Two weeks ago, my interview with realism NRM (New Rock Mafia) artist Xan Tolbert was published and today a different kind of interview is up — ASK AN: Artist. It's a normal interview but, instead of me dreaming up the questions, all of them were submitted by friends of The Cheetah Press. This is the first in a series I hope becomes common on our site - ASK AN: ___, the blank being the profession of whoever I'm lucky enough to interview.
1) If you could change your medium, what would you change it to?
Definitely acrylic paint. If I was better at character design and less into realism that would totally be my thing.
2) What is the hardest part about making art?
Overall? Art block. It takes me so long to work on a piece because a lot of the time it feels forced. Besides that it's getting frustrated with replicating little details.
3) Do you plan on selling more XT shirts in the future?
Yes!! Probably toward the end of the year.
5) What's your favorite part about shows?
I love love being able to watch all the little things that go on on stage that make the music. I like looking for details in a lot of things and shows are no different. I like watching people play, I like seeing how everyone communicates, I like seeing how into it everyone is. If I've learned a song on my own that I'm seeing played live I like to compare my technique to theirs. I could go on and on.
6) Pros/cons about being an traditional artist?
Pros:
- "It looks just like me!!"
- Clothes, I love drawing wrinkles
- Facial expressions are kind of in between, the TINIEST thing can make someone look angry when they're excited, but they're fun to nail
- Hands
Cons:
- Mouths and feet
- Being constantly worried that it looks NOTHING like the person I'm drawing
- Actually practicing
7) Has quarantine affected your art in any way?
Absolutely. I feel like I've put a lot more pressure on myself to get pieces done and out there just because I have more time, but then I get burnt out so easily and don't wanna work on anything at all. I'm still trying to find that happy medium.
8) What makes you "love" a song? What's the main factor? What's your criteria for awesome music?
This is a long one. I feel like there's a lot that could go into this. I've been doing music in some way for the past 12 years (choir and voice lessons mainly) so things really start to stick, things become predictable (which I find most in pop music). I listen to the radio and hear a new song and can guess exactly where it's gonna go, what's gonna happen next, lyrically and musically, it gets boring.
I like not knowing what comes next, being completely caught off guard. Like when I have to pause the song and say "what the fuck." (See Paralysis, bernard trigger, anything by alt-J).
I guess this is also why I think silence in music is just as important as sound. Sudden stops can be more effective than constant noise.
I like bridges that are a contrast from the rest of the song, I like lyric patterns that aren't necessarily structured (chorus, verse, chorus, verse).
Lyrically, I like things that stick with me for whatever reason it may be.
"I committed the crime around 10:15" from Now by Joywave.
"Ran down my brain stem and out my fingers" from Acid Rain by Robert DeLong.
I like lyrics that make me go back after the first listen and think "holy shit, does that mean what I think it means?"
I could go on and on about the music theory shit that makes up the sound I like in a song but I won't because I have no idea what I'm talking about.
9) Which piece of yours is your favorite? Do you have a favorite?
For a while now I've been saying that it's that piece of cleopatrick I did a while ago but I think recently it's been the one I did of Luke Gruntz crowd surfing for his birthday. It's the only one I've hung up on my wall.
10) What impact do you want your art to have?
I'm not entirely sure. I hope at least that I can inspire SOMEONE to do art themselves. In broader terms though I really love how excited people get whenever I draw them; it's always so heartwarming that something I've created myself can make someone else so happy.
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