Tell us a little about yourself?


My name is Kory Bingaman and I'm 23 years old. I grew up a couple miles outside of a very small town in central Missouri, and I had to learn to entertain myself from a young age, as we didn't have any neighbors my age. Art is an important thing to my family. My mother's parents were children's book illustrators and portrait artists, my parents were weavers for 15, and growing up my mother was an art teacher. My uncles are graphic designers and painters, and my sister is a graphic designer. While my father's parents weren't professional artists, my grandfather's hobby was woodworking and my grandmother oil paints and sews beautifully. A lot of my artist friends comment on how their parents never understood why they wanted to go into art; in my family it was kind of an expectation.

My parents gave me paper and pencils to keep me quiet and busy when I was a kid, and I've been drawing from there. I started thinking seriously about art in High School, when I realized that I had a head full of characters that I had been making up for years but no story or plot or unifying idea to link them all. I went to Missouri State University and graduated with a BFA in Graphic Design and Illustration in 2007.

As far as interests go, I’m a big music buff, and 60s psychadellica, folk rock, and indie rock are some of my favorite genres. I’m a big fan of dinosaurs, mythology, fantasy, Of Montreal, George R.R. Martin, The Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, Hellboy, Doc Savage, 60s Fashions, Gargoyles, Neutral Milk Hotel, Jeff Smith’s Bone, James Gurney, and anachronism in general.


What made you decide that comics were what you want to do and what inspires your work?

I’ve been making up and drawing characters since I was a kid, and in High School I decided that I needed to do something with them. That’s when I started developing the idea for my webcomic, Skin Deep. Making it as a comic was a logical step, as I feel that I can tell stories much better visually, and I’ve never considered myself a good enough writer for prose. I’m drawn to comics (hur hur, pun) because I think in a very visual manner, which is easier to portray through comics than writing prose, and easier to do than animation.

I never read many comics as a kid, outside of Jeff Smith’s Bone. I was always more into illustrated books like James Gurney’s Dinotopia, or cartoons like Disney’s Gargoyles or Batman: the Animated Series. It wasn’t until high school, when a stole a few issues of Ultimate X-Men (the first issue with Ultimate Nightcrawler) from a friend of mine that I got into mainstream comics of any sort. I’ve always found the idea of magical and fantastical things coexisting with the modern world endlessly fascinating.


What kind of role do you have as a comic artist?


I do everything, whole hog. Comics take a terrible amount of my time and energy, and I don’t think I’d be able to draw any comic that wasn’t my own.


Are you self-published/online or do you work for a major comic label? Can you share some of your experiences with us?

Skin Deep is a webcomic (found either here at deviantART or at www.skindeepcomic.com), but I hope to publish it as a book eventually. I don’t have a terrible amount of experiences, apart from devoting most of my evenings and weekends to the project. I do enjoy the web as a medium, however, since there’s virtually no start up costs and it’s easy to do.


What mediums do you prefer to work with and why? What mediums/artists do you admire?

I used to draw and ink Skin Deep by hand, but I’ve recently traded over to working 100% digitally, as it’s convenient, faster, and produces slicker lineart than my pens ever could.

Most of the work I admire is completely the opposite of that, though. Artists that can use natural media just astound me, and I’ve always wanted to get better at painting and colored pencils and other such media. The main drawback to working 100% digitally is that I don’t have any originals at the end of the day. I don’t have anything I can hold in my hands. I’m also very jealous of artists who can work in plain black and white. I tend to hide my mistakes behind color.




When working with a writer, what is involved and how does your approach to drawing the comic change as compared to writing and drawing your own ideas?
As a comic artist who else would you need to work with and how closely do you work with these other artists?

I work 100% by myself, so I don’t have much experience with working with others. I used to get poor marks in Kindergarten because I did not work well with others. I usually write a rough script, then thumbnail the issue, then draw it. I write the thing the entire time, changing the script around if something works better. You have to be very flexibll


Do you still use reference material such as stock or from life for poses, buildings and other props and item when drawing out comics? How do you come up with the poses? Are you ever unsatisfied with your work or have an artist’s block?

Oh definitely! You should always use reference, especially when you’re drawing something you’ve never drawn before. Drawing from reference gives your art a flair of realness that drawings from memory just often don’t have. I had always thought that using reference or tracing was some how “cheating” but there is nothing wrong with it if you use it cleverly. If you don’t know how to draw wings, for example, find a photograph of a bird that’s in the same general position that you’re looking for. That’s a lot better than making up how you think a bird wing looks, and trust me, your readers will know when you’re just making something up.

I’m often unsatisfied with my work and I get art blocked all the time. It’s only natural, and it happens to everybody. However, nearly every time I get blocked it is because I want to get better, and my ability hasn’t matched my ambition yet. Usually by the end of the art block I’ve improved my artwork greatly. If you don’t get frustrated over your artwork then you’ll never improve. If you’re not constantly looking for areas to better yourself you’ll stagnate, and nobody likes that, do they?


Thank you very much for taking the time to share you experience with us!


Thank you very much for interviewing me! I hope I’ve helped someone.