Antony was featured November/December 2004

1. When did you start illustrating (for clients professionally?)

While I've been drawing almost my entire life, I started to illustrate in 1996 when I did a character design for Nerds On-Site, Inc. I illustrated "the Nerd" on paper, inked it with a Pilot Fineliner, scanned it at the university computer lab, and then traced it for tweaking in Illustrator. Since 1999 I've been working purely using digital tools. My first magazine commission came in 2001.

2. Who are your biggest influences?

Al Hirschfeld, David Levine, Edward Sorel, Ralph Steadman, Roy Lichtenstein, Brian De Palma, Art Sansom, and many others.

3. What is your work process?

Typically I find my source material on the web using either Google or AltaVista images. For celebrities I try to find unofficial fan sites that typically house high resolution scans. Then I bring them into Illustrator and arrange them around in an uncalculated fashion. Then I "build" my brush in Illustrator, and start to sketch. This process of digital sketching is somewhat frustrating, but it does usually result in a combination of elements that convince me that something is working. Since my illustrations are usually black and white, I usually finish the job on the same Illustrator artboard. Occassionally I will "manually" manipulate the final image using the mouse, but for the drawing I msotly use my large Wacom pen tablet.

4. What would you name as the biggest strength of your illustrations?

To occassionally communicate a likeness using a minimum amount of line.

5. Do you have any formal education in art?

I took a semester of courses at OCAD where I learned quite a bit about drawing and also that I wasn't very good at sculpture. I also took one very good course at George Brown called, simply, Cartooning. In university I studied Economics and Philosophy.

6. Where do you see the future of illustration?

I see things quite cyclically. However, the inherent value of seeing meaningful lines and marks on a page ensures a future of creating those markings.

7. If you could offer one piece of advice to someone considering a career in illustration, what would it be?

Try and draw every day. It's fun, challenging, and satisfying. And after it's all said and done, it's nothing to get stressed over. It is, as my cartooning teacher told me, only a drawing.

8. Last words?

Drawing has more in common with seeing than it does playing the piano.
Of course there are drawing techniques but the most important illustration skill to develop is that of seeing.

 

 

 

Antony Hare

Website: ahpi.ca
Email:
Phone: 226-688-6082

Antony illustrates portraits and caricatures.


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