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Hi Cory, let’s start with your artistic background. Were you the kid in school always known for his artistic ability? Did you go on to study art?
A story I’ve told a few times is that when I was in kindergarten we had a little project where we had to draw what we wanted to be when we grew up. I had no idea what I wanted so I just started drawing. I ended up drawing a policeman with one of those old hats, the ones with the badge on the front. I distinctly remember setting my pencil down and thinking, “Man, that’s a good looking hat!” After that my abiding memory of school was doodling in my books, looking up, not knowing what was going on, and then getting back to doodling. I never played sports much or anything like that, I just liked to draw. From there I went on like most people interested in drawing, I took art classes in high school and majored in art in college.
How did you first break in to Illustration?
My junior year in high school I started to work after school for a small textbook publishing company. I worked there most of time I was in school, for the rest of high school and on through most college. I did little things starting out, spot art illustrations in textbooks, a few stories and a couple book covers. It was a lot of fun and I gained more valuable insight and abilities there than most anywhere else, just learning to work with authors and clients and meeting deadlines, all the while trying to be better and faster.
You currently work as an Illustrator for Portland Studios, how did this come about?
While I was in high school and met up with Justin Gerard and Brannon McAllister, the two guys who would go on to start Portland Studios. We hung out, talked about art, talked about the kind of stories we liked. They were both a couple years older me and I sort of followed them through school. During college I started doing work for Portland and after I graduated I just kind of naturally went on full-time. From there, 5 or 6 years later, here we are. I’ve had the opportunity to work with some really great clients and do some fun work.
What is a typical working day like at Portland Studios?
Pretty low-key. There’s no monkeys swinging around or roller skating. Mostly we’re all into the work we do and it’s relatively quiet. Everyone once in a while there’s been a jumping contest to see who can jump the highest and hang on to the exposed beams of the ceiling but other than that we all just work a lot.
You have a beautiful whimsical style, is this something that has evolved naturally or something that you have had to work at?
Probably a mix of both. It’s a matter of drawing a lot and trying to be better and make things beautiful. Also, I think a lot of it has to do with the sort of stories I like and want to tell, it all ends up informing the other. For a long time I saw artists that I admired and wanted to draw like but just couldn’t make it work. I’d get astronomically discouraged about drawing but this guy Tim Banks’ work made me feel like I could get it. I took 2 one week summer classes from him back towards the end of high school. I also had the privilege to work with Tim for about a month (before he moved on to grad school) I remember in the first class Tim doodled on the board and said something like, “If you want to draw an arm like this (he scribbled some wiggly cartoon arm, it sort of looked like a wing) just go ahead.” I think my brain exploded right there. And it all started to make sense. Don’t fool around trying to be something you’re not, just go ahead and draw.
If that last bit sounds juvenile, starry-eyed, and something like a plot from a Disney channel original movie, that’s fine and I’m prepared to deal with it. But I think everyone who loves to draw but is discouraged sooner or later comes to a point when they realize that they’ve either been given the grace to make it happen or cursed with good enough taste to understand, and to be under no delusions, they are not making it happen.
It’s definitely something I’ve worked at and worked towards but I’m constantly learning.
Portland Studios has become a hotbed of talent with both yourself and Justin Gerard as staff illustrators. Although your styles are very different, has working alongside Justin pushed your work in directions it wouldn’t have otherwise gone?
Oh definitely, that’s one of the great things about working just a few feet away from someone like Justin, he’s also working, always improving, always getting better (if that even seems possible) if nothing else working together has pushed me to push even harder to be better and work stronger.
You’re work looks like it’s created through traditional means - could describe your artistic process?
Right, I’m pretty traditionally minded but I do love digital tools.
Typically, my process involves thumbnails, color comps., all that sort of stuff. From there I do my final drawing. I scan it, so I’ve got the drawing. Then I watercolor it. The watercolor is for texture and value. I love what opaque gouache does in the watercolor.
