Tag Archives: illustration

Artist Spotlight: Sophy Tuttle

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"Catfish"

Sophy Tuttle knows her way around pen and paper. Her illustration, both color and black & white, are so skillful you’d think she traced them elsewhere with a pencil and then applied a permanent art medium. Art was once a hobby to Sophy and only when it came time to apply to college did she decide to become even more serious about art and devote her life to art.

“I draw much of my inspiration from nature and animals, particularly birds and mythical creatures. My most recent work focuses on using these creatures to explore different stories and emotions. The goal of this work is to evoke different feelings in the viewer based on the theme of the piece.”

ArtVenue was so excited to discover Sophy’s fantastic illustrations and couldn’t wait to ask her a few questions about her artistic journey.

"Crow"Home is where the heart is-where is home for you?
That’s a surprisingly complicated question for me. I currently live in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts and absolutely love it. I grew up in Central Mass, but all of my family lives in England, so I consider that home as well!

How and when did you discover yourself to be an artist?
I’ve loved to draw ever since I can remember. I think most people do when they’re young, and some people just stick with it and some don’t. My grandmother is a botanical painter and I remember drawing plants and flowers in my backyard and having my mum send them to her in England. I considered art a hobby, though, until it came time to apply for college and I realized I could actually possibly make it my whole life.

“It takes a long time to get started in this field, so don’t be disheartened if you’re not successful in the first 3 or 4 years you start doing it.”

"Toxic Microbes"

You truly are a skilled illustrator. Where did you learn the skills and gain the knowledge you, as an artist, posses today?
 I credit my high school art teacher with opening me up to a lot of different mediums (sculpture, photography, etc), that really helped me to grow as an artist and realize that there were many different facets to art. I was lucky enough to attend Rhode Island School of Design and graduate with a degree in Illustration. At RISD, I had the opportunity to immerse myself in oil painting, 3D illustration, figure sculpture, mural painting, and so many other things. Almost every skill or medium you learn can be applied to another medium to enhance your understanding or help you see something in a different way. For example, the figure sculpture classes I took gave me a much deeper understanding of the human form, and I became a better 2D illustrator because of them.

“I’ve loved to draw ever since I can remember.”

"Skulls"

The very first piece or work ever created by you-what/when was it, is it anything like the work you do now, and do you have it in your possession?
The first “work” I remember creating were these big “Save the Rainforest” and “Save the Whales” posters that I drew in crayons with my best friend. They were probably 18″x 24″, but I didn’t understand space yet, so it was the typical 4 inches of drawing along the very bottom of the paper, and giant bubble letters across the top. I think they’re still in my parents attic. I have actually been illustrating the environmental magazine Whole Terrain for the past couple of years, so I guess there is a connection there! As incredibly nerdy as it is, I also remember copying pictures from my brother’s “Nintendo Power” magazines at a pretty early age. I think the connection there is my continued love of line and simple color.

What is your creative process, typically?
These days I have a pretty steady routine of getting home from work at 4:30 and, if I’m in the middle of a project, going straight to work on illustration. I’m usually thinking about what I’m going to accomplish that day while I’m still at my day job, that way I don’t waste any time once I get home (and I have something to occupy my brain during long meetings!). I try not to drink coffee before I work on pen and ink stuff, just because it makes my hands too shakey. This all makes me sounds very disciplined, but I somehow manage to spend just as much time on facebook.

“I also just love drawing fish as they usually make for a great composition and they’re slightly creepy like all my work.”

Do you prefer 2D or 3D art? What are the limitations/freedoms of each form of art?
It goes back and forth for me. In college, I was making a lot of 3D art because I had a studio and roommates who understood if my project spilled out into the living room. These days I tend to do almost exclusively pen and ink work because of my space and time limitations. The reason I enjoy 3D so much is that you are able to fully realize and flesh out a character in one instance, as opposed to having to do many sketches of the same figure to get the same result.

"House of Usher"

How do you come up with titles for your pieces? (Do they frame meaning, suggest thematic implications or is it the last piece for completion?)
The names of my pieces are purely for my own benefit. I have so many drawings of crows and other birds that I have to be able to keep track of them all! They’re usually pretty literal.

