Finally. The winter is starting to retreat back to Canada where it belongs. At least... we hope so. Every time we think it's gone, it snows a few inches only to be 60 degrees later that day. Gotta love this state. Well, as far as the month and seasons go, we like to change out our artists. We love to work someone up only to let them down, that's apparently our style... so with further adue... I'll tell you a story about a puppy. This little puppy had problems. Not the same problems that a little puppy would normally have like competing with his siblings for food or mothers affection... no this was a far more troubled puppies. This puppy had addiction problems. Addiction with drugs one may ask? No. Worse. Gummi spiders. Strange, yes maybe. but when you think about it, how often do you find gummi SPIDERS? Bears, worms, hell, even gummi octopuses (octopi?) can be found at your regular grocery store. This poor little puppy would get hopped up on gummi spiders and party. Party like none other.This poor little puppy go to the point of intervention. The only problem was... there would be no intervention for this little puppy, for he had no friends. His family was torn apart. Not literally, like their legs and tails were viciously dismembered. They were all just given away, like kittens. Having no family or friends makes it very difficult for someone to pull together an intervention. So what is a poor little, gummi spider addicted to do? Join the circus. That's what.
Um... I love tangents. and um... now with NO further adue. Here's RR's interview of Ben Rollman, our AoM for the month of May!
As always,
Love,
Tom & Ant,
BitB Crew
We of course want to know the standard like-- how long have you been interested in art? (i.e. since childhood, didn't get into it until college, whatever)
I've actually been drawing since I was a kid. Most people do. There's the ubiquitous mental image of early attempts at drawing people standing outside next to a house a tree and a smiling sun. I think the difference with artists is that we either loved it too much or were too stubborn to stop.
Is art your full-time job right now? If not, what is?
Sadly no. I work as a systems administrator for a state medical society. I get a fair amount of commission work without having to promote myself very much so that keeps me happy. I don't have a lot of time for it.
I'm also loving the robot portraits, I LOVE robots.. how did those come about?
I blame John Hodgman. A few years ago he put out a book called "The Areas of My Expertise." In it were 700 hobo names. The EIC of Boing Boing suggested finding 700 cartoonists to draw each hobo. A few cartoonists began drawing a lot of them (myself included) but then we branched out into other things that were more our liking. I picked robots. I started drawing friends as robots and pretty soon people began paying me for it. It's a stupidly low amount for a personalized piece of artwork, but I have fun doing them and they don't take that long.
What's your inspiration for your art, and more specifically, for this month's t-shirt designs?
A couple of the designs were older so I re-used them. They were all in my zombie/robot/hobo/ninja/pirate phase. The robot George Washington was actually part of a series of all the presidents. The only real new one was an idea a friend of mine had that was so good I had to draw it. (With his blessing of course.)
How did you hear about Bored in the Basement, and what made you want to be one of the Artists of the Month?
I'm a Flickr contact with someone who does work for BitB so they approached me about it. But I'd seen their shirts before. I'm one of those small artist/daily shirt lovers.
What are your favorite mediums to produce art with? Least
favorite? What's the difference between the process you normally use, and designing for clothing like t-shirts?
I don't know that I have a least favorite. For me it's just a matter of experience. I have never painted with oils but that doesn't mean I don't like them. So far my favorite way to produce art, and that usually means it's the way my art looks best, is the comic book method. Drawing and inking by hand, coloring in photoshop.
As far as t-shirt designs, yeah you have to build it differently. The process is the same because both go to print, but the artwork itself is usually different. It's more advertising or marketing than cartooning. You use the same tools but you're trying to get people to notice your art on a shirt without them actively looking. If you read a web comic, you're already going there to see the art. Art on a shirt has to grab you and make you want to look at it.
Tell us the first random fact about yourself that comes to your mind. Unless of course that random fact is something you don't want shared with the internet. Because that's what we're gonna do.
I've never been to Ohio.
Any famous last words?
I'm reminded of the immortal words of Socrates when he said, "I drank what?"
- RR
