Being an artist, I've discovered, is more than just having the talent and the ability to create art. With that talent comes a burning drive to create, a drive that must be satiated constantly. An artist, therefore, isn't just someone who can create art, an artist is someone who must create art. There's no other choice.
So, I became an artist, or more accurately, an illustrator. Some artists gain their skills by attending prestigious schools, or by serving an apprenticeship to some master illustrator. Others aren't so lucky. I went to Green River Community College on my G.I. bill, working part time to make ends meet. I followed that up with a 2-year commercial art school in Seattle called the Burnley School, which was in the process of being bought out by a national chain and subsequently became the Art Institute of Seattle. At Burnley, the curriculum focused mostly on the complex and unforgiving technicalities of producing camera-ready artwork and preparing it for the press. Right after I graduated in 1983, the whole commercial art world went digital, and everything I’d learned at Burnley became about as useful as an extra belly button.
So how did I learn to draw? I taught myself, by looking at comic books and practicing. My gods were Jim Steranko and Estaban Maroto. For several years I tried to break into mainstream comics, but it's an incredibly competitive field, and though I was certainly good enough, they just weren't hiring. I finally settled for doing my own independent comics, with a fraction of the distribution and barely enough profit to pay the printers and go out to dinner afterward.
It was pretty obvious I wasn't going to make my fortune drawing comics. But I was born an artist, with the obsessive need to create, so what else could I do? I taught myself to use the software the publishing industry used, and I got a job laying out magazines in Los Angeles, and I started doing magazine illustrations in my spare time.
I have now spent more than two decades doing magazine illustration as a sideline. For the most part, that's how illustration works. Companies rarely hire full-time illustrators, so it's nearly always done by freelancers, and freelancers have to pay the rent. While illustration is really my calling and what I'm best at by far, peripheral skills like layout, design and publishing continue to pay my rent. In recent years I’ve had an almost steady stream of freelance illustration commissions and comic book projects to fill my evenings and weekends. I’ve worked a lot in the RPG (role-playing game) field, which is personally rewarding, but always low budget.
I have always loved sci-fi, fantasy, and gothic horror illustration, and will always welcome any chance to work in these areas. I also can’t turn down comic book work, because I still love comics. But I am an illustrator for hire, and have been for more than twenty years. I can draw virtually anything, and pretty much have. I have posted mostly fantasy art on this site because it is still my forte, but I'm open to anything. Need art? I'm your man!
Sincerely,
Brian ("Lokarian")
