to you?

I’ve drawn as far back as I can remember, even pre-Kindergarten. I’m not exactly sure what inspired it or sparked it. I know that I loved to draw dinosaurs and cars, airplanes, battles, little stick-men wars with explosions – arms, heads, and legs flying every which way. You know, the kind of thing that today would likely result in your teacher calling in your parents to inform them they’re ‘concerned’ about you, heheh.

Concept art from The Punisher movie.

I loved to draw hovercraft and other things fantastic, very likely a result of watching Johnny Quest and Star Trek. I was 10 years old when Star Wars came out so at that point all bets were off. I was always a science fiction and horror fan although the horror stuff purely fascinated me at the time, I wasn’t permitted to watch much ‘serious’ horror. But I did absorb a lot of it through magazines, Famous Monsters Of Filmland, Star Log, and then Fangoria. Comics too, inspired me but it wasn’t just superheroes. I used to pour over issues of Creepy Magazine on the news stands at the grocery store.

A sketch of actor Ron Perlman from the film Blade 2.

Heavy Metal Magazine blew me away, mostly Moebius and the “Incal” stories. I don’t know if drawing always came easy to me, I didn’t think about it too much until I got serious, around the time I was 14 or 15. Then it seemed very difficult because I was trying to emulate the work of all these fantastic illustrators from Jack Kirby to Frank Frazetta. I had no real concept of the tools these artists used. My choice of weapon was the “Tech Pen”. Talk about a brutal initiation. Obviously you can’t make thick to thin ‘feathered’ lines with a fucking tech pen, so I just drew the outline of the shape and filled it in.

A cover from the Criminal Macabre series

I wasn’t aware of an easier way. Bit by bit I figured it out. I believe I was maybe 19-20 years old before I retired my tech pens and picked up the brush. Wow, that was a whole new world. It was daunting at first. I didn’t feel like I could have the control that a tech pen gave me. But all you really need when using a new tool is a little bit of confidence, and that quickly followed because I drew ALL the time. Those muscles developed with some alacrity because I was using them on a daily basis. I wanted to get better, I made it my religion.

Concept art for a motion graphics sequence in The Punisher movie

What was your first professional work and maybe a quick story behind it?

First real professional work was two illustrations for Game Designers Workshop, a Role Playing Game company. The work appeared in Traveller’s Digest, a support supplement for GDW’s Traveller, sci-fi game system. The year was 1986, not long after I’d graduated from high school. The images were very Star Wars – like, vacuum cleaner droids on a starship, nothing spectacular trust me. They were done in a pencil style drawn on vellum, the same style I employed on the game Twilight 2000, which I became regular artist of on the heels of having done the Traveller tryout.

Cover for Hellblazer issue 211

I was basically taking over that job from an artist named Steve Venters, who had taken me under his wing. He was the interior artist on Twilight 2000 as well as the cover painter and he wanted to spend more time focusing on cover work. I did a few tryout pieces for him trying to clone his style. He was impressed enough to push me to GDW and my entire career began there . . . 24 years ago. It still seems like yesterday.

A ‘rejected’ Bad Planet cover

Were you self-taught or formally educated? Did you have a mentor?

Pretty much self-taught with a mixture of a mentor (namely Venters). I wasn’t really ready for college after high school. I partied like insanely and I blew off getting a portfolio put together to get accelerated courses in college. Subsequently I began in basic courses and was just re-doing stuff I’d already covered in high school. I was bored silly. Hanging out with friends, discovering my burgeoning individuality, and partying seemed much more important to me at the time.

Illustration of Lawrence of Arabia

I ended up dropping out of college not long after I’d hooked up with Venters. I was learning more from him in the course of months than I had in years of art classes. This was also my target field. I regret not having focused more on school but the I don’t regret the reason, it’s territory I had to walk. Growing as an individual, expanding my mind, and truly discovering and embracing pop culture for myself was a necessary evil. In a large way it gave me my edge.

Who’s to say I couldn’t have done both? But everyone has to follow their own path, and I had a helluva lot of fun and life experiences following the path that I did.

