Madbadcat’s Note: By his own admission, Brett Taylor is largely self-taught. I would tend to argue that, as artists, we are all "largely self-taught", exploring new territory each time we approach a subject. His passion for painting may come from finding TEXTURE as a new addition to his visual vocabulary. Chek out the texture on this closeup of one of his paintings.
::: Artist(s) Name:::
Bret Taylor
::: Media:::
Mainly acrylics these days, but in the past I’ve used watercolours, gouache, coloured pencil, ink, charcoal, markers, Photoshop, Illustrator, photography, found textures… you name it, really.
::: Website:::
http://howyadoingraphics.blogspot.com
::: 1 ::: When did you first realize you were an artist? Did you draw as a kid? Color outside the lines?
I’ve been drawing and painting as long as I can remember. I still have a painting from my childhood that my grandparents saved – an Indian and a horse, done when I was 3 or 4. Even then I was putting warm and cool colours together for contrast.
::: 2 ::: Could you tell us some more about your paintings?
8 years ago I started doing digitally-composited mixed media pieces – for example, I’d do a background in wet-on-wet watercolour, lineart in charcoal, and other bits in gouache, marker, etc., and then scan them all and merge them in Photoshop. Some pieces had 40 or 50 separate scans. Over time I developed an unhealthy obsession with texture, and once that really took hold, building the pieces digitally just wasn’t enough anymore. I decided it was time to really plunge into acrylics, instead of just dabbling. Almost everything I’ve done in the past 2 years has been acrylic-based, and I’m trying – among other things – to take texture as far as I can. (Photoshop and Illustrator get used a lot in the design/comp stages, but that’s pretty much where the digital part ends.)
Lately I’ve started studying impressionism, which is pretty daunting. I’m starting to realize just how much more I have to learn. It’s not necessarily a bad feeling, though.
::: 3 ::: Does your work have a narrative? Do you use yourself as the subject for your work? Why is that?
I wouldn’t really say there’s a narrative, but that’s something I’d like to start incorporating more of.
::: 4 ::: What famous artists have influenced you, and how?
That’s a pretty long list. In comics it’d go something like this – John Buscema, Gil Kane, John Byrne, Jim Lee, Chris Bachalo, Jose Villarubia, David Mack, Bill Sienkiewicz, and Dave McKean (the last three for their work outside of comics, as well). Then there are fine artists like Van Gogh and a lot of the Impressionists, William Wray, and a whole slew of others from all aspects of art – Frazetta, Simon Bisley, Rick Griffin, Jim Mahfood, Gil Elvgren, Robt. Williams, Scott Robertson, Glenn Barr…
I could reel off names all day, really. Some of them taught me specific things, and some of them just taught me how to look at art in different ways.
::: 5 ::: What other interests do you have (besides painting)?
Music, cars, books, drinking in good company.
::: 6 ::: How have you handled the business side of being an artist?
I’m learning slowly. The business side doesn’t bother me or bore me, but there is a lot to learn. Just trying to figure out pricing is a pretty big adventure in itself. At the moment I subscribe to a couple of newsletters about marketing art, and those have already been a godsend.
::: 7 ::: What hardware (computer, scanner, printer, etc) do you use? What software?
24-inch iMac, Epson Stylus Photo R320, Epson Perfection 1250, Adobe Creative Suite 3.
?::: 8 ::: Has the Internet helped your career as an artist?
Definitely. Everything I’ve sold to date has been to people I’ve met on the Internet.
::: 9 ::: What’s the best and worst parts of being a full time, working artist?
When I get to that point, I’ll let you know. At this stage, most of my income still comes from graphic design.
::: 10 ::: What advice would you give to an artist just starting out?
Learn the basics, and practice. Don’t worry about mastering the advanced techniques until you understand perspective and anatomy.