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| Copyright Mike Kelly |
First of all thanks Mike for taking the time out so we can have a chat with you about your work. Your illustrations have a fine art side to them I feel that is different to what most illustrators are doing to day, and what we love at Fashion Mould about them.
Who is your inspiration?
My inspirations are fine artists Andy Warhol and Jackson Pollack. I get goosebumps looking at anything photographer Steven Maisel and makeup artist Pat McGrath do.
I’ll spend hours looking for new talent and there’s so many up and coming artist that really get my creative mind just going.
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| Copyright Mike Kelly |
How do you create your pieces they look so detailed?
My medium is totally digital (Photoshop, Illustrator, and Corel Painter) with custom made brushed. But, a while back I was printing my basic concepts on canvas through a service that prints large format prints, and then using oil and cloth to do a light rub into the basic areas of colour to see if that worked for me. After that I’d go to town on the image until it looked just right.
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| Copyright Mike Kelly |
Why did you move into digital?
I was never satisfied with with anything I did, so going digital was a perfect for me. Photshop and Corel Painter have the perfect tools to get the job done and I’ve been working on Macs for 20 plus years, so I’ve figured out that if you can tweek any of the custom settings in both those programs and then layer the sections of the painting that still have that “computerised feel”.
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| Copyright Mike Kelly |
Your work has so much depth, mood and character, do you find its hard to keep those elements in digital work?
With the use of layering and tweeking custom setting that you’ll be able to create a painting that has some depth, mood and character no matter the format. Plus when I’m working on a piece, I’ll keep the mistakes I’ve made in the image (off brush strokes, colour mistakes, etc..) so that when the paintings been completed it has a more authentic look and feel. I’ve always believed that the mistakes within ones paintings are what makes us human and individually original.
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| Copyright Mike Kelly |
What is your background illustrating?
My background is in publishing. I started out years ago as graphic artist doing book covers for a company called Contemporary Books which was owned by the Chicago Tribune Education. We were eventually bought out by McGraw-Hill and I was promoted to Art Director, creating book covers and interiors, multimedia programs, collateral material and marketing campaigns. Eventually they realised I was I could run and train a staff while still keeping my deadlines, so they made the Creative Director. I worked with McGraw-Hill till 2004 and I received a job offer from Houghton Mifflin. I took the job. I just couldn’t pass up the company that published countless award winning books (The Hobbit, Polar Express, etc…). I was basically train my staff on creating book covers and marketing material, website development (look, feel and navigation) and giving them some inspiration to do what ever they feel would work best for a project and as long as they stayed on goal or track we would get something that was original and exciting.
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Copyright Mike Kelly
Sounds like great fun, did you enjoy it? what made you become freelance?
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Of course, I kept some of the fun projects for myself!
In 2009 I decide that I could go off on my own and still be able to pay my bills. I really wanted to work on my passion projects which was fashion. I new getting into that business was next to impossible, but I my dad once told me to “do what you enjoy, and you’ll never have to work a day in your life.” We’ll he was partly right, I really enjoy what I do, but, I’ve been working my butt off never the less.
I love that saying and totally believe in it, and what you said about working you butt off.
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| Copyright Mike Kelly |
What has 2011 been like?
I have created over 70 paintings in the last year and have been working on social media and iPhone and iPad development for several software developers in the Chiacgo area. I have also just been contacted by Italian Vogue to do 2 pieces.
Wow that’s great news! Shows that hard work does pay off, Congratulations.
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| Copyright Mike Kelly |
So when your not busy working what do you do?
I’m always looking for new things to do and on my off time I off to Chicago with my Nikon D300 looking for the next inspiration. I’ve found through out the years that you can find inspiration in just about about anything I see, even if you just start in you back yard.
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| Copyright Mike Kelly |
Thanks again Mike, great to chat with you!
fashionmould 