"Frog Man"

Pick your own favorite piece on ArtVenue. What is it of, why is it your favorite and what does it mean to you?
I’m actually having trouble finding art by other artists, other than what’s on the front page. However, I do love the work on there by Andrew Jerz. I love figurative and narrative work to begin with, and I love the way he caricatures and stylizes his subjects. His colors are awesome too.

After I reviewed her original answer for the question above, I realized I might have worded things confusingly. I told Sophy to choose one of her own pieces, to which she promptly answered:
My favorite piece of MINE is probably the “Catfish.” My most recent work is almost always my favorite and this one represents a good step in the direction of color usage, which I’m usually terrible at and generally scared of. I also just love drawing fish as they usually make for a great composition and they’re slightly creepy like all my work.

“I considered art a hobby, though, until it came time to apply for college and I realized I could actually possibly make it my whole life.”

Are there any projects you are working on right now that you can’t wait to finish and share? Any other mediums you would love to explore and experiment with?
I recently finished a poster for my friends in a local Boston band called Tallahassee. They’re playing a few shows coming up in NYC, Providence, and Cambridge so I make up a poster for those. They let me do whatever I wanted and I think the result was pretty good. The only art direction I got was “I think you should add a mustache,” and he was totally right.

What is some advice you could give to budding artists, hopeful to make a name for themselves or looking to build a portfolio?
It takes a long time to get started in this field, so don’t be disheartened if you’re not successful in the first 3 or 4 years you start doing it.

"Foggy Head"

View Sophy Tuttle’s complete ArtVenue profile!

ArtVenue would like to thank Sophy for giving us some of her time and thoughts. We are simply delighted to have her on ArtVenue – welcome to the family!

Artist Spotlight: Gregery James Miller

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"Autumn Fish"

No, your mind isn’t playing tricks on you, this fish really does have feet and it seems like you caught him at an awkward moment, like walking. Doesn’t it make you chuckle? Gregery James Miller studied illustration and animation at Massachusetts College of Art and Design and, in 2009, graduated with an BFA in Illustration. Yes, he knows the fundamentals of drawing, there is no doubt there, but it’s his personality, natural skill and humor which transpose into his illustrations and make them eye-catching and signature. Gregery might have a steady gig with Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim and the award-winning Clambake Studio, but he always keeps his eyes and ears open for potential projects in all areas of illustration and animation.

ArtVenue couldn’t wait to find out a little more about the artist behind these fantastic and mythologic creations, so we picked his mind a bit.

“Most of my characters have stories, and my goal as an artist is to illustrate all of them.”

"Moss Zombie"

Home is where the heart is-where is home for you?
Home for me is in Western Massachusetts where I grew up. I really enjoy nature.

How and when did you discover yourself to be an artist?
I started drawing cartoons around 3 or 4. As a kid, I designed casts
of characters for video games and cartoons. I worked on one epic
project from age 12-18. I still have trouble breaking away from
complex projects that I never am able to finish. Deep down, I know
I’ll end up producing these big stories in some form or another in my
lifetime.

What are a few things on your artistic bucket list?
The big stories I mentioned above, I have two of them that I want to
start pumping out in graphic novel form.

Where did you learn the skills and gain the knowledge you, as an
artist, posses today?
Lots of classes at Massart as an undergrad, some classes when I was younger, but mainly from drawing all the time, and being inspired by a lot of things. When I like the way something looks, I try to incorporate that look somehow into my work. I’m always trying to grow as an artist. I don’t think you can ever stop growing and trying new things no matter what your passion is.

“Art to me is the ability to bring your imagination and things that you can only see in your mind, out into the real world for others to see and enjoy. Art is magical to me.”

The very first piece or work ever created by you-what/when was it, is
it anything like the work you do now, and do you have it in your
possession?
The first piece? No idea, I have 2 portfolios full of drawings I did as a little kid that I keep stashed away. I like to hold onto this stuff and look back on it every now and then. My style has definitely evolved from when I was young, but many fundamentals have stayed the same.

"Bodhi"

Describe your art with 3 adjectives, a genre and a metaphor.
I’d say 3 adjectives would be … time-consuming, detail-oriented, and mythology. Not sure if you wanted technique for some of those adjectives, but that’s what came to mind from my perspective. I’ve spent a long time trying to define what my work would be described as, there’s a lot of horror and whimsy to it, but I think mythology is an over-riding theme. Genre – I think it’s too early in my career to classify my work in a single genre, I’m always trying different things! Right now I paint pet portraits in acrylic paint, I paint digital background art for a cartoon, and I sketch character designs in pen and ink/watercolors in my free-time. A metaphor for my art might be a child dreaming of the monsters in his closet.