Punisher Vietnam cover

Tools of the trade: Taking a quick glance over at your pens, brushes etc…what tools have you mainly been using over the last few years?

About two-three years ago I stopped using a brush almost entirely. I NEVER thought I would, but they stopped making my fucking brush! I used a cheap little Loew-Cornell 5-ot liner brush since about 1988. I love that thing. I still have 3 of them and I protect them like they were my children. I break one out every now and then when I HAVE to, to get a required effect where I want it.

What took it’s place is a Hunt #102 – Crowquill nib. A tool I NEVER thought I’d become proficient at. I’d always shied away from pen nibs because I was never very good at controlling them, but again, all I needed was to develop a little confidence. Now I absolutely LOVE using it. I’ve always been a noodler, and you can noodle like a madman with a pen nib. In a way it’s like the tech pen, yet it has this incredible organic quality that technical pens will never posses because of the flexibility of the point, it’s ability to alter line weights with the right pressures applied.

A promotional poster for The Punisher featuring actor Thomas Jane as Frank Castle.

I also use a Raphael #1 from time to time, but it’s mostly the nib. One of my main weapons currently is a Niji Waterbrush. It’s a synthetic brush with a reservoir for ink built into the barrel. I never fill the thing, I dip it. It’s AMAZING as a tool to do dry-brush. You can really batter it and they don’t cost a ton, around $9. They clean easy and they can really last. They have a startlingly decent point on them too, so you can do some really fine work with them if you choose to.

Jim Daly turned me onto them, though they aren’t a whole lot different than the Pentel Color Brush, which was fairly popular in the early to mid 90′s. I remember Mark A. Nelson used to use them exclusively back in the day. I tried them then but it never really took. That’s about it except for a big chisel brush I use for big ink-swash backgrounds. That thing is evil-cool, such a diversity of line, bold as porn star.

Preliminary pencils for a cover

How has your toolbox evolved compared to when you first started out?

It’s basically the same. Different tools but very similar results. My style has evolved a great deal since the early days of professional work, but the vision is essentially the same, just more refined in places and more organic in others. The whole thing is a journey, you have to challenge yourself and not fall into the trap of thinking that you’ve attained some magical power where you no longer need to learn, experiment, or grow as an artist.

The minute you think you have learned it all and you become completely satisfied with your work you’re going to stagnate and become a dinosaur. The process never ends if you have your head in the right place. Resting on laurels of past glory is absolutely the worst thing you can do as an artist, regardless of your area of expertise. The same holds true for musicians, writers, you name it. Times change, people grow and move on, and if your work goes static, technically, compositionally, dynamically, etc . . . Then you’re just old news.

The Punisher

I don’t have to be the best artist, I don’t have to be the most popular artist. I don’t give a shit about that. I draw for myself first, and I love what I get to do for a living. Constant learning, experimenting, even re-inventing is what keeps me refreshed and excited about it. At the end of the day I just strive for my work to have relevance to me, if it does, then I gotta figure it’s finding an audience somewhere among the public. They are my benefactors, bless them every one. I guess that answer qualifies as getting off on a tangent

What’s your favorite brand of ink?

I like about any old brand of waterproof rapidograph ink for paper. I use that with the nibs cause it flows nice and smooth. When I black, I add a couple drops of Japanese Sumi ink to the well. That really charges the black to super black. I like for my originals to stand on their own, I never half-ass it when it comes to blacking.

A pen and ink illustration used as a cover for the French magazine Comic Box

What about papers?

I really love DC’s regular surface 2-ply Bristol (I believe it’s Strathmore). It’s got a touch of tooth and ink dries very quickly so smudging is less of a nuisance. I just flip it over and draw on the back, blue lines really annoy me. I use that when I can get a friendly editor to hook me up. I used to really love a Rising 3-ply Bristol with a regular finish but I can’t find it anywhere in San Diego. Right now I really dig this 3-ply Strathmore Bristol with a vellum finish. I thought ‘vellum’ would be too smooth but it’s more like a regular surface, just enough tooth to give it some guts, and just smooth enough so that my pen nib doesn’t betray me and get snagged. That does truly suck when it happens.

