Interview with John Kearney
Q. What difficulties have you encountered while working with “The Fallen” image and how you overcome those obstacles?
I know it sounds bizarre but I didn’t really hit any obstacles with it, one of the few paintings where I haven’t! The only issue was one of time, I always try and paint everything if I’m working on a 2D piece, this means I avoid using textures/photographs and the like. With that in mind, it’s an incredibly time consuming process when the resolution you’re painting at is over 3500 x 5000 pixels. It seemed to go on forever and ever!
Q. What is your favorite canvas color when starting a painting?
I always begin with a warm/cool grey, the warm or cool sets the mood immediately. I more often than not work from dark to light, so I start with shadows, using them to help me find an exciting composition. I work as loosely as possible during the initial stages, making sure that the fundamental elements feel right. After that, I begin adding highlights and form to surfaces. From then on it’s all about how much I wish to refine it, and that varies greatly depending on personal preference and the subject matter.
Q. Which is better Adobe Photoshop or Corel Painter and why?
Haha, you’re not going to nail me down here, I love them both! They are completely different though. I find painter is more expressive, and Photoshop a little tighter for details and effects. Painter has lovely colour blending and I wish Photoshop was similar in that respect. However, I find Painter frustrating if my job requires very tight detailing. The result is that I use them both depending on the task at hand.
Q. Would you like to give any 5 tips to the Photoshop users which like to create artwork like yours?
I shall try! Although, I hate preaching because everyone is different. Anyway, here goes:
- 1. Learn your software as well as you possibly can so that the painting experience is second nature. When I’m painting in Photoshop I never once have to think about what I’m doing and that’s important when you need to remain focused on the subject matter.
- 2. Paint as much as you possibly can, practise makes perfect.
- 3. Don’t be lazy. Try and take pride in painting even the most seemingly boring of subject matters. There’s something to be learnt from every single painting that you do, and regardless of the outcome, there’s value in the process. It’s easy to slap a texture on something, but what do you really learn from doing that? Getting dirty with the mundane will improve your critical eye.
- 4. Be true to yourself, objectively judge your ability, it’s never worth telling yourself something is done or good enough when inside you know that it isn’t. Study why something isn’t quite working and do it again until you get it right. Giving up gets you nowhere!
- 5. Experiment and have fun.
Q. How would you like to see your career evolve in the next few years?
I’d love to be part of a highly talented team of artists creating cutting edge 2D/3D artwork for great games with my new studio!
Q. Are you working on any projects currently? If so, what are they?
I always have several projects on the go, I find it helps to have different paintings to focus on. It allows you to turn your attention to something else whilst your subconscious works on the previous projects. Switching back and forth between them renews your vision and stops you becoming blind to errors. Making sure you’re able to critically assess your own work is incredibly important.
Q. Anything you like to add? It is your chance now to state your opinion about anything
Yes, it’s an inside joke, but I’ll just say; Beware of the smudgers!
Thanks a lot for taking out sometime for us from your busy schedule.
Thanks!
This interview was first published in the CGArena Free PDF Magazine February07 Issue. Download your copy now
John's Website: www.brushsize.com
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