If you were given a blank check, an hour in your favorite art store
and permission to shop to your heart’s content, what would we see in
your shopping cart/s?
Everything! But mainly really expensive watercolors, nibs, ink, and huge beautiful bristol pads.

“I think the most important thing for an artist is passion. You need to want it bad, and love it more than anything.”

What is art to you? What is art for you? Why create it?
Art to me is the ability to bring your imagination and things that you can only see in your mind, out into the real world for others to see and enjoy. Art is magical to me. If we could just stick a vhs into our heads at night and record our dreams, there would be no need for art. I always thought that was a cool idea. Dreams are something I’d love to work with more…and nightmares.

"Medusa"

What is your creative process, typically? (Mood, time of day,
rituals, duration of work, surroundings, caffeine intake,
sleep-depravation levels, etc…)
Unfortunately my dad always teases me and says that I like being ”backed into a corner.” What he’s trying to say is I work really well under pressure. Everyone in the art world is so chill, I wish somebody would just start yelling at me sometimes so I could work even more, haha. I like to work late at night, and sometimes early in the morning. I definitely drink a lot of coffee, but I’m starting to think being less caffeinated lets me work better. I’m more relaxed that way. When I work “well” I go for like 8 hours straight. I like working to music, but also really enjoy peace and quiet, I prefer working alone over socially, but everything has it’s time and place.

What kind of art makes you happy from the inside out?
Art that jumps out at me makes me happy. Striking imagery. Art that tells a story narrative definitely resonates with me the most. I like to imagine what the rest of the story is when I look at a Frazetta painting for example.

“A metaphor for my art might be a child dreaming of the monsters in his closet.”

What kind makes you wish you were in your happy place?
I’m always in my happy place when I’m drawing. That’s a lie.

"Spring Rhizome"

Pick one of your pieces to come to life. Name, personality traits,
dietary restrictions, favorite Tv show?
The Autumn Fish is a god of the woods, it represents the season of Fall and floats through the forest where no one can see, spreading it’s bright autumn scales and changing the trees from green to orange, yellow, and red. When all it’s scales are gone, and the forests are colorful, the bones of the fish fall to the ground and return to the earth until next year, when he is needed again. Most of my characters have stories, and my goal as an artist is to illustrate all of them.

How did you start working for Adult Swim?
I began working for Clambake Animation in Watertown last year. We produced a demo episode for adult swim, followed by a pilot, and now we’re working on a new series that should be airing sometime in 2012. Working with Clambake and Adult Swim has been an incredible learning experience, and a lot of fun!

What would the ultimate project be for you?
I’ve been developing my ultimate project for years. It’s a graphic novel and I wish I had the time and funding to produce it now, but I’ll keep chipping away at it when I have the time.

“I’m always in my happy place when I’m drawing. That’s a lie.”

What is some advice you could give to budding artists, hopeful to
make a name for themselves or looking to build a solid portfolio?
I think the most important thing for an artist is passion. You need to want it bad, and love it more than anything. You also need to work very hard, and study anatomy, perspective, painting, and color theory. These are fundamentals that I think all artists need.

"Hinged Cat"

View Gregery James Miller’s complete ArtVenue profile!

ArtVenue would like to thank Gregery for allowing us some of his time and thoughts. We are happy to have him on ArtVenue – welcome to the family!

 

Artist Spotlight: Ellen Crenshaw

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"Ghosts of Japan"

The watercolor and ink illustration you see above this text is incredible, don’t you agree? The composition is sophisticated, the colors are vibrant, and every physical detail is just how it needs to be. Now take a deeper look and allow the details to settle in your mind. There is an untold story collecting momentum the longer you analyze this picture, and it’s a trait which seems to pertain to Ellen Crenshaw‘s illustrations. She is a talented artist who creates artwork rich in narration, movement and context, and has a body of work that has caught the eye of companies like Beer Advocate Magazine, The Weekly Dig and FableVision. The day Pearle Vision lost an employee was the day the art world gained brilliant illustrator, and thank goodness for that!