Cover for Marvel’s Luke Cage Noir

I purchase all of my non-comic company supplied paper in large sheet form and have it cut down to 11″ X 17″ boards. You can get 3 boards from a large sheet. I have no idea if it’s cheaper to do it that way, that doesn’t confront me. It’s just that I have never found a paper worth a shit in tablet form. Of course that’s mainly from a lack of searching to any great extent I don’t really populate message boards or confer with others about the subject too often unless I’m at a convention and talk turns professional with a peer. Regardless, I’m sure it seems obvious that I prefer a heavier paper. I’m not a fan of flimsy originals.

Be sure to read part two & part three of this interview.

For more info you can visit Tim Bradstreet’s website or head on over to his company page for RAW Studios.

An Artist Interview with the Almighty Godmachine

By Jason Thibault

Pure badassery. That’s all that came to mind the instant I saw the art of Godmachine. Like all of my favourite artists from the 60′s to the 90′s rolled into one. His illustrations have a “don’t give a damn attitude” and they look like they’ll bite if you get too close. His art decorates skate decks, posters, album covers, stickers, prints and most notably t-shirts. I’m hooked.

What inspired you to first start drawing? Did you struggle in your formative years or did it come easy to you?

I remember drawing a picture of Mickey Mouse when I was a kid and showing it to my best friend ‘bumpy’ – I remember he thought it was the best thing he had ever seen. I then remember doing a sketch of Jimi Hendrix and my family being a bit shocked that it was so good. I always drew- I was not really encouraged to do so as a kid so it was always there but not as an option to pursue- I was always told I had to build things or fix things- art was never accepted as a career choice. It has only been since I have had the support of my soon to be wife that it has developed into something that can sustain me.

First professional work (piece / year) and maybe a quick story behind it.

first professional piece was a clip art style piece for a shop in the UK. I remember making a slide show and borrowing someone’s laptop to show the owners of the company my dreadful artwork. They liked it- they bought it and sold it. I cringe at the thought of it- but was a great way to start. I can’t even remember what it was- some emo mess I think ahahahha.

Were you self-taught or formally educated? (or mixture of both, mentors etc…)

I am self taught. I remember being told a few things throughout my life and you kind of just pick things up from different places as you go along. I have a few mentors that help me with work now- more so now and I am trying harder to get most of what I lost as I was labouring on worksites. I think being able to look is the most important thing about art. I often ask people if they can draw, without looking, all the lines on the palm of their hand on a piece of paper now. or what the bottom of my jeans look like as the fold onto my shoes. I can- because I spent so much time looking at those things. I see a lot of youngsters copying ideas off people these days but not really knowing why, or what. they add light sources to places where there are none and detail where you don’t need it and wonder what they are doing wrong. they need training. It tickles me that they get confused as to why their pieces aren’t working. Jimi Hendrix used to say that he was copied so much that people even copied his mistakes. Same thing happens in art. And while the artist is correcting his mistakes and progressing- the blind followers are consistently making the same mistake over and over again and getting nowhere. are we off subject now? Maybe.

Tools of the trade: Taking a quick glance over at your pens, brushes etc…what tools have you mainly been using over the last few years?

A Wacom tablet and nothing else. I used to use paper and pen and scan it in and colour in photoshop. Now it’s all Wacom- from sketch to finish. It’s a shame really- I wish I had the time and the space to use the 8 blank canvases I have under my desk. As for Wacoms- you will never, never ever get the response you will get from using a pen on paper. Technology will never replace that feel or the look.

How has your toolbox evolved compared to when you first started out?

As above. Started out using pencil on paper, then paints and now a wacom. I dont like art snobs- people who masturbate over tools ‘oh you simply must use Bristol board’. No. That stuff is an option, Macs are an option, all tools are an option. I have a friend who paints with house paint and make up using his fingers. His work is better than those who buy the best materials. It is nice to use the best you can- but people forget that it won’t help your skills, and without your skills you may as well wipe mud on a wall.

Favorite brand of ink:

Black fine liners you get from the post office or a biro. Biros are better because they are everywhere and mostly free.

