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Interview with Jon Hodgson
Featured Artist for March 2005
Interviewed by Patrick Keith
Tell us about yourself, where you're from, your background? How did you come to settle in Scotland?
I'm 30 years old, I was born in England in the county of Wiltshire. I grew up on a small holding amongst ducks and chickens and ponies. I still have an enduring love of cider.
I've sinced lived in a lot of different parts of the UK and don't really consider myself "from anywhere" these days.
I've just moved out of Edinburgh to the mighty cultural metropolis of Falkirk, which probably no one outside of the UK has heard of. I've moved a lot in the last few years, not always in the happiest of circumstances, but hopefully I'm just starting to put down some roots here in Scotland. It's a beautiful place to live. The countryside is a total inspiration. The job means that I can work anywhere that there's a phone line - though I panicked when I first arrived in Edinburgh to find there was no phone line in the new flat, and it would take 2 weeks to be installed! My clients were very understanding.
(Editor's note: Falkirk was featured in the film Braveheart.)
You have formal training as a Fine Artist specializing in abstract painting. How did that lead to working in fantasy illustration? Describe the path from school to professional artist.
Yeah, art wise I trained as a "fine" artist. I love that kind of work, but didn't really love the gallery culture so much. So on graduating I moved sideways into props making. I'd be lying if I said it wasn't for the money, but the challenge of making a living creatively was always a big part of my drive too. I managed a workshop for a couple of years making prop weapons, which was good fun, and taught me a lot about working creatively to deadlines and budgets. Along the way I've worked on props for TV, and story boarded the kids TV show Bob the Builder for a while.
Fantasy-wise it's the same old story really - I played D&D as a kid, always loved Tolkein, Moorcock and Peake. I loved drawing too, so it was unavoidable in many ways. My Fine Art training attempted to bash craftsmanship out of me, and I must admit, in some ways, I can be flippant about craft. But ultimately I have an inbuilt burning desire to draw. And tutors trying to stop me drawing, forcing me to look at other things, and find ways to sneak drawing into abstract work was wholly a good experience to under go. To find out about good drawing, (or materials handling generally,) without the distractions of the subject or content, a very, very valuable thing. I think I identified a lot about what it is I love to do whilst studying fine art, and I found I enjoyed "painting" more than I enjoyed "painting things", if that makes any sense. I don't care what I paint in many ways, so long as I can paint. It's not painting orcs or dragons I love first and foremost - its painting. Whilst I had some difficult times at art college I soundly recommend it as character building, and there's a lot to learn if you can swallow your youthful arrogance about knowing best!
You have an impressive list of clients you have provided art for. How did your first art commission come about?
Why thank you! I have a few resume points I'm proud of, but I really feel like I'm just beginning to work seriously after three years full time. Working for Games Workshop is an enormous privilege as I played their games as a kid. It's just the best feeling to hopefully be able to inspire another generation with the same kind of imagery that so inspired me as a nipper.
My first illustration commissions came simultaneously, and really highlight how those industries work. One was by word of mouth, friends of friends were producing the role playing game Dark Continent. I was a local artist working at that time in the games shop they were associated with. Fell into that one really. The second one was producing card art for AEG's Warlord card game. That one came about by showing work at a convention. A business card with an art sample on it made it into the hands of the AEG art director. He asked to see more work, and they tentatively hired me. That was four or five years ago, and AEG and specifically the AD Jim, are still amongst my favourite clients. I have a lot of loyalty to them for giving me a chance. At this point I really need to take the opportunity to say that once, not so long ago, Jim who is renowned for being a hard ass with his artists, said I did a good painting. He'll deny it, but I want the world to know the facts.
Most of the work that you've posted at Epilogue is digital. What do like about working digitally as opposed to other mediums?
Speed, pure and simple. Colour control is a big bonus too. When I painted with acrylics I used to have a brush in one hand and a hair drier in the other. I have no patience whatsoever and the stuff changes colour as it dries. How useless is that?!?!?. I work in a frenzy, which seems to have stood me in good stead in the various industries I've worked in. I really should slow down and improve the quality, which hopefully I have done over the last year. Digital is ideal for me. I've always mixed media with no regard for "the done thing", and I always destroyed paper through overwork. Digital is infinitely reworkable, and I love that. I love its disposability, and the fact that when its printed that becomes the original physical work. Its not a reproduction of another physical thing - that print run is the original object.