ArtVenue approached Ellen through the “mysterious ways of the internet,” aka. Gmail, and threw her some meaty questions. She diced them up and served us some tasty insight!

“Interestingly enough, most of my projects that I’ve been happiest with are the most difficult–it’s through the struggle that I find satisfaction, even if I’m grinding my teeth every step of the way.”

Home is where the heart is-where is home for you?
This may sound incredibly cheesy, but home is where my family is.  My husband in particular; if we’re together, I’m at home.  Literally, my place of residence is in East Boston.

How and when did you discover yourself to be an artist?
When I was a kid, I was enamored with cartoons, stories, and characters and I drew what inspired me.  I can’t remember a time when I didn’t do that.  I can’t remember a time when I didn’t tell people that I was going to be an “artist” when I grew up, even if I didn’t know what that meant.  It was always a single track for me, I never seriously considered anything else.

"BYOB, Beer Advocate Issue #42"

When you’re not working or illustrating and have some free time, what do you like to do?
When I’m not drawing, I’m feeling guilty about not drawing.  But I am a child of the screen, I love movies and TV, and in the winter there’s nothing better than cozying up with hot tea and a good book.  This year I started taking kickboxing as a complete change of pace.  I also started getting into fashion blogs, so getting dressed up has become a small hobby of mine.  What I look forward to most, though, is getting together with my husband and friends and letting my silly out.

What are a few things on your artistic bucket list?
I’d love to work on a children’s book.  Learn to screen print.  I’d be curious to try working in California someday, exciting things in the illustration world seem to come from there.

“When I was a kid, I was enamored with cartoons, stories, and characters and I drew what inspired me.”

Who are some illustrators you look up to, and why does their work speak to you?
I’m adding more and more people to this list every day!  The ones I tend to return to, however, are my standbys that get me going again when I’ve hit a wall.  Chuck Jones for his vitality and humor, and for his cartoons that got me started in all this!  Dupuy & Berberian, creators of the most stunning comics I’ve ever seen–I can’t tell you how often I turn to their books for guidance on page layout, storytelling, composition.  Peter De Seve, whose watercolor techniques I would love to successfully emulate someday.  Jen Wang, Graham Annable, Scott Campbell, Vera Brosgol, Brit Wilson, Juan Berrio…I could go on!  Sometimes I feel overwhelmed with inspiration, I feel very lucky.

"My Girl"

What is your creative process, typically? (Mood, time of day, rituals, duration of work, surroundings, caffeine intake, sleep-depravation levels, etc…)
I love visual problem-solving, so I thrive on constraints and deadlines.  Once I settle on a project, either for myself or a client, a great amount of my time is spent gathering visual reference.  Ideally I would make a trip to check out the real thing I need to draw, but most often that’s not possible and I rely on stock photography sites.  Then I make small thumbnails in my sketchbook; refine the drawing either digitally or traditionally; color study in Photoshop; and finally paint, either digitally or with ink, watercolor, and gouache.  While most of the final product is planned in advance, I think spur-of-the-moment decisions and happy accidents keep the work fresh, so I leave myself at least a little mystery before beginning a final illustration.  I work best in the morning and afternoon, but when that occasional all-nighter has to happen (side note: I LOVE sleeping, so you can guess how I feel about all-nighters) I drink a cup of coffee and I’m a jittery, wired machine.  Oh, and I always–ALWAYS–need a movie playing in the background, or I can’t concentrate.  One of my best resources: listentoamovie.com.

You’re a dirty-joke teller – give me your best (PG-13) joke!
Gosh, you’ve really pushed me against a wall here.  It’s awfully hard–to perform under pressure, I mean–I don’t want to get a rise out of anyone, after all.  I may just have to sit on it.

“Kindness opens more doors than you can imagine, especially in a world where a lot of the people you meet never see you in person.”

On your ArtVenue profile you say, “As a lover of animation, I also employ a sense of motion in my illustrations, capturing action so that the characters appear to have life beyond the page. ” How did you craft this skill? (Specific classes? God-given knack and ability? Hours in the studio at school?)