Type of paper:

White photocopy paper- you can get 1000′s of sheets for only a couple of quid and it is as good as anything.

Which artists or creators do you return to for a quick boost of inspiration? Who are the masters of ink?

I get my inspiration from a lot of places. But I return to most artists to get, not inspiration, but that feeling of awe. Chet Zar.

Once a client has handed off an illustration job to you, how do you first tackle the job. Could you give us a quick overview of your process?

I make coffee- turn the computer off and panic whilst nervously avoiding the issue. Then I see something in a magazine or the Mrs tells me what I should do and an idea comes to me. Then I will sketch it out on Photoshop- and more recently paper- then make a start. Sketching in Photoshop- new layer- more defined- new layer etc etc.

Back in Black T-Shirt Show from Solid Motive on Vimeo.

What’s currently sitting in your mp3 / CD player / turntable?

I am still listening to Goblin Cock, Big Business, Blade Runner soundtrack and that’s about it really. Recently had my computer fixed and lost all my music- gutted.

What’s hanging on your walls and what is your favorite piece of art that you own (not created by you)?

I was lucky enough to befriend Brian Morris recently and he sent me some awesome pieces- they are these beautiful screen prints of skulls and birds and more skulls. the guy is amazing.

What’s the last novel you read and last movie that you saw that you’d recommend? Which movies and books do you always return to?

Dean Koontz is great. I recommend you reading his stuff. I was brought up (didn’t start reading really until 18/19) on modern classics, On the Road, One Flew Over the Cuckoos’ Nest, Bukowski, Kafka, etc etc, and never really read many modern writers in the ways of horror/thriller fiction. Until Dean Koontz.

As for recent films I saw The Mist recently by the same guys who made Shawshank and Green Mile. Very underrated movie. I recommend you go see it- its the movie equivalent of say a Neurosis track or some other great doom song- mind blowing. I also saw No Country For Old Men, I am still mulling over that one- can’t tell if its the best film in the world or a bit meh…. For that reason alone you know you should watch it huh? hahahah.

Current and upcoming projects?

I want to do an art show in my home town soon. I was never really liked as I was ‘the guy that did skulls ‘n ‘ shit’. But since it has become acceptable and I have some names on my portfolio- people are taking notice and being pretty cool. So wouldn’t mind organising a coming home gig with a few other UK artists that I have had the pleasure of knowing.

What would you tell an aspiring artist who is working his ass off but still needs and wants to break through to the next level?

Nothing you can do apart from that- contact everyone- do some work for free- but not all- do big names for free- people like fame- it makes them take notice sadly. But if you are working your ass off and showing your stuff- it’s only a matter of time till you get your break. In the meantime- create your own buzz/scene. The small music producer in his bedroom can do it- so can the kid with a copy of Photoshop.

You also need to be self critical. I remember thinking ‘yes this design is awesome’ then getting no buyers. It took me a while to learn self evaluations- learning to emotionally distance yourself from the work. I get lots of emails from kids who want to know how I sell designs and they are not selling any and when you see their work it’s not that good and it’s hard to try to explain to them that it’s not amazing and that they should practice a bit more. They spend 3 days on a piece- flood it with detail and feel like they have achieved something when in actual fact they have missed the point. I don’t know, it’s hard and I wish I could help without hurting anyone’s feelings.
For more on Godmachine you can go to his site, his blog and his MySpace page.

Masters of Ink with Artist Tim Doyle on Quitting Your Dayjob

By Jason Thibault

Poster artist Tim Doyle is a creator who steadily grew on me over a period of months. I believe it was his Deniro or Bill Murray series that first made me take notice. Then I started to piece together all of the work that he had done over the past 18 months. He set the net on fire with his Obama / Optimus Prime Change Into a Truck poster. He now runs his own shop and is clearly an ambitious and talented designer and artist who is not stopping anytime soon.

What inspired you to first start drawing? Did you struggle in your formative years or did it come easy to you?

