ImagineFx_-_December_2019

(Jacob Rumans) #1

Interview


“Before, there was tons of going
back and forth,” says Andrew. “Don’t
get me wrong. There are still several
jobs now that I have to go back and
forth with tons of revision. But most of
my clients give me full creativity.
“I like the balance in my work.
I know that, doing personal work,
I answer to nobody and get no
feedback at all. So it’s nice for me to
be art-directed from time to time,
because I would do stuff I normally
wouldn’t do on my own.”


New images pop into Andrew’s
mind all the time, seemingly from
nowhere. These ideas tend to come
when he’s doing mundane things:
driving, sitting on a plane, cleaning the
house. The difficult thing is figuring
out how get the image out of his head
and on to the canvas.
He starts with a very small version.
He then shoots photographs that will
help him build the image, or looks for
relevant pictures in his reference
library. He likes the finished piece to

I know that, doing personal


work, I answer to nobody and


get no feedback at all


be painted half from reference and half
from imagination.
“I find that when I do all
imagination, I tend to repeat myself
and when I do all reference it becomes
kind of stiff. Having a 50/50 blend is
the perfect look I’m going for. The hard
part is trying to translate that image in
my head to the canvas. There are times
when it does look better in my head,
but the ultimate goal is for it to come
out exactly how I picture it.”

VAMPIRE BAT
Andrew still lives in Los Angeles and
has a studio in the south of the city. He
works up to 12 hours a day. He feels
fortunate to have the time and space to
do what he loves, but being alone all
the time can get a bit depressing. So he
makes an effort to regularly go out to
eat, just to be around other people for a
while. It can’t help that he also keeps
the hours of a vampire bat.

IN MY SHOES
“Inspired by all the refugees. Being a
refugee myself, this piece hits home for
me. Nobody should make assumptions
about someone when they don’t know the
struggles being in someone else’s shoes.”

COMING HOME
“Inspired by going to
your childhood
neighbourhood and
seeing the changes
after being gone a
decade. I saw the
gentrification and all
of my friends had
moved east.”
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