20 Questions (Unabridged) with 3×3 Magazine
3×3 has a warm place in my heart and it was an honor to be asked by publisher Charles Hively to be included in the final print edition of 3×3 Magazine featuring work from Aad Goudappel, Harry Campbell, David Suter, Beppe Giacobbe, Jim Tsinganos, John Kraus, Anthony Tremmaglia, John Reinfurt, Paul Garland, and the back page by Leo Espinosa.
Here is the unabridged version for the 20 questions spotlight section.
Thanks again to 3×3 Magazine.
Twenty Questions
1) Favorite color? Probably orange since I wear it all the time
2) What do you listen to while working? WEFUNK radio and KEXP radio. If only my name was Professor Groove.
3) Person who had the most influence on you? Illustrator/Painter Salvador Bru. Salvador was this amazing older illustrator from Barcelona who could have been the template for The Most Interesting Man in the World. He took me under his wing my first year as an illustrator and we painted together. He had this effortless and fearless approach to painting without concern for mistakes. He taught me how to make the process fun.
4) Favorite medium and surface? Wacom Intuos 4 Tablet with Mac Pro and 23inch Cinema Display monitor. Adobe Photoshop. Probably going to have to get a 27” inch iMac any day now.
5) Who is your favorite artist? Jim Flora
6) How do you start your day? Read news and favorite aggregate sites for an hour. Like to know what’s going on in the world before working.
7) Favorite art director or designer? Most of my regular art directors are great because they are smart. Tim Kerr at Golf World has an unfair advantage because he takes me golfing.
8) If you weren’t an artist/illustrator what would you be doing? Maybe something with a macro approach related to investing. Having said that, I’m in a trade at the moment that makes me grateful illustrator is my real job.
9) Last book read? “I Want My Hat Back” Jon Klassen. What a flawless children’s book. I’m insanely jealous.
10) Favorite movie of all time? “ Blade Runner” by Ridley Scott. Got my first job at a design studio in the 80’s because the AD loved “Blade Runner” too.
11) What do you collect? Not really a collector person but there’s a few robot and vinyl toys spread around the workspace. They didn’t get there by themselves.
12) What do you do with your free time? Tennis, poker, golf, and movies. One friend says I play all the gentleman sports.
13) What do you do when you’re stuck on an assignment? Play tennis, golf, poker, or go to the movies.
14) Favorite vacation spot? Japan. One winter, Mrs Yang and I were at the base of Fuji Mountain in an outdoor hot bath with snow falling. It was magical.
15) Who makes you laugh? Vin Diesel in any “Fast and Furious” movie. Also Ricky Gervais.
16) Name your favorite guilty pleasure. Black and White milkshake.
17) What is your most treasured possession? My dad’s runner up medal from the US Nationals badminton tournament 1978.
18) Name something that you think is overrated. “The English Patient” (movie). What an unbearable piece of crap.
19) What time of day are you most productive? Morning. Some of my best illustrations have also happened on Sunday evenings.
20) Words to live by? To succeed you have to love what you do. Otherwise, you won’t endure the BS you encounter to get where you need.
Decisions, decisions
It seems every 5 years I get an itch and start playing around with my approach. I’m someone who normally makes gradual changes which is hard to notice until you see samples of work over a span of years. The changes are merely ideas my work could have taken if choosing another path. Lately layering of transparent colors have been coming into play and have already made its way into recent assignments. I never try to use one trick, it depends which approach is appropriate for the idea.
One friend who judged the Society of Illustrators show a couple of years ago said she would throw up if she saw another squid or octopus image. Naturally I decided to to an octopus image.
No wonder so many illustrators do octopus images. They are fun.
The person who created layers in Photoshop should win the Nobel Prize for something. They are great for saving alternative ideas:
Obviously trying to channel my inner Jim Flora.
Run turkey run
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year. It does not have the pressure of Christmas but it has a feast with family or friends, my favorite pies and football. As a child, “BC” by John Hart was one of my favorite strips. Whenever Thanksgiving rolled around he would do a hilarious series of strips with cavemen fruitlessly chasing a turkey. This was comic gold in the Yang household. These illustrations are an homage to my favorite turkey.
Linea Curve (Spain)
A pleasant surprise came in the mail this weekend. Linea Curve, which is a visual magazine from Spain, had a nice feature with my work. It was also great to see my friend, Yuko Shimizu in the same issue. Much thanks to editor Francisco Carrasco for writing the feature and the kind words.
Antigravity
Growing up in the 60’s with a father who was a scientist is probably why I’m a space nut. In grade school I could tell you all the launches and astronauts. Watching “Gravity” recently brought back a lot of those memories. Alfonso Cuarón’s movie visually reminded me of Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey” in 3D. This illustration was created after seeing “Gravity” and as usually happens when I work, it bears little resemblance to the movie. Sandra Bullock fans need not worry. She only has two eye in the film.
He said she said
When there is time between projects I will ocassionally go into the “lab” and play around with colors and textures for future projects. Lately I’ve been wanting to play around more with characters so decided to do two pieces titled, “femmes” and “hommes”. The most important lesson learned is women really are different from men.
Falling
I’m starting to come around to the idea it’s nice having different seasons. My perfect idea of weather used to be eternal spring into early summer but now the idea seems monotonous. Fall in the Northeast is beautiful and who doesn’t like jumping into a giant pile of leaves?