Well, a lot of that credit goes to my parents, my Mother in particular…she would sit me down and we’d draw for hours…this is about the same time I started learning how to read, like around 4 or 5, so communicating visually is probably all tied in with my language skills as well. I pretty much learned to read through comics. There are several issues of Iron Man I have from the mid 80’s where the covers are indented to hell from me tracing them multiple times. Those were all drawn by Bob Layton originally, who was one of my favorite artists when I was a kid. His work appealed to me at the time as being so bold and clean, I strived for that. (Funny story, my dad took me to a convention when I was around 12 or so, and I met Bob Layton…funny thing was that my ‘portfolio’ was filled w/ tracings of his work! He was very, very diplomatic.)

I don’t know if I’d say drawing came easy to me, as I spent years learning and struggling, but at no point was it not fun. Part of the problem later on, like in High School, was figuring out what I wanted to draw. A bunch of my peers in art class in HS and College seemed to be able to BS their way into imbuing their art w/ ‘meaning’ while I just wanted to draw Batman. I’m probably still at that level, but I’ve managed to fool everyone into thinking there’s meaning behind some of my stuff. But deep down, I just really, really want to draw Batman. That’s the only real struggle I can think of. Figuring how to monetize my talent was tough for a while, but I think I finally got that worked out.

First professional work (piece / year) and maybe a quick story behind it.

I used to do gallery shows here in Austin until I got tired of that scene. I sold quite a few paintings, starting back in ’99, so I GUESS that qualifies as professional work, but it felt a little ‘dirty’ compared to the purity of something like doing a T-shirt design…I didn’t have to blow any smoke about ‘intent’ or an artist statement for those gigs. My favorite commission I ever did was a portrait for a family that owned a Chinese restaurant by one of the comic book stores I used to manage. He wanted a painting of his daughter and I agreed in exchange for a few hundred meals. I don’t know if they were really happy w/ the result, but I was totally happy w/ the sesame chicken.

Were you self-taught or formally educated? (or mixture of both, mentors etc…)

Both? I didn’t do anything cool or fun for most of my childhood, instead I spent my summers drawing and reading comics. I was in the ‘advanced’ art program in my High School, but dropped out my senior year to take life drawing at the Community College. I followed through with that until I got an associate of the arts degree, and realized I still had no idea on how get art jobs, or really anything useful. (I took studio art instead of the practical stuff). The only thing I learned regarding art at school was that there was (for me, at least) no point in going to school for art. The only thing it can give you is time to do more art…the ‘education’ was secondary. I learned TONS about the poster trade from the omnipotent Rob Jones, as he mentored me through running the wildly successful (at least while I was there, wink wink) Alamo Drafthouse Cinema Poster series. Rob is like a chain smoking, balding, mumbling, fairy-godmother for the gig poster scene. He’s the guy behind just about every graphic you’ve seen for the White Stripes and Raconteurs, and has done amazing work all around. He’s the closest thing I’ve had to a mentor in the poster trade…now if I just listened to what he told me to do, I’d have a better ‘win ratio.’ Kevin Tong is a real up and comer (actually, I think he JUST can now be called ‘arrived.’) and he’s been an invaluable resource on Photoshop techniques…he came from the world of product design, so he’s got all the tricks in his tool shed. It took him like an hour to totally change how I handle dot screens. The man’s a genius. And Nick Derington is a buddy of mine from way back, and he’s always got pointers and advice.

Tools of the trade: Taking a quick glance over at your pens, brushes etc…what tools have you mainly been using over the last few years?

I finally gave up on using normal pencils, and am all mechanical pencils now- the Alvin Draft/Matic .05. I’ll use a 2B lead, and a non-repro blue for the structural work. I’ve actually been skipping the penciling stage and have been going straight from the blue-line to the finished ink art recently. For ink on my comics work I’m using mostly Pitt Pens by Faber-Castell. I used to be REALLY against using pens until I heard an interview w/ Darwyn Cooke and he said he used the Pitt Brush Pens. I have a couple of sables I use, but I save those mostly for the larger pieces and outlining. I did just pick up a Kaimei cartridge brush pen that has really great ink flow- but it can’t keep up w/ fast or fat lines like I wish it would.

And god-bless the Wacom Intuos. I use the 9×12, but have my eyes on larger. I rarely totally create art w/ the Wacom, but I sure use it for the seps and clean-up work.

