Interview with Digital Artist Andy Walsh

Andy Walsh is a 36 year old digital artist from United Kingdom. He creates images through various 2D and 3D methods. He admitted that he was the laziest when he was younger and was always choosing the shortcuts. It took him ten years to finally realize that the only way to get a good career is to do what you truly want to do, regardless of how long it takes and how much hard work is involved. Now, lets get to know him more in this interview and be inspired with his journey as an artist. Enjoy!

What is illustration for you?

Well, this is an interesting and timely question because I’ve largely seen myself as more of a concept artist but lately, as my influences shift, I’ve started to wonder whether I might be more of an illustrator or a mixture of both. So with that in mind, and I can only define this personally rather than objectively, I feel like illustration is a way to create a world, via a two dimensional image, that draws people in to feel something. To illicit a response and/or emotion.

What inspires your illustration?

Hmmm, lots of things. The dark corner of my imagination is usually the seed of the inspiration. Mix that with other art that inspires me and which I aspire towards and so then each illustration is more of a journey to that goal rather than a perfectly translated idea. But in general I like dark places. Places you sort of don’t want to go and at the same time are curious about. As a kid I watched a lot of 80s horror movies and it really got under my skin. For me 80s horror is a very real and vivid realm and I hope to gain enough artistic skill to express those mental images some day. I’m still working on it.

Most illustrators would say that illustration is story-telling. How do you tell your story in your artworks?

I have to admit that among all the checks one has to satisfy to create a complete illustration, it is hard to juggle all of the typical artistic aspects (lighting, form, composition, value) with story telling. I guess at this stage I will usually want to create a question or a general curiosity – why is that guy standing there and what is he thinking? What’s around that corner? So I think I create scenes that are in the middle of something happening but there’s no clear indication as to what. In that sense I generally want the viewer to contribute to the story in their own way.

Illustration, digital painting, graphic designing and animation. What is your main forte as an artist? Why?

I think I have my basis in digital painting (if we define that as using mixed media to create a digital image) and I’m starting to try to migrate more into illustration to add narrative. I come from a kind of 3d background which I then migrated to 3d + 2d but my actual painterly skills are lacking, so I’d like to migrate to just digital paint and brush work with photos added as an accent. I currently feel a little bound to the photographs.

Can you give us a visual of your work area? What are your tools of the trade?

I have a reasonably powerful PC and to my left I have a laptop so I can watch movies/videos while I work. A very old Wacom tablet that still does the job. I hope to get an adjustable height table some day because my body has been destroyed through years of sitting!