I think this is an interview which a lot of people will be interested to read, dA's very own Star Bear




When did you first realise that you were an artist, Duffzilla?

Oh, I’m not one. At least, I would never say “I’m an artist.”
I think being an artist is just a passive thing. I think you can be an artist while being something else... architects, carpenters, scientists, engineers… they’re artists, using creativity to solve problems. I can’t help but feel inferior and a bit useless being just someone who paints and draws. My dad worked in factories, he’s a good carpenter, plumber, mechanic, electrician, builder, one of my brothers works in IT and my other brother is an electrician. Those are proper jobs. I think I’d be more comfortable saying “I’m an illustrator”. It has a sense of legitimacy. Being an illustrator is being an artist but it sounds like a job… I think. I’d be far more worried about saying “I’m an artist/animator/filmmaker/etc..”
Sometimes I lie when people ask me what I do.




Could you tell us about your paintings and how you feel they differ from your Animation ideas?

Well, generally, what happens is an idea will just kind of occur in the weird way that they do and if it's the kind of idea that’s just a simple, singular concept that can be summed up in one image, it becomes a painting (or maybe I’ll just want to paint a bear or something). If it's the kind of idea where something needs to change over time, or it’s a story that I’d like to tell, I start thinking of mood, storyboard panels, music and pacing.
Some people, like Oliver Jeffers and Scott Morse, are such good storytellers and illustrators that it seems like they have total control over how quickly you turn the pages. Morse, particularly. I’m not at that level yet so if I want to force people to look at a blank white screen for 4 seconds, I can do that with a film, whereas if I made the same idea as a comic strip, people would see an empty frame and skip on immediately. So I suppose the difference is time.




You use animals as the subject for a lot of your work. Why is that?

Because they’re brilliant. I've always loved nature documentaries and learning about exotic animals as a way of seeing things I have very little chance of actually seeing for myself. Actually, there’s probably about 10 reasons why I use animals as the subject for a lot of paintings.
I think it’s interesting how practically everybody sees animals as being innocent and beautiful, particularly the ‘charismatic megafauna’. I don’t know anybody who says they hate all animals. Animals just have an immediate likeability. People don’t really just assume a negative personality from an animal like they can with other people… unless you’re watching one of those crap nature documentaries where they use cheesy editing and suspenseful music to manufacture a sort of ‘good gazelle being hunted by evil lion’ narrative. I think that means that paintings of animals have a certain innocent appeal.
Evolution has made everyone an expert on recognising and analysing the human face but we’re not as familiar with animals so there’s more room in that gap between the photo-real and the cartoony. Like the ones I’ve been doing most recently that aren’t photorealistic but they’re not exactly DangerMouse or Pepé Le Pew either.
Another reason is that a particularly cute drawing of an animal generally makes people smile, and I love being responsible for that.





What artists have influenced you, and how?

I’m starting to notice there’s a big difference between your favourite artists and the artists who influence you. I would say Caravaggio, Rothko, Hopper, Freud and Van Gogh are among my favourite artists but there isn’t a hint of them in my own work. I think I just spend my time being impressed by them. Other artists have had a more direct influence on me and how I approach my own work. People like Scott Morse, Oliver Jeffers, Dave McKean and others. What I like about those artists beyond just the aesthetic quality of their work is that they’re all very good at telling unconventional, simple stories. Scott Morse is one the best storytellers I’ve ever come across. He’s not nearly as widely known as he deserves to be. I’d recommend anybody read The Barefoot Serpent as an example of a simple but deeply affecting story that doesn’t go anywhere near the kind of overblown, melodramatic crap you find in a lot of comics, films and tv programs but is 100 times more engaging.
Another big influence has been DeviantART. I mean, for all its faults, it has been one place where I’ve found lots of artists who’ve really made me reconsider my own work: *krecha *flaviafou ~MaxHierro ~plainme =flesh-was-sweet ~Bengine *fredfree ~pentelka *maladie *winst `jasinski ~arghavan ~CSISMAN to name a few.
Mostly the influence has been visual rather than anything else. I don’t really get ideas from other artists but I do get inspired to try different media or techniques or find a different aesthetic. One thing all those artists I mentioned have in common is consistency. If you look through their galleries, they have that consistency that tells you every image in there came from the same individual. I’d like to have that.






What other interests do you have (besides painting)?

I’d say music, films, documentaries and books like Discarded Science, The Seven Basic Plots…non-fiction, basically.
I do actually make (bad) music and I have made films, and hopefully will continue to, so I think those interests tend to mix together with painting and drawing with each thing influencing the others… like a Venn diagram of inspiration.
My other interests are football, sport in general, animals, space, anything to do with people like Carl Sagan, James Randi, David Attenborough, Richard Dawkins and Stephen Fry, playing with doggies and talking about Venn diagrams.




Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

Hopefully, living in a forest in Norway.
Artistically though, I'm not all that bothered about what I'll be doing by then in terms of technique or subject.
I mean, 10 years ago I was fourteen. I can’t remember what I was drawing and painting then but I’m pretty sure it was awful. In the ten years since then, apart from just improving technically and learning new techniques and media, my ideas of what I like about art and, probably more importantly, what I consider to be bad art have changed dramatically and, at fourteen, I definitely wouldn’t have thought that I’d have a degree in Animation by the time I was 23. I didn’t even think I was interested in animation back then.
A lot can happen in ten years so I don’t bother thinking about what kind of work I’ll be producing by then, or how. All I hope for is that by then I'll be able to feel happy with my work. I spend a lot of time thinking about the artists I wish I was as good as, criticising my own stuff, I do a lot of things that I either keep to myself or destroy immediately because they’re not what I expected. It’s really not a good idea and it does kinda suck the fun out of art when you don’t even take a minute to bask in your own glory. It’s not that I hate everything I’ve done it’s just that when it’s done I can’t help but focus on the negative. I’m trying to get past it, though. I’m working on a bunch of paintings at the minute that are turning out better than I thought they would and I’m fairly sure when I’m done I’ll be able to say it’s my best work and, with a bit of luck, I’ll be happy with it for a few months before the inevitable crushing disappointment.
So hopefully, in 10 years, if I’m still painting, I’ll be doing it at a level where I can be happy with each piece from concept to final look and that when I experiment with new things, that I’ll focus on the positive aspects and the things I’ve learned in trying something new.
I’d also really, really like to have illustrated at least one children’s book by then.





Could you talk about your latest work and what you are trying to achieve with the paintings?

The main thing I’m working on at the minute is a bunch of animal paintings. I’ve already mentioned animals so I’ll just say it’s an attempt to correct something that bothers me sometimes when I’m in the children’s book section of a bookshop. It’s nearly done so I’ll explain myself when I post it.