Oh- and how was art for production work done before Photoshop?

How has your toolbox evolved compared to when you first started out?
I did mini-comics and zines for years w/ just a sketchbook and a stolen Kinko’s card. I used to be rabidly anti-technology in art. That was just really me being self-limiting, as I couldn’t afford a computer and didn’t know how to steal Photoshop properly even if I had one. It took me totally bombing an animation try-out for ‘A Scanner Darkly’ that used a Wacom and a Photoshop like program to make me angry enough at myself to hurdle that, and get w/ the rest of the industry. My father had given me a copy of ‘How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way when I was young, and I held to the tools Stan suggested using like a nun to a rosary for years…but fuck man…who uses a dip pen anymore? That took a little bit to overcome. I do still use Dad’s old High School drafting supplies he gave me- rulers and oval templates and stuff. Those supplies are older than me by at least a decade. That’s crazy, now that I think about it.

I did just build a silkscreen shop in my garage- there’s some photos on the blog for the web-store I now run- NakatomiInc.com. That was a crazy-fun project. Modern screen-printing is a great blend of old-world and new technology. You design and tweak and sep the images using your computer, and then go to the garage to print with a method that’s pretty much remained the same for decades. That’s a big, big toolbox I’ve got now. That shop was co-designed by my buddy Clint Wilson, a gig poster artist here in town. He worked for years at a shop that was ‘doing it wrong’ and took that knowledge and helped me build a shop to do it ‘right.’ It’s pretty liberating controlling the means of production, eh?

Favorite brand of ink:

When I do use brushes, it’s always FW Acrylic…it’s black as fuck, but it does have a tendency to get ‘gummy’ if you let it sit for too long. And if you lay it on too thick, it’ll pool up in a glossy spot on your art, and will take forever to dry. Never mind, I hate that ink now. Dammit! Whatever toxic evilness that is in Sharpies is really amazing. Just not for detail work. They do fill a black spot like no-one’s business, though.

Type of paper:

Strathmore Bristol Vellum finish 400 series. Has been my choice for years. Although- I must say I happened into Asel Art Supply on MLK here in Austin, and saw that Canson started making pre-printed 11×17 comic book art boards, w/ all the borders measured out perfectly, and on decent paper as well. I’m doing the comic I’m working on now on those, and am loving it. See, if you’re working for a major company, they’ll send you art boards that are pre-printed w/ the guidelines and whatnot on ‘em, but if you’re an indie dude, you gotta cut and rule out all that stuff for yourself…which is a giant bitch. But now, all those would be comic artists can just dive right in, the little jerks! I’d be twice as far in my career now if I hadn’t had to do all that ruling and cutting myself all those years! The really strange thing is that the paper comes packed in the ‘Fanboy’ line w/ a truly offensive drawing of a typical ‘dork’ in the logo and the tagline, ‘Get out of the Basement.’ Thanks Canson…way to elevate the art form. But I really would have killed for something like this back when I was 10.

Which artists or creators do you return to for a quick boost of inspiration? Who are the masters of ink?

Geoff Darrow. No matter how much detail I put in a panel, he’s done more. Bryan Hitch a lot recently. I don’t care what anyone says, I like his work on FF more than his Ultimates stuff. Frank Quitely. His figure work is so beautiful…it kills me. Paul Pope- that guy packs in the energy. There’s guys who can do so much w/ so little line- the aforementioned Nick Derington has just a beautiful line quality, and uses it sparingly. Darwin Cooke is another. When I’m doing posters, I look more to Tyler Stout (perhaps a little too much…sorry Tyler!) In many ways I feel a little more like a tourist in the poster industry, despite working in it in one capacity or another for four years plus now…my heart is always in comics…so I might not be as influenced by my peers there as others might be.

Once a client has handed off an illustration job to you, how do you first tackle the job. Could you give us a quick overview of your process?

