Artist Proof: Adil ‘The Scumbag’ Muschelewicz is an illustrator who loves neon colors and the 80s. He is currently operating out of Greenville, South Carolina and he currently has a line of shirts at Hot Topic.

AP: What inspires your art?

Adil Muschelewicz: It really depends on whats going on around me. I can be watching an old 80s movie and see a poster or something within the film that inspires me. I could also just be sitting down thinking about things and I’ll sketch some ideas up, the world is at my fingertips for inspiration.

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

The Scumbag: Technique is pretty much where my guns are at. I draw with a fine point sharpie and nothing else. Content is determined by the plan in my head. I like to draw things separately and then use photoshop or something to piece together the finished product. sometimes it works out and other times i just redraw it after i got a more defined idea as to what i’m going for.

AP: Describe your first experience of making art and how it affected your life’s journey

The Scumbag: I was about 4 years old at pre-school. Some kid drew Michelangelo from the Ninja Turtles, and I was blown away. I tried so hard to draw a ninja turtle, but soon realized I couldn’t draw for shit. I played around with a pencil and paper just trying to draw things i had seen at school, and i drew this girl. I remember her because she was older than me by quite some age difference, but I didn’t care. I was so suprised that the girl actually looked like who i intended to draw, then i wanted to change something, and I accidentally screwed up the entire picture… i was pissed and never gave that girl that picture becuase no matter how hard I tried, I never got it quite right….   in a way my art is like me trying to impress that girl, but kicking myself because i never was able to… so I guess this is how I make up for it. haha.

AP: Describe your most recent experience of making art.

The Scumbag: Just finished up a piece for a local band, just the usual slime, zombies, gore etc.

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

The Scumbag: Some days when I dont have anything to do, I play around with ideas I wanted to explore and post the image on Emptees or somewhere to see if other people dig the ideas. Other days I’ll get commissioned to draw something specific for someone which puts me into beast mode where I don’t stop till I’m finished. After that its wait and wait and wait for the client to pay up. I usually finish before a client expects it to be completed which is good because I can make last minute changes if need be. The worst times are when a client doesn’t pay after wasting my time.

AP: What is the best way to go about commissioning you for a project?

The Scumbag: Best thing to do is email me amideis@gmail.com

Just pitch the idea whatever you have in mind, or let me know if i need to take full creative control. Come up with a budget pricerange beforehand and dont expect too much when there is a low budget. Most prices go anywhere from 250 usd to 2000 depending on detail, colors, etc. or what i’m being commissioned to DO… (myspace pages, tshirts, cd booklets, etc.) just really varies. once the project is set, we jump from there, discuss printers if its a shirt design, discuss what all your going to need, pop out the ideas and you get me on the same page as you, from there i start working up ideas, and just go with what i feel you’ll like. most of the time a payment of half is given up front, but sometimes i can work around that… but you just wont get anything useful till something is going through. example of a LOW resolution image or sketch is all you’ll see to know that I’m on board, but don’t expect a high res pdf of the image if you didn’t pay the up front half. Once all the kinks are wired out, it can take anywhere from a few hours to a week for an image to be processed (sometimes more depending on my workload.)

Check out Adil ‘The Scumbag’ Muschelewicz’s Artsprojekt Store here