Interview With The Amazing Jill Thompson!!

Guess what? As a follow-up to my review of “Animal Rites”, I’m sharing an interview with Watercolor Artist Jill Thompson!

I asked her about a number of things (I forgot to ask her what her favorite color is. Darn...) including her creative process, the future of Beasts of Burden, and her inspiration.

Such an awesome artist HAS to draw inspiration from somewhere, right? When I asked Jill about where it all comes from, she replied:

“My creative process is…comes from all over the place…as far as where I get my ideas from I don’t know. They just kinda pop up out of thin air sometimes.”

Another thing I like that she talked about was her motivation for creating art and her mindset.

“If I do something to amuse myself, other people really like it. But if I really try and force it, and fit it into a box of like “What will other people like?” the it’s flat and boring and nothing really comes of it. But if I go “You know…what’s going to make ME happy? Then it usually makes other people happy, too”.

Of course, Miss Jill’s newest and biggest fan wants to know what’s next.

“Will there be another book as far as collection-wise goes?”

“I’m hoping that Dark Horse will want us to do more issues of ‘Beasts of Burden’. We’re doing one Hellboy/Beasts of Burden crossover, which actually affects both worlds a little bit. You know, it’s not one of these one-offs where you know, they kind of meet up and then it’s like they never existed. It will definitely affect the dog’s world.”

“When will that be available??”

“Um…when will that one be available? I just got the script and printed it out the day I came to this convention. So it’s supposed to be out by the end of the year. I heard that they had it solicited for October. I don’t know if I’m going to be able to get it done in time for it to be printed in October cause it’s very involved, you know. There’s a lot of characters, a lot of things happening. And it’s painted. You know…a painted book. It takes a while to do that work.”

“What advice do you have for Watercolor, um, how do you make everything work?..Is there specific advice?”

“Um…how do I make everything work in Watercolor? Um…it is a lot of practice. It was something I just took to as far as a medium. I went to Art School and tried all of the mediums they offered but it wasn’t…you know…while I could do everything pretty competently, Watercolor just came really easily to me. Um…and I’d never picked it up before I went to school. The advice I would give is I guess (or yes?) it certainly is a lot of practice but when you start out, don’t try and go full color right away. I mean…we were not ALLOWED to go full color. We had to work for weeks and weeks uh…in just one color. You know…one color wash because you’re learning how to paint and you’re learning how to do values and you’re learning how to move your medium around and composition is the most important thing to that process.”

A HUGE thank you to Ms. Jill Thompson. I know you were really busy at the convention and I appreciate that you took time out to talk to me. ILOVEYOU!!!

You can find this and other comic book reviews at www.kryptodies.com where I post daily!

Interview With Brooke Shaden!

Lucky me!! I got the pleasure of asking Miss Brooke Shaden a few questions! She's such an amazing artist with an awesome vision. You can find more about her and view her photography here! On to the interview! I know you're tired of reading me yack! :)

What made you decide to initially get involved with Photography? What did you do to practice/progress?

I began photography the same month that I graduated from film school. I had gone to Temple University to study English and Film, both of which I have degrees in, and I thought that would satisfy me. However, after writing and directing a short film that last semester of school, I had the nagging feeling that filmmaking was too long of a process for my taste. So I picked up my camera when I had some down time and began creating images. I had seen flickr and was excited to see all of the self portraiture and conceptual imagery. To practice I started creating self portraits. I thought long and hard about what I wanted my photography to be like. I always had a very particular style so it wasn't hard to carry that over into a new medium.

Where do you get your inspiration from? What inspires you the most? What do you draw from?

The most common occurrence is that I have a story in my mind that I want to tell. I'm full of them. I always have some sort of concept to pull from that fascinates me. I want to bring light to a lot of different scenarios. I also love the pre-raphaelite painters. The way that they use the female form is beautiful, and I like the colors and whimsical nature of it.

What do you enjoy most about your art?

I enjoy that all of my art has an intent. I have never created something without having a reason behind it. I love that they are all exploring new, unusual worlds which I think is enhanced by the square crop and painterly aesthetic.

What suggestions do you have for someone who wants to pursue photo manipulation?

I would say that you shouldn't rely heavily on tutorials because teaching yourself and practicing like that will help you tremendously in finding your own style. If you remember that just about anything is possible with editing programs these days, it helps give that boost of confidence that if you look long enough you fill find a way to do something. Also, for most people a good manipulated image is a seamless image where the "how" of the image is not first on the list of questions, but instead the "why" and "what does it mean". So don't settle for an image that doesn't look right to you. If it doesn't seem right to you, it won't seem right to other people.

What's your ultimate goal for your career?

I very simply want to create works that will make people think and that will challenge the way we see life. I want to touch people and make them forget about our world and instead step into the worlds that I am creating. Practically, I want to continue exhibiting my work, creating dialogues with people, and one day I'd like to own a gallery of my own.


Thank you SO much, Miss Brooke! I wish you so much success that you don't know what to do with it! :)