Well, it’s totally a crapshoot. It’s a matter of taking what the client wants, and then convincing them to do something that’s ACTUALLY good. And that’s really the key to a lot of art gigs- if the client had a lick of art skill, they wouldn’t be coming to you, now would they? But it mostly entails doing what you can get away with, while still pleasing the client. I don’t deal w/ a lot of clients, as I mostly just do art prints for my site, which is really, really nice.

Now, for the comic work, it’s totally different. The book I’m working on now, ‘The Intergalactic Nemesis’ is written by a good friend of mine, Jason Neulander, and we’re adapting his radio-serial stage play into comic book form. I’ve done art and back-drops for that play for a good 8(?) years off and on now, so I have a history with the project. Jason will hit me w/ a script, and I’ll go back and forth w/ him for a while on making sure it’s going to read well in the comic form, and then I’ll thumbnail out the whole issue in Photoshop w/ the Wacom. Then we talk that out, and then I start cranking the pages. This project is being colored by Paul Hanley, who has done a little work professionally in the past, and I really hope this catapults him into some high-profile gigs. The guy’s a mad genius on so many levels, but no-one’s noticed him yet. Watch out.

But I wouldn’t really call Jason a ‘client’ as the Nemesis book is really collaborative. I mean, I have to make sure he’s happy w/ the end results, but it’s more of a healthy relationship than a ‘client’ set up.

See, I guess for me, I am more into working WITH people on a project than FOR someone, so I don’t hop on board something unless it’s truly collaborative. I quit my job at the Alamo/ Mondo to pursue this, and I’m not in any rush to get back in an employee/ employer relationship ever again. (Actually, I had to promise my wife that I would never work for anyone ever again…and I’ve stuck to it for a while now. Success!)

I’ve never had any complaints from Clients in the past, so I guess I’ve got something figured out there, whether I’ve consciously realized it or not.

What’s currently sitting in your mp3 / CD player / turntable?

Oi- music wise, it’s a lot of TMBG, Girl Talk, Guided by Voices, Stereolab, Climate, Frank Black. But mostly what I listen to while I’m arting are podcasts. The Skeptics Guide to the Universe is like a regular workout for my critical thinking skills, and really should be required listening for anyone who plans to attempt to really exist in the world and function properly. Word Balloon is a real inspiration…hearing these guys talk about their craft in that long-format informal interview style John Suntries has is great. And soooo much better than that screeching pre-pubescent voice that claws at my brain every time I listen to Fanboy Radio. iFanboy is lots of fun, too…but only if you read comics on a weekly basis, as I do. And of course, This American Life rocks my face off like a unicorn riding a rainbow, firing a grenade launcher at the bad guy from Short Circuit 2.

What’s hanging on your walls and what is your favorite piece of art that you own (not created by you)?

My walls are mostly being used as storage for a lot of my unsold paintings from back in my gallery days, but I do have a lot of framed prints that I had done back when I ran the print series at the Alamo. Tyler Stout’s Warriors poster is in my living room, and Klaussen’s Tron print as well…that’s just a beaut. I really, really need to update my wall art, now that you mention it.

My wife did some killer paintings of pigs that are hanging in our bedroom. The problem is, once you have something like that hanging up, people start giving you ‘pig’ themed gifts, which culminated in a former employer giving me a life sized nude painting of Miss Piggy. That’s hanging above my bed. The artist is totally unknown on that one, as he found it at a flea market.

Although, my favorite piece greets me every time I walk out of my bedroom, and it’s a glitter portrait of Pee-Wee Herman done by local artist Sue Zola. I commissioned her to do it for me years ago, and damn, it makes me smile every time I look at it.

What’s the last novel you read and last movie that you saw that you’d recommend? Which movies and books do you always return to?

Last book I read I think was ‘Missionary Position’ which was a scathing expose on Mother Teresa. That chick was bonkers. It was either that or ‘Parallel Worlds’ by Michio Kaku. String theory might turn out to be total bunk, but it’s a fun mental exercise either way. I try to read Slaughterhouse Five once a year, and have kept up on it. Same with Watchmen (not a novel, but might as well be). I do find myself coming back to Snow Crash quite a bit.