Hours and hours of cartoons!  Practice makes perfect, of course, and I did go to an art magnet high school as well as art college, but when I’m drawing a character I imagine the movement–like a cartoon–I feel myself doing it while I’m drawing.  If I can’t get it right in my head, I act it out!  For a long time I wanted to be an animator, and any animator will tell you that you have to be an actor as well to bring a cartoon to life.  When I realized in college that I didn’t have the patience to be an animator, I inherently had to find a way to convey movement in a still image.

"Jack Spratt Investigates Old Mother Hubbard"

Describe your most difficult project you have ever worked on, personal or work-related. How about easiest or must fun?
Interestingly enough, most of my projects that I’ve been happiest with are the most difficult–it’s through the struggle that I find satisfaction, even if I’m grinding my teeth every step of the way. The comic I illustrated for Inbound #4 (written by my husband, Matt Boehm, published by the Boston Comics Roundtable) was incredibly hard for me.  We were constricted to four pages, and we chose a fairly ambitious story to tell in that amount of space, which means there were a LOT of panels.  It also took place in a historic landmark that no longer stands and has very little documentation, so reference was quite a challenge.  I ended up relying heavily on written accounts, which I had never depended on before for a nonfictional setting.  And, of course, I procrastinated…pulled those all-nighters I hate so much, panicked, inked until my fingers ached.  I’m very proud of the result, though, and I’m proud of the book it’s in.

“Sometimes I feel overwhelmed with inspiration, I feel very lucky.”

In regards to the second half of your question, I’m actually collaborating on a project with a bunch of my friends right now and it’s incredibly fun!  It’s called Fanartica (fanartica.tumblr.com); it’s a blog started by me and Matt, in which we and our closest illustrator buddies contribute fan art that conforms to rotating topics.  It’s only been up for a [few] weeks, but we’ve been picking up a lot of steam with our first topic, 90s Nickelodeon.  It’s really great to work on something that’s simply meant to make you and your friends laugh.

"Fair Is Foul, and Foul Is Fair"

Describe the pinnacle of your artistic career. (ie: Are you a household name? Influencing fashion? Prints flying off the shelf?)
Ha!  I think the pinnacle is still coming (that’s what she said).  So far the proudest moment of my career is a fairly humble one: it’s when I was able to quit my day job.  I worked part-time for four-and-a-half years with a wonderful staff and generous bosses at Pearle Vision while moonlighting as an illustrator.  There finally came a time when I couldn’t realistically juggle both jobs anymore, so I took the plunge into full-time freelance.  It’s scary, and not always lucrative, but I’ve never been happier.  (Plus I’ll always have my eyewear knowledge to carry with me.  You need help with lenses?  I’ll hook you up.)

"Brer Bear, Brer Rabbit, and Brer Labrador"

Pick your favorite piece on ArtVenue. What is it of, why is it your favorite and what does it mean to you?
Woah, I imagine that’s like trying to choose a favorite child.  Let me instead tell you about my most influential piece, Ghosts of Japan.  When someone looks at my portfolio for the first time, this is the piece that stands out.  I don’t know what it is about her, but she opens doors for me.  She’s the first piece I made when I reevaluated my career strategy in 2008.  She brought me out of a six-month-long creative slump.  She was printed on the cover of the Weekly Dig to promote my solo show in 2009.  When I look at her now, I see all the technical errors that I have since improved upon, but she is consistently my most popular illustration, and remains my best-selling print.  I can’t help but get sick of her sometimes, I feel like I’ve progressed so much since I made her, but I owe a lot to that Japanese girl on the subway with her ghosts.

What is some advice you could give to budding artists, hopeful to make a name for themselves or looking to build a portfolio?
Just keep working.  Find reasons to make new artwork, dig for deadlines to meet.  When I left college I had this idea in my head that I was worth too much to work for free; don’t get me wrong, to a certain extent, this is true.  But when you decline the opportunity to build relationships and experience because of the money, you get yourself nowhere fast.  Respond to those calls-for-artists, start a blog and consistently post work, find any reason to get your work seen–better yet, published–and the opportunities will come.  Also, be nice.  Kindness opens more doors than you can imagine, especially in a world where a lot of the people you meet never see you in person.

"The Food Issue"

View Ellen Crenshaw’s complete ArtVenue profile!

ArtVenue would like to thank Ellen for lending us some of her time and fantastic thoughts. We are psyched to have her on ArtVenue – welcome to the family!