You participate regularly at the RPG.net message forums where this topic crops up from time to time. As far as game art or publishing in general, do you feel traditional media is on the way out?
RPGnet? I love/hate the place. I pretty much grew up there as a games illustrator.
I haven't contributed to a discussion about the relative merits of digital media for a long time, so listen up, because I won't be doing it again!(laughs) I don't have a very popular opinion. Digital media is a done deal. Paint is expensive and time consuming, inflexible by comparision and on its way out in many commercial arenas. Sorry folks, but I don't beleive that is really open for debate anymore in the commercial world.
I strongly believe though that there will always be venues for real paint, and that there will be traditional artists championing its cause. I certainly learnt my craft with real paint, and I don't believe there is a substitute. To make paintings digitally you have to be able to make paintings full stop. And the best way to do that is to get your hands (and face, and clothes) dirty. There's a lot of folks out there who need to switch off the durned PC and go and grab a pencil and learn to draw before they touch Photoshop again.
But once you do have some ability, and if you are working for reproduction then digital media kicks ass. It's extremely versatile, and requires no scanning department. Correcting areas of a work is seamless and very quick with digital media. In many ways all commercial work is a compromise, and whilst some people dislike digital media (with good reason on occasion) I think its supremacy as part of that compromise is non-negotiable.
I'm very wary of people that try to separate digital and traditional techniques. But they are yin and yang: two parts of a whole. They aren't actually opposites to my mind. I definitely still use a pencil when a pencil is the right tool for the job. Paint that takes 2 weeks to dry, makes you die over the course of your career, can be a nightmare to rework, has to be sent everywhere in an armoured FedEx package and painstakingly photographed/scanned is increasingly, to my mind, not the right tool for the job in an increasingly depressed economic situation.
This is particularly true in game art where the money is pretty low and deadlines are tight. It would be nice to make traditional pieces for every job, but there just isn't the luxury of the time or the money available.
Can you describe your creative process - how you come up with ideas for a new painting and how you take those ideas and create a finished piece of art?
Wow, I wish I had more to say in a succinct, useful way here really. I do use a lot of different methods. Some pieces pop into my head whole on reading the brief. That's nice because I'm lazy. Others have to be hammered out over the course of many, many thumbnails. I actually hate that phase of things. It's hard work, and it hurts my head. Sometimes you read a brief and it feels totally impossible to show what you've been asked. I think you find it grows easier manipulating the camera in your head, and moving the different elements around as you gain experience, but it's still the biggest challenge to me when it doesn't come easy.
Then I'll take the thumbnail and make a loose sketch. I try to give myself as much room as I possibly can to change things, whilst keeping the client happy that they have some clue about what the heck I'm planning. With some art directors that know me well I can get away with more in terms of looseness. I'll scan the sketch and overlay it in Photoshop on a texture I've made with glue and plaster and grit and paint and anything else I find. That's key to my way of thinking. All fantasy work has to have one foot in reality to be convincing I believe. And all digital work has to have some grounding in real materials. Then I'll add in some tone in Painter just to make my forms more solid. Sometimes I'll rearranging things in Photoshop if I feel like it. It's hard to explain my process beyond this point in any detail. I work all over the canvas at once. I'm not one of those painters that finishes a hand, and then moves on to another area. I work the whole thing. I generally work dark to light. It just builds up - I always work with a slightly too large brush. That's very important so you don't get hooked up in useless details too soon, and then find you want to change something down the line. My lighting will all be worked out in my head before I start, as will my colours for the most part.
Painting to me is all about balance. You name an aspect of a painting and it has to be balanced by another part, or purposefully imbalanced. Warm colours need a bit of cool to pop them. Tight brush work needs some looser areas to let it breathe and have focus. Lots of detail needs to be balanced by strong, big shapes. A few years ago I started reading Zen texts. That's all about painting, right there. Contradiction and balance.
Tell us about some of your favorite artists and influences.
Rembrandt, Carravaggio, Valasquez, Goya. Those dudes do it all really. Scheile, Klimt.
Sometimes I'm staggered by fantasy artists that don't look outside of 60s fantasy art or worse, 80s fantasy art. Talking of the 60s, Frazetta is a very powerful influnece on a lot of us. His work is painterly, and that's important to painters.
More contemporary stuff, I love Phil Hale, and I'd like to paint like that when I grow up. Kev Llewellyn makes trying to draw pointless. He has it covered. Jon Foster is a badass too. A lot of the Conceptart.org guys are really switching me on at the moment and man, they can really paint.
