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.

Richard Serrao Featured on Electric Playland [VIDEO]

Back in the end of August we found ourselves in Artist Alley at Toronto’s FanExpo, the third largest pop culture convention in North America. The good folk of pop culture television show Electric Playland stopped by for an interview with Richard Serrao. That piece finally went live and can be viewed either by visiting their site or watching it in the player below (if you can see it).

I think they did a killer job cutting it together.

Sean Gordon Murphy – Pure Talent and Hustle

By Jason Thibault

Late last year Newsarama had a feature on rising stars in comics. Artist Sean Gordon Murphy was one of the featured creators. I stopped dead in my tracks as soon as I saw his art. I read the interview twice, sought out his website and just knew that I’d have to track him down for more Q&A’s. Seven months later I give you this interview. Let’s get to it.

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

Drawing came easier to me than it did to the other kids in my kindergarten class. I remember one day when the teacher asked us to draw self portraits, so I did mine and then looked around at the other kids’ drawings: they were awful. I couldn’t understand why they couldn’t see that the nose was located between the eyes and mouth, not underneath mouth. Or why they thought people had four fingers instead of five. Like with most talents, I think being a good artist starts with having a knack for it.

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

My first pro work was for Tidal Wave doing a comic called Zack Raven. I never got paid. From what I can tell the owner has published that stuff illegally and is continuing to burn people under a new name, Bluewater. I think they’re with Alias Comics or something like that.

But shortly after that I got my first PAID gig with Dark Horse doing a Star Wars Tales 8 pager with Scott Lobdell. The Tales stories were a lot of fun.

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

Both. I had a master/apprentice type of thing with an artist named Leslie Swank who was a WWII vet and a great illustrator. He put a brush in my hands at an early age, and as much as I hated it, eventually the brush made sense. But I stupidly switched to microns and sharpies for a while. It wasn’t until I was inking a Zach Howard (Aliens, Shaun of the Dead) on a Vertigo project that I picked up the brush and quill again. It was a little like riding a bike.

I also went to MassArt and SCAD, but formal art education is a little overrated. We all spend a TON of time in a room alone, working from scripts, analyzing lines and messing with perspective that I think it’s safe to say that we’re ALL mostly self taught. Every time you draw something you’re giving yourself another lesson in art.

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?

Mainly brushes: Da Vinci sable hair #1-#3, also a 102 crow quill nibs and calligraphy nibs. I use rough 500lbs Bristol and speedball ink. For mistakes I use Pro White mixed with some water. I rarely use microns except for quick fixes.

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

The three guys whom I keep going back to are Sergio Toppi, Jorge Zaffino and Bill Watterson. I’m basically a blend of those three guys, but dressed up a bit to hide the fact that I’m ripping them off. I think “normal” American comic styles are stale, so I tend to seek out the guys who have a more interesting take on style and storytelling. Sloppy styles are grabbing me more lately because a) they have more energy, b) they’re illusively easy but hard to master, and c) they’re more organic and natural.

Other favorites of mine are Mignola, Nowlan, Brunner, Coker, Andrew Robinson (older stuff), Leonardi, etc. But I also dig me some Buscema and Wrightson.

I have nothing against mainstream styles at all, in fact I’m glad they exist because they fuel 80% comic book sales. Without mainstream styles, the indy styles would have zero funding. Plus they’d have nothing to revolt against.

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?

First I’ll try to read the client. Is he picky? Does he know what he wants, or is he allowing me to just be myself on the project? Then I’ll operate accordingly, doing my best to be thorough and ask lots of questions. I think clients like to be let in on the process as much as you can allow them. Sometimes I’ll specifically ask them for references or other questions just to keep them busy while I get to work. If a client is unreasonable or wants to make me into a monkey, I’ll usually sense it quickly and then decide not to do the project.

After the project is done I’ll explain what I did and why I did it. Usually the client is happier knowing that you gave his project a lot of thought, and throwing him nuggets about this or that is like him watching the “extra features” on a DVD. He can go back to his meeting with the “inside scoop” and feels more involved with the process.

But not all clients need to be handled like that. Comics are great because usually the editors don’t really care. As long as you’re on time and follow the script, they’ll leave you alone.

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

I’ve been listening to a lot of Clutch lately.

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

I own a Rocketeer print signed by Dave Stevens. I bought it from Golden Apple in LA when they were switching locations a few years ago. It was only $200, framed and everything. I don’t own a lot of original art, and I have even less comic book “stuff”, so it’s weird that my favorite thing is a Rocketeer poster. But it’s nice reminder of an artist who was wildly talented and widely unappreciated. But maybe some of that is Stevens’ fault. Some people don’t want the limelight of comics and I respect that.

