current projects are all school related right now. i’m a junior at SVA so i have thesis or the junior project as our chair likes to refer to it. our theme is the haves and the have nots and we have to pick a piece from a list of literature and interpret it in 10 paintings. so i’m doing The Time Machine by H.G Wells and i’m interpreting it in 10 gouache paintings 14 x 18. It’s experimental for me because i haven’t really worked with gouache in the past, i don’t have a history of that medium. i’m playing around with using dramatic ways of lighting the scenes to kind of like push the narrative of the haves and the have nots and i’m working with the quality of the shapes as well. the have characters in the story have a lot of rounded edges and circular things in the composition and the have nots have a lot of jagged edges, sharp lines, and harsh lighting so this is an experimental piece. i’m also bringing in comic narrative stuff to the piece and hopefully it’s a success. we’ll see, it’s in progress. the other project i’m working on is a 30 panel piece for this class at SVA called the drawn epic and basically it’s 30 9x12 panels that we’ll make a 1x10 drawing basically and that one is a lot of fun, i basically get to do what i want with it so it’s got a lot of demons and squigglys and little rocks and stuff.

definitely not. i think in the past in some of my other illustration classes where they give you a more specific job it definitely was more like that but i found that this year specifically it’s a very like go out and do it on your own and we’ll like kind of guide you a little and nudge you in the right direction. and i think that’s cool because when i was taking classes where they were like this is what you have to do the work i was making was very stale and it was very generic and now i’m kind of able to do what i want and i’m able to inject a bit of humour and a little bit of the way i like to draw and the way i like to paint because i feel i don’t have to bring in xyz and i can kind of do whatever i want.

inspiration. hmm i think i just look around and instagram is good for that, i find so many artists i like through that and follow them and i feel like any time that i spot something i like i try to internalise it and think about how i could bring in a quality of that into my work. it’s hard because sometimes i feel like ok you like patrick kyle but don’t rip him off and do exactly what he does because it’s really easy to do that. it’s really easy to look at someone and just draw exactly like they do. so i try to just internalize other people’s things that i like and think well what do i like about this artist and how can i make my work likeable to me in the same way. and i guess stylistically my style kind of developed last semester and over the summer into a lot more of a defined style. i was working on a comic for a class last semester and i was just like experimenting and playing around with line and drawing and cartooning for the first time really and i liked it a lot and umm over the summer i wanted to do a million things but i found myself coming back to cartooning and drawing and working with ink. i’ve always worked with ink, it’s kind of like my go to medium for quick things and then scanning them and working with them digitally with colour umm but i found myself really getting into the process and getting better with it and now i’m working on that piece, the 30 panel piece, and i’m just getting really fast with the ink and it’s definitely getting to the point where i could do editorials like everyday i could get up and do one and make like a couple dollars from that. so i guess the style kind of developed once i stepped out of school and was able to make work using the skills i’d built up while i was in school on my own from work i enjoyed making and that just kind of kept me excited about it.

I think it’s mostly drawing but umm over the summer i was recording some music with my friend Malika. she also goes to FIT she’s a fine arts major. i play bass guitar. well i played a lot in high school and since going to school now l haven’t had the chance to really get into it but hopefully in the future when things cool down i’ll have time to pick it back up and get back into it. but, it was a lot of fun recording stuff with her over the summer. other than that i’m kind of finding comics to be fun lately because i’m able to bridge writing into it and coming up with narratives into the image making process and thinking creatively about layouts and stuff. so i guess writing, i do that, or write little notes on my phone, nothing too grandiose.

i definitely wing it a lot of the time. like i just did a piece for a fanzine that i’m doing with mai. the acuro adventure time one. that was very much like i pulled out a piece of paper and started drawing. i didn’t really think about it and scanned it and coloured it and didn’t really do any thumbnails or colour comps or anything. i think it’s fun to do work like that because it gives you a chance to exercise and i think an important part of learning art is making mistakes and learning how to avoid those so when you are doing things so methodically and you know with a process and a purpose every time you stop making mistakes and you fall into this routine of i’m doing the same thing because it worked for me last time and that’s my process so when you step away and have a sketch book and you fuck up in your sketch book or you have a piece you are working on and you fuck it up. or you fuck it up by accident and it turns out to be really cool you learn something new about making work and about yourself and i think it’s important to keep doing that.

winging it?

i think that just depends on what you expect from the piece. if you expect like a really nice finished piece from winging it then you are going to find it very difficult to wing it because it’s really hard to get those finished pieces. but, if you are just winging it and you are cool with whatever shows up then it will be very easy and it will be very relaxing for you. and then the same thing with pieces that have more intention. if you don’t care about it and you are just whatever i’m doing this piece and sketches and thumbnails just to get it done then you are not really going to push it in anyway and it’s not going to be very impressive. but, if you kind like really put in the work it will look nicer.