Simon Bizley was a big influence when I started painting, as was Dave McKean. In many ways I am a product of those two influences first and foremost. (like about a billion other artists my age...)
Kev Walker's work astounds me on a regular basis. There's almost a school of illustrators coming out of Leeds, Yorkshire, UK where I used to live and was lucky enough to meet a lot of those guys - Kev Walker, Wayne Reynolds, Ralph Horsley, Anne Stokes. All very different artists, but living roughly in one place in the UK. Must be something in the water there.
In terms of more fine art I love Jasper Johns, and have done forever. Very intelligent work whilst also still being about painting. Willem De Kooning makes awesome paintings. The scope of the guy's work is immense. Frank Stella's stuff really turns me on too, as does Anselm Kiefer's.
Are there any other Epilogue artists whose work you admire?
No. You all suck. Give up now.
I crack me up. Of course. Too many to mention. In no particular order - Cos Kionotis, Mattias Snygg, Sam Araya, Eric Lofgren,JP Targette, Socar Myles, oh hell, so many... Storn Cook is a total gent. April Lee is always worth listening to. Those artists are workhorses, who I respect as much for their careers as their ability, if that makes sense. Keeping an illustration career going long term takes just as much skill as the art itself. There are giants here now too - Jeff Easley - damn, you know that guy picked my career for me with the stuff he did in the red box D&D set. What can you say? There's some up and coming guys who I think are awesome; their work and their attitudes are very fresh, and I expect they will do very well - Jeremy McHugh, Torstein Norstrand. Too many people to mention really.
I like surfing the random image button here too. There's a lot to be learned from other people's ways of approaching things. Its funny really - I see so many of us (particularly on the Epilogue forums) struggling for individualism, and to separate ourselves from others. Maybe we could be a bit less self conscious about that. You can neither excise all outside influences nor can we be anyone but ourselves.
What advice would you give to new artists who are just beginning to develop their talents?
Work hard. Don't kid yourself. Don't do less than your best - it will limit your career. Always aim to swim with the big fish. Surround yourself with people who are doing the job you want if at all possible, whether that's in person or on-line. Don't ever be the best artist in your social circle. That's a curse. Be the worst - get to know people who kick your ass art wise. Take adulation from non artists with a smile and then forget it. Take honest crit from artists on the chin. It hurts but it's good for you. If you chose to ignore a crit, fair enough, but don't forget it. I regularly remember stuff from ten years ago, and suddenly the penny drops. I'm very glad of that. Often we're not ready for the advice we get, so store it away somewhere safe for later use. Get knocked down nine times, get up ten times. None of us are as good at art as we think we are. As you can tell by reading this and looking at my gallery. (laughs)
I'm very serious and opinionated about a lot of this stuff, but I think it's very important to realize that there is more than one artistic truth - and use that information on yourself as much as on others. It's not merely a defense for your own pigheadedness - it's a challenge to it.
What do you think the most important thing is for an artist to learn, technically speaking?
Learn to see. It's all there right in front of your eyes. Learn to see it, and then copy it onto your canvas. Drawing from life is the best way to train your eyes. Do it every day. Learn how much your brain turns what you see into shortcuts and symbols. Switch your brain off when you look, so that you can actually see.
What do you do when you're not working on art? Got any interesting hobbies?
I find hobbies are essential to my work. I need to relax and get away from art regularly or it eats my brain. I am an avid rock climber. You can't think about your current painting whilst you're hanging off a rock 30 foot in the air. Focuses the mind, and gives it a rest from colour and composition. Same goes for hill walking in Scotland. It's a committed and potentially dangerous activity. If you read the map wrong, or don't have the right equipment you can die. I like that. Painting on the whole doesn't really matter. It's very serious to me, of course, but in the wider scheme of things it's not so important. That in itself is part of its importance I guess. The fact we all chose to look at art gives it it's power. But I also need some real serious staring-death-in-the-face action once in a while.
If you could work with absolutely anyone (artists, companies, writers--anyone at all) on a project, who would it be?
Hmmmm. So many. In terms of sheer flights of fantasy, Rembrandt. I would like him to take apart what I do and rebuilt my practice totally. In real terms...I want to do Magic cards as a long term ambition.
And, it wouldn't be an Epilogue interview if we didn't ask, what cartoons did you watch as a kid?
Mr Benn. That's some good UK stuff for you right there. Mr. Benn rocked my world.
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