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 was Demon Haunted World by Carl Sagan. The last movie I saw in the theater was Moon with Sam Rockwell. I recommend both.

Current and upcoming projects?

Right now I’m penciling and inking issue 2 (of 6) of a Grant Morrison book called Joe the Barbarian. I’m also waiting for my Hellblazer work to finally be scheduled. But after my exclusive contract with DC is up I plan on working on my next OGN.

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?

To pull off being a self-supporting professional artist, it’s not enough to just want it. You have to be smart about it, constantly analyze your work and your business plan, utilized new technology like Deviant Art and have a website on the side, plus you need to reach out to other artists who you have something in common with. I think people should be as creative with their 5-year plan as they are with their art.

To an artist who’s still struggling after many years, I might ask, “what could you be doing wrong? Is it your artistic ability or are you not hustling enough on the side?” Some might say that they’ve had bad luck, and that I understand because I had bad luck for a long time, too. But you can defeat luck by creating opportunity, and you create opportunity by continuing to hustle and though brutal scrutiny of every line that you’re putting down. It’s important to find that next gig, but I think it’s also important to think about your entire career as a legacy. Legacy is a strong word but what’s the harm in taking your life that seriously?

For more on Sean go to seangordonmurphy.com and his deviantART page.

Masters of Ink: Dan Park’s Wild and Sublime illustrations

By Jason Thibault

Dan Park is an illustrator and teacher working out of New York. His wildly colorful and raw illustrations grabbed hold of me upon discovering them. I immediately made note of his website so that I could track him down for an interview. And here we go.

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

I remember drawing unflattering caricatures of teachers and classmates in order to make my friends laugh. Drawing came pretty naturally to me but the ambition for constant improvement was and is a huge struggle.

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

My first professional work was this past year actually. It drew some portraits of business men and women for a Samsung internal annual. The process was a little boring for me and I had to please a lot of people. In the end I wasn’t too happy about the outcome.

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

At an early age, I would go to the public library and read up on art history and I’d try to figure out what was so good about the famous artists out there. It’s hard to remember a day in my life when I didn’t draw, so I guess I’m always in the process self education to a certain degree. I also went to the School of Visual Arts in NY and learned a lot from the illustration chair Tom Woodruff. That was a great experience. I think I’m still learning and being influenced and inspired by everything I encounter.

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 am much more of an oil painter but I was having trouble locking down on a look (as I still am). So I decided to make all my illustrative work digital. I pick different tools in painter and I try to experiment. I usually work with scanned textures to add a less mechanical feel and then I get to work. Its pretty frustrating at times and I think I’m going to go back to either traditional paint or ink scans.

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

I guess I’ve honed in on the digital tools that I like.

Favorite brand of ink:

No real ink.

Type of paper:

When I do traditional, I like Arches 300 cold press sheets.

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

I look at everyone from Diego Velasquez to Paul Pope. I think the broader the inspiration, the less stagnant my work will 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?

I haven’t done that much professional work, but when I do, I usually start with research. I try to get a good understand of the subject so that I can convey what I want without the work getting too obvious or naive. Then I make some composition sketches and start on the final. My sketches tend to be pretty loose so that I can have room to explore in the final piece.

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

Lots and lots of hip hop, classical, folk country, and… THE MARS VOLTA.

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

Haha, I only have my own work on my walls. Even if I had the money to buy my favorite paintings, I think I’d start to get pissed off at the genius of others. My favorite piece that I don’t own right now is the lithograph of Edward Munch’s “Woman in Three Stages”

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?

I love Hermann Hesse’s fairy tales and all of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novels (The Idiot in particular). Too many movies to talk about. “UP” made me feel all gushy inside.

Current and upcoming projects?

I’ve been taking a break from illustration in order to pursue my painting career. I wouldn’t mind doing illustration work here and there, but when I fully come back to illustration, I hope to have learned something from my paintings that can add that extra layer that I’ve been looking for.

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?

I think that it’s important to be honest in what you want to pursue, while understanding that art is ultimately for other people. It’s a tough balancing act, but I believe that making that connection with the viewer should be the goal. I think although an appreciation of self expression is valid, emphasizing its value can be confusing for young artists that are ready with a defensive response to criticism such as “I meant to do that”. I also think that the process is just as important as the result. Even if everyone else loves my work, I don’t care for it if the process was not meaningful to me. And finally, keep working your ass off.

Discover more about Dan at his website, Dan Park Studio

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