Tomer Hanuka 1. As a student, were you confident in your goal to become an illustrator? Were there ever any doubts you wouldn't make it? I really wanted to do this for a living. I sent samples to magazines every semester starting my freshman year. that lead to a huge collection of rejection letters. I only got work after graduating but it was good to try early. half of the battle is being the one that wants it the most. 2. Who were the artists that influenced you the most? Lorenzo Mattotti seems to be the one I always go back to. master of color and composition. also the Japanese poster designer Tadanori Yoko for his untraditional and confrontational arrangements. 3. What were the most difficult aspects of illustration for you in school, after school at the beginning of your career, and now? in school: finding my 'voice'-- deciding the look and feel of how I want my art to be. focusing on one approach that would be flexible for any assignment and also reflect something in me that I can live peacefully with. I didn't find it though during school. 4. When you get a commission for a new piece, what is your process from start to finish? Brainstorming, Thumbnails, Comps, etc. read the text. think up ideas. do 20 stamp size thumbnails, then choosing the best three. do three bigger drawings based on the thumbs, still sketches but more realized, maybe research some reference and work from that too. send the sketches to the client. get one approved, hopefully the one I liked best, but the rule is that you always get the one you hate. transfer the sketch onto a bristol paper, usually 200% of final size. ink with a brush (W&N series 7, triple zero). scan the line art and color in photoshop. 5. What was your first acting job as an illustrator? I got the content page of Rolling Stone Magazine. I couldn't believe it. half a page in the front of the magazine. back then I was still painting with acrylics. the artist was a pre Islam Cat Stevens. 6. Did you ever have any jobs other than illustration jobs after you left school? yes. it was during the dot com boom. I worked for about six months doing cartoon graphics for a web company. I hated the day job structure and was happy to be fired one morning when they run out of cash. 7. What did you do to establish the contacts you have now in the field of illustration? I never missed a deadline and try to be polite and professional. there is a misconception that art directors are the enemy, or some extension of the 'man'. I find this largely unfounded, these are creative people who need to negotiate with a editors and publishers to get your vision across. I try to make their job easier, as they do mine. 8. How much research do you do for each commission? For example, I noticed you illustrated scenes from "Life of Pi" and Stephen King's "Cell," did you read those books? yes. I always read the text. that's a must. I also collect photo references that will inform and help flesh out the details. sometime I will research a specific esthetic that could be a good fit for the project, and some elements can be borrowed from it. basically any excuse to buy more art books. 9. At what point in your life or career as an artist did you finally establish your personal style? about six months after I graduated. that said, it has changed since, but not in a way that I needed a new name. it's a gradual change. 10. It looks as though you use a lot of digital painting for your works. is there a difference in skill from traditional painting to digital? sure. but it's just a tool. I try to think of the end result I am after and then use the tools I have to get there. I didn't own a computer during school. but my main interest was always color choices, not so much how the color was laid out. so for me computer was a good way to work fast, keep fussing with the choices, and not worry about the physical properties of the paper and paint. 11. About how many hours do you put into one illustration? between 2 to 5 days. 12. What do you do when you are in an artist's block? I don't have that luxury. I'm always working on something. when there is a deadline the brian find ways to produce ideas. to quote Chuck Close, inspiration is for amateurs. 13. How much freedom do your directors give you when illustrating a commissioned piece? it depends on the client, but i think most art directors 'cast' illustrators to fit their projects. so when they come to me they know what it's going to feel like sort of. they expect me to do 'my thing' and that's the playing field I get. 14. Who or what has influenced your style? growing up in Israel. having a talented twin brother. as a boy reading Marvel comics in a country where the concept of 'hero' has other connotations. later in my youth discovering European comics and trying to absorb that esthetic. 15. What do you like best about being a illustrator? And are there things you don’t like about your job? the best thing is stepping outside of your comfort zone and discovering things you would have never discovered if you where on your own. the worst thing is that sometimes you have to step outside of your comfort zone and discover things you wouldn't have if you where on your own.
About Color (from IdN Magazine) IdN: What does color mean to you personally? color evokes emotion and mood specifically when tied to a narrative. It is not a branding move. I try to create images that work for me. It's an evolving process, I do not work with a formula. Or rather when I know exactly what it would look like before I begin I take a different route. Color is weakest when predictable. To meet a viewer's expectation perfectly is to render a color choice invisible. Our responsibility is to foresee expectations and work along/against them, and hopefully create an experience that is exotic and unfamiliar and yet completely accessible. Relativity. I find that color is extremely relative. It's assumed absolute quality drastically changes in relation to the space it inhibits, the colors around it, it's proximity to the center/edges, the objects it renders and so on. In that sense color can only be examined in it's specific environment. Therefor, for example, no two 100% magentas look similar if placed in different environments. I aim, through color, to establish an emotional space where the image exists. Color is the unconscious mind of an image. The line work describes the tangible qualities of objects, figures and environments. The color gives them weight and meaning. It creates a complex system of hierarchies and relationships between these objects and through that breath life into a flat blue print. I find it irrelevant to color-in every object with it's pure ideal color, and would rather make a few big decisions that express an internal quality. no. I react to the image, and follow the ideas that are created in the space that it occupies. I try hard not to approach a project with a set pallet and force it on a drawing-- that would be a design exercise-- and I'm not interested in that.
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