I did just watch the original ‘Taking of Pelham One Two Three’ on Hulu the other day…Walter Matthau is the most unlikely lead ever. It’s freaking great- I’d put it up there with other great 70’s NYC movies like Serpico or Dog Day Afternoon…it’s lighter, almost a comedy in some parts, but you really get into the grit and grime of the characters that populated a NYC that’s now dead. And the villain in ‘Pelham’ goes out in one of the most disturbing ways I’ve seen in a while. (Note- I’m not interested in the remake.)

I don’t re-watch a lot of films, but my desert island movies are Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, Raising Arizona, and probably Babe 2: Pig in the City. And I am not joking about that last one- if you don’t cry while watching that movie, you are not a human. Robot! ROBOT!

Current and upcoming projects?

The Intergalactic Nemesis comic is going to also be incorporated into the performance of the play, making it a moving backdrop. Nemesis is truly inches away from exploding all over in several media venues…I’m really honored to be a part of the project. We’ve started getting back some art from promotion companies, and they’ve been incorporating my designs into the ads, and that’s just nuts seeing that happen.

My webstore NakatomiInc.com has been like a wish machine for me for a few months now…I draw something, print it, and people buy it. That’s a project that’s not going to stop anytime soon. And the artists that I’ve lined up for the Invitational series of prints have been staggering, and the things coming up…yikes! We just inked a deal with Famous Monsters of Filmland to produce some art for them…and that looks like it’ll be a relationship that’ll keep rolling.

Back on the personal front, the show poster I did for the Crazy 4 Cult 3 show at Gallery 1988 just went live.

And I’ve started taking outside jobs for my print shop, which is a nice way to pay the bills.

I’m really at the point to where I have to start saying no to some projects, but things keep popping up I can’t say no to. But luckily I have the organizational skills and artist contacts that I can delegate things out to people I can trust to do good work.

And, I have my first baby currently in development. That project should be finally out in December…I’m anxious to see how it turns out. But something tells me that THAT project is something that might require a lot of maintenance once it’s arrived. Hopefully it won’t distract from the other things I’ve got brewing. Stupid babies.

What would you tell an aspiring artist who is working his ass off but still needs and wants to break through to the next level?

Quit your fucking day job. It’s killing you and you don’t even know it. Save up some money, line up some gigs, and fucking quit. If you can’t do that, you’re never going to be anything other than an employee. I feel so odd giving advice, as I don’t feel like I’ve ‘made it’ in any way shape or form, but I took that plunge this year, and feel so unbelievably free and empowered, I can’t help but advise others to do the same. Oh yeah, and stop playing video games. God-damn that’s a time waster.

For more info on Tim Doyle visit his website, MySpace and Nakatomi Inc.

June Contest #2 – Win a HUGE ass piece of black and white art

We’ve almost hit the end of June. Summer’s on and the year is half up.

We’ve got our book now sitting in the July issue of Previews. You may have spotted this postage-sized image in it. It can be found in the independent comic section under Optimum Wound. Order code for your local comic shop is JUL09 1019. It’s hitting shops in early September. You can pre-order it at your comic store and soon on Amazon.

Congrats to Margo for winning our first contest a few weeks ago. Your package finally went out and you should be receiving your artwork and Rex graphic novella shortly. And now we come to our second contest in celebration of the release of Optimum Wound Volume One. This is a larger pen and ink drawing measuring 11 inches wide and 17 inches tall.

And it’s yours to win.
As the usual bonus I’ll send you a copy of Danijel Zezelj’s Rex in the package.

THE RULES
Just answer this question in the comments section.
Now that 2009 is almost half over what do you most hope to accomplish by the end of the year?

1. Leave your answer on the comment section of this blog.
2. You’re only allowed to post once. I read every comment so I’ll know.
3. Private messages or emails don’t count, it has to be posted on this blog.
4. You have to leave a comment before 11.59pm PST on Monday, June 29th, 2009 to be eligible. BEST ANSWER WINS. Then I’ll contact the winner by email and announce them publicly next Friday, July 3rd on the Contest #3 blog.
5. This contest is open to ANYONE in the world. If I have to pay shipping to South Africa or New Zealand, that’s MY problem.

Good luck everyone.
-Jay

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