yeah. definitely. i think way back in high school my teacher showed me Mattias Adolfsson whose work is just super cool. very dense and populated and busy and it has a sense of energy and you feel like people live in the worlds he constructs and he’s really cool for the kind of stuff i’ve been exploring lately in my drawn epic class. but, generally i’d say if i’d say i’d have to pick a top 5… oh wait that’s a dumb thing to do. i like patrick kyle a lot he’s a bug comics artist out of toronto know and he’s really great. he does a lot of interesting stuff with composition and the way he draws is veyr different and i think i like that it is so different but it is so cool and it is not too weird for anybody. he’s writing style is very accessible. i like bosch, he’s a huge inspiration. he’s stuff was super weird when everyone else was jsut doing pictures of jesus. he was doing eggshells with butt cheeks. that’s just super cool to me. he just didn’t care what anyone was doing. i really like rodin and picasso. well obviously, everybody likes picasso. i like his work, i think he might of been an asshole. but i think inspiration comes and goes. someone that you like today you might look back on and be like ughh i was inspired by that. i’ve definitely gone through cycles where i’ve been super into someone and then a couple months later i wa slike umm what? what was i thinking? but i think that just goes with the fluidity of making art and having an identity and expressing that through what you make because you’re not always going to like the same stuff and i think what you like is always going to reflect in your work and if you like the same shit for your whole life then your work is going to stay stagnant and looking at cool stuff and looking at cool pictures changes what you make. so it’s good to change it up.

oh you don’t even have to go years back. i look at stuff from last week or like a couple months ago and i’m like what the hell was i thinking. but, that’s just like if anything i look at that as you’re groing so hopefully you’re always going to look back and think everything you did a month ago was shit because that means what you’re doing now is better or if not better it just feels more comfortable for you and that’s just what the most important thing is at the end of the day. whatever feels comfortable and right for you. so i think it’s good to look back and think that your work sucks because that means you’re changing.

I am hoping i get through thesis. thesis at SVA is the big one but there are so many things i want to do and it’s hard to just pick one and at the same time i don’t want to list anything; i’m doing all this, because i know kids who are like i want to have a TV show, i want to have a video game, i want to have a clothing line, i want to have everything, i want the world. i think it’s good to be ambitious and want everything, it’s not good to expect everything because you are just gonna end up like shit i didn’t get my clothing line or my collab with bape or whatever. i think dream job for me would be working on a TV show for adult swim or cartoon network doing design and story. but, you know i guess 10 years from now, who knows. immediately after school i want to do editorials and just make enough money to move out of my mom’s house because that sucks. i don’t have any elbow room there, but you know it’s cool. move out and pay off my loans and maybe have money to get a drink every now and then. just live comfortably, i don’t need to live lavishly. 10 years from now i don’t need that i just want to maybe have enough money for a dog because i got to have have a dog. i don’t know, thinking about the future is weird. it’s one of those things where i look at where i was at last year and what i wanted to do last year and it changed. where my current goals are i don’t like to forecast that much because i know that there’s a solid chance that i’m not going to want to do what i say i want to do right now in 6 months so who knows.

i haven’t really done a lot of collaberations. i’m owrking on an acura fanzine with mai. that’s fun. we’re basically both doing 3 two-page spread illustrations of acura fan art because we’re both just geeking out about acura for some reason despite the fact that the movie is very old. other than that i don’t think i’ve done too many collaberations, but i do like to work with other artists in like a broad sense, not neccissarily working on projects together. i did a show last january where i just invited a lot of artists that i was friends with to hang work together with me at the living gallery in brooklyn, that was super fun. that was a good opportunity and everybody sold a lot of prints and made a little bit of money. it was mostly just for fun. i’m currently working on a book that i’m going to hopefully put out by then end of the year, but it’s taking longer than expected as these things tend to do. basically it’s an anthology of illustration and comic art from people that i’m friends with and have met through the internet, through instagram. that’s been super cool. i’d like to do a book like that once a year and hit everyone up at the beginning of summer and say hey give me work by the end of summer and then spend the fall designing the book and hopefully have it out by the next year. that stuff is fun for me because i like to talk to other artists and exchange ideas and i think i’ve met a lot of great people from doing events like that and through doing things like that. i’ve only done those 2, but it’s definitely something i can see myself doing down the line.

rapidograph pen size 0.3, blue line mechanical pencil, and photoshop.

umm that’s a tough one. spilling ink is one. i guess when i’m working with my rapidograph the pen clogs from time to time. that’s annoying. i guess they’re all ink things; when i accidentally smudge the ink, when the ink clogs, and when i spill the ink.

mai definitely. jackson green. he’s a close buddy that helps me out a lot. my friend sean suchara. i guess that would be the big three that i talk to about art stuff.

my greatest piece so far. that’s tough. i’d say my favourite thing i’ve done so far is the triptych for BORING! BOYS! CLUB! that i did over the summer. not sure if it’s my greatest piece, but it was one i had a lot of fun drawing and i used the risograph to print it. oh scratch that, let me go back to my tools of the trade. swap photoshop for risograph. but, i’m forecasting my drawn epic piece to be like my magnum opus for my adolescence i guess. while i’m still in school that will be my biggest thing i think. but, i’m still working on it and it’s not finished yet but i already think it’s the strongest thing i’ve ever made.

scroll through instagram and look at other artists.

green

umm favourite colour to work with, that’s a tough one. i guess red.