Hey got a cell? Like to decorate it with snappy images? Well have I got a link for you. Head on over to Workhorse Wireless and you can download a couple of my illustrations. Straight to your phone! There are tons of other cool contemporary illustrators to choose from too like Brendan Monroe , Jeff Soto and more!

Best,
Steve

I was asked to do a short Q and A interview about my work and process. I’ve posted my answers below. I hope you find it interesting.

Interview was conducted by Feyd:

What educational background in illustration do you have ?

I went to college for graphic design and graduated with honors from a small design school here in Canada. By way of illustration, I feel I am mostly self-taught. Illustration is an ongoing learning process and I continue educating myself everyday. There is always more to know about illustration. That’s what makes it interesting for me.

Who are the artists which have influenced you ?

I am influenced by many of the older illustrators and animators of the 1950′s and 60′s. Illustrators like Mary Blair, Jim Flora, M. Sasek, Bernice Myers, Art Seiden, Alice Provenson, J.P. Miller, The list goes on and on.

Contemporary Illustrators I like: Tadahiro Uesugi, Gary Baseman, Bob Staake are three that jump to mind. An Illustrator named Chris Lensch has also been very influential. He gave me a shot at doing some backgrounds for a book he was doing when I just started out. I think I caused him more headaches than help. But he gave and continues to give me good advice. He was the first one to give me a real published assignment. That was a big step for me.

How have you made use of the computer to illustrate ?

I use the computer to illustrate everything from roughs, sketches to the final art. I use Adobe Illustrator Version 10 specifically for all of those tasks.

Have you used traditional painting (or other technique, for instance paper collages), before going to the digital painting ?

No, not really. Other than the usual creative stuff one does in art school. I never fell in love with any particular traditional technique. I adapted to computer pretty quick once I set my mind to it.

How do you proceed to create your works ?

A client will contact me for a job and I will sit down and knock out many roughs on the computer. Nothing fancy. Just scribbles and thoughts. I’ll move forward from that point and pick out two I like and turn those into fairly tight comps for the client. I’ll send them off as jpeg’s through email. Once I get the permission to go ahead I’ll finish off the artwork in Adobe Illustrator and export it as an Adobe Photoshop file for a client to download from my web server.

According to you, what possibilities are opened by the use of computer in the illustration field ?

Oh boy, now I love computers! I am really a geek about them. Which is funny because when I first started college I was terrified by them. Computers and graphic design software was just starting out. I think the school had Adobe Illustrator version 3.0 and the Macs crashed continually. I remember one assignment they had us do in college required us to make a mockup of a poster of a famous designer in their style. I absolutely refused to get near Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop. Instead I made lots of photocopies and cutouts then complied all my images and text in pasted layers. When I say “pasted layers” I mean physical glue! It was terrible. Ha ha. Well, over time I educated myself in the software and grew to love it. Now, I’ve even displayed my digital work in Adobe Headquarters in a gallery show they held. Pretty good for a guy that once shied away from it.

Specific benefits it offers are great and numerous. Clients email me more often than call me. Even first time clients. Most prefer first contact to be a written email to me. I love that. I provide all my concepts and finished work digitally for clients to download. No mailing no waiting. Feedback is instantaneous. I even eBill clients. The only thing I mail anymore are contracts that require my handwritten signature. Computers have made it possible to interact with clients all over the globe in a instant dynamic relationship. We are illustrators without borders!

And what about the drawbacks ?

I can’t really say as I can think of any. Other than perhaps it’s tough to get away from the work. I even take my Laptop with WIFI on “holiday” so I can stay in constant contact with all my clients and do work on the road. That may be a side effect of more of my love for my job.

You use Illustrator, a lot of people working with textures use Photoshop or Painter instead… What does the vectorial format in particular brings to you ?

Ah! Good question. I get so many emails from Adobe Illustrator users wanting to know how I achieve this. Truth is I am keeping kind of tight lipped about this. I devised a little program modification in Adobe Illustrator that lets me texture on the go, dynamically. That means I don’t have cross software versions of the same illustrations. In the past I used Illustrator to do the ground work then “paint” them in Photoshop. Well, that caused multiple working files for every illustration I did. It got confusing if there was changes. Now I can do all of the work in Adobe Illustrator and output a final file for the client. If there is a change it’s easily corrected in the original Adobe Illustrator file.

By using textures, scratching outline, or other techniques, do you seek to approach the aspect of some traditional techniques, or do you want to develop an own digital esthetics ?

I really seek to emulate the natural media. By making my vector art more natural looking I achieve the best of two worlds. Vector art offers me dynamic flexibility traditional techniques do not. The computer is a mechanical tool but so is a pencil or a paint brush. It’s finding how to creatively express yourself through the technology that is important. No amount of filters or tricks they can put in a program can replace honest talent and creative soul. By studying the work of older illustrators that used traditional media I can adopt those same techniques for my digital work. I don’t seek to recreate a retro look but rather learn and express my work in similar qualities of line, form and texture.

Best,
Steve