The PROJEKT

Artist Proof Interview with Artist: Marc Scheff

Global Location: Brooklyn, NY

Shop: http://www.zazzle.com/marcscheff

I love to draw and have from a very young age. I was illustrating books without authors’ permission from age 5. I left the art scene for a number of years, and pursued a career in computers. One blip on that timeline was the co-founding a t-shirt company that has since been purchased byt the custom-merch upstart, Zazzle. Since then, I have since parlayed my techie skills into my new career as a digital illustrator. I focus primarily on fantasy and sci-fi art, and I do enjoy long walks on the beach. Really.

Image: © Marc Scheff

AP: How long have you been making art for and what lead you to start?

MS: I have been making pictures for as long as I can remember. I took a big chunk off during and post-college years to pursue a career on computer science. I have since ditched that career and am now a full-time illustrator. My start was humble to say the least. My dad, a pediatrician, would take me to work some days. I would sit in his office and, with the pens and pads left behind by big pharma salesmen, I would draw all day until it was time to go home. I only took breaks to drink the chicken soup and hot chocolate from the vending machine. One machine with a single spout offered both items. I saw no issue with this at the time.

Image: © PK Cards

AP: Where do you currently live and work ? And how does this influence your work?

MS: I live and work in New York. New York is one of if not that publishing capital of the world. Since I have moved here, I have fallen in with the big bad illustration family that lives and breathes genre art. The folks I have met here were and are my biggest inspiration. I consider myself lucky to have friends who I can point to as influences. There are also a lot of people pushing the medium, whatever medium, to create new and innovative pieces with unique voices. I think this could be true anywhere, but it _is_ what New York does.

Image: © AEG

AP: Did you have formal training if so what? If your self taught can you tell us what you prefer about being a self taught artist vs having formal training?

MS: Frankly, I have a bit of both and I imagine most successful artists would say the same. I think that the people who made a career after art school are the people who were already doing it before getting their degree. I did go to art school, after years of secret doodling and becoming a software engineer. Art school formalized many of the lessons I was trying to learn on my own and pulled back the curtain on a possible career in illustration.

Since art school I have continued self-teaching through figure drawing workshops and professional workshops like the Illustration Master Class. While some of these events offer instruction, it is the drive and focus of each student that defines their progress and success. What I love about that is I get what I put in. The math there is simple and tangible. So when I am in those workshops, or just learning from what I see online, I can feel the progress _as_ I put in more time, stay up for a sleepless night, or skip the bar night with friends in order to paint. Those sacrifices always seem worth it when the payoff is a new tool in my paintbox.

Image: © Fantasy Flight Games

AP: Can you tell us about where you make your work is it in your house, a studio etc.. and how it effects your work?

MS: The freelance work that I do, I do from home. I share a big studio with my wife, an oil painter, and am surrounded by her big abstract canvases. Funny timing on this question: I have started using her work directly in mine. I take color or texture from her paintings and weave it into the early stages of my work and build my drawing and illustration on top of that.

Image: © Fantasy Flight Games

AP: What are some of you favorite design projects/ exhibitions you have worked on to date?

MS: At the risk of a “safe answer,” the truth is I love the work I’m doing now more than anything I’ve done before. I think every artist constantly finds and evolves his/her voice and at any given time is doing the thing that feels the most right at that time. If I’m taking the time to create work that is informed by my passion and lessons learned, then what I am making now will necessarily be my favorite thing. It’s either that or I just hate everything I’m making, which is usually a sign that I’m _about to_ start making stuff I really like.

AP: What is your medium of choice ?

MS: Digital. Photoshop and Painter. I use other tools depending on need. Recently I have used photography, oil paintings, and mouse tracking software in my work.

Image: © Marc Scheff

AP: What is the relationship between technique and content in your work?

MS: I think technique and content are linked, but not inextricably so, and more in one direction than the other. Content certainly influences technique. Take any slice of content, let’s say Magic Cards or young-adult fantasy novel book covers, or even concept art. For any type of content, there is usually a look that people are doing now. Yes, there is a range of artists, but from what I have seen, the techniques used in any content-slice tend to be similar. This is especially true now that communication and tool/technique-sharing is so easy over the internet.

Now concept artists are all learning from each other, in real time, and concept art techniques tend toward an industry standard. Same goes for genre book covers, magic cards, and so on. As for my own work, I’m constantly looking at the men and women who have walked this path ahead of me and I learn everything I can from them. In essence, I am looking at the illustrators who have painted the content I want to paint, and learning as much technique from them as possible. Content defines technique. Does it work in reverse? I think it can, and learning a new technique can open an artist up to new possibilities for content, and for new clients. I have attended workshops where I saw a painter who was doing something inspiring to me and that led me to find out what they do and who they do it for and that has certainly influenced the kind of content I want to create.

AP: In what direction would you like to see your work going over the next five years?

MS: I would like to create more work with a broader voice. This may sound a lot like “fine art,” but in the end I want to tell stories. There are two ways to tell stories: poetically and non-poetically (non-poetically being “literally”). If I do a cover of Little Red Riding Hood, I can paint a scene of the wolf jumping out of bed and little red in her hood, and all the details of the room and the basket falling, and so on. Instead, I could paint an image of a girl and a wolf, and through her expression, their body language, color choice, and selected symbols, I could tell a story of innocence lost and the power of female sexuality. Both are stories, and the latter is the kind I would choose to tell.

AP: What forth coming projects and or exhibitions do you have scheduled for 2011?

MS: Right now I have a day job as a concept artist at Gameloft. My projects there are not yet announced. In my freelance hours, I am working on a children’s book, an iPhone game, and a few new pieces that fall into the category of stories I like to tell. I post all this and more on my blog (http://www.marcscheff.com/sketchbook)

AP: Take us on a guided tour through a day in your life as an artist.

MS: When I was full time freelance, I would wake up, run with my dogs, exercise on some kind of home workout contraption, and get to work in my studio by 9am. If I was light on to-dos, I would work on a personal piece or find some new technique or tutorial online. If I was heavy on todos, I would just work on all of them. I like to work a little bit at a time on multiple projects. This way, if I’ve been going for hours on something, I can switch for a few hours to something else and stay fresh without losing steam.

Now that I work full time doing concept art, have a kid, two dogs, a wife and life, the day is significantly more packed. I get up every day, run with the dogs, work out (fast, 10 minutes at home), eat, and head to work. I love my job and I work with some really talented and inspiring people. When I get home, I have dog walking duty and kid-putting-to-bed duty. After all that, I can get in the studio and work on my freelance and personal work. This isn’t a lot of time, and I don’t sleep much. The reward, as I said before, is worth the hours of lost sleep. That reward is sometimes just getting to paint, and sometimes it’s that I made something I really like. In either case, I think that I need to create the art that I want to create, and so I will find the time and space to do that. If that is 5 minutes at 2am after a long day of work and home-work, I will take it and make every second count.

AP: Thank you so much for taking the time to answer our questions.