From there I scan the watercolor and to some degree, depending on how badly I destroyed the watercolor in my quest for texture, I pencil back on top of the watercolor. I love the good line work and texture that this process affords me. After that I go into Photoshop and continue working digitally, depending on the stage reached with the watercolor.
What is your favourite medium to work in?
I’ve found one kind of paper in particular that I really enjoy drawing on. I get it from Graphic Chemical and Ink Co. It takes the pencil very well and feels good to draw on. I love watercolor and gouache.
Do you use any digital tools to complete your illustration?
Yes, usually at some point my work passes through a digital phase. I use the typical Wacom tablet and Photoshop. I don’t do much drawing in Photoshop, mostly I use it for finishing.
You have a real talent for illustrating dragons, what is your favourite subject to illustrate?
Well, what I’ve started to figure out is that I really love to draw three things; princesses, monsters (dragons), and birds.
Earlier this year you held your first solo gallery show ‘Grimm & Other Folk Tales’ - where did the idea for show come from?
I wanted subject matter that would give some of those three things I mentioned before, princesses, monsters, and birds and fairy tales seemed a natural choice. Another big part of the show was proving something to myself as well. I had just finished my work on my 40 page story for Flight 6 and while I loved working in a graphic novel format I wanted to create individual pieces, pieces that told a story all in one image. In addition to that I’ve had terrible trouble with my right (and yes, drawing) arm. I dislocated my shoulder the first time about 7 or 8 years ago and since then I’ve re-dislocated about once a year and undergone two surgeries. I put it out of joint again right before Christmas (towards the end of my Flight work) It took me a couple weeks to get back the movement needed to finish my story. Well, (and I don’t know how much information you all are looking for here!) come to find out since I had put my shoulder out so many time there was next to nothing keeping it in place. It wouldn’t take much at all to dislocate again. A long story short I decided to go ahead and have the surgery but keep my April show date. I did all my planning before hand and after a couple weeks recuperating I went right into doing the final work. It was incredibly busy (and difficult at first) but very rewarding.
How was opening night? Nerve wracking?
It went great! My wife organized the event (she’s such a good planner) and got everything in order, from helping me with the presentation to the food to organizing the prints. She was really the hero of the show. We opened from 6PM - 10PM and by 5:30PM the hall was filled with people. We stayed pretty slammed for about 2 hours and then it turned into a good steady stream for the remainder of the night.
You have also just launched a new site ‘Terrible Yellow Eyes’, a collection of works inspired by your obvious love of the Maurice Sendak’s classic children’s book ‘Where The Wild Things Are’ - tell us a little about the site and how it got started?
Yes! It’s been something that I’ve wanted to do for a while, I wanted to put together a tribute site for Mr. Sendak. He’s given us all so much in the form of his books and stories and pictures and I wanted to give something back. I met him once, briefly back in 2005, and I got to tell him thanks for everything. What I want to do with this project is show him thanks. I began planning back during the end of the work my Grimm show and came up with 5 or 6 pieces. From there I talked with a few of my friends from Flight, just getting advice about starting the project and contacting in addition to all my local friends, basically, everyone online that I’d like to hang out and draw with.
A secondary plan for the site is (and I think this is the first time I’ve said this publicly) is that June 10th is Mr. Sendak’s 81st birthday. I have a friend who’s creative director is also Sendak’s art director and he’s offered to pass the project along whenever I felt it was ready. So! We’re sending him the site for an 81st birthday present.
The site also features illustrations from other contributing artists, have they needed much arm twisting to get involved?
I’ve had a couple people that I’d gotten in touch with not have time or weren’t interested but the overwhelming, vast majority of people have been very excited about the project. It seems to strike a chord with most people, not because of the site so much as people just really love Mr. Sendak and for me it’s just so difficult to express in words why I love his work. I’ve had people in the past ask me, why, what is it about this that you like so much? I have a terrible time talking about the things that I love the most, so fine! If it’s going to be that way, I’ll show what I love if I can’t express it with words.
How do you find time to juggle all of these side projects alongside your work at Portland Studios?
That’s a great question. I’m not really sure. One thing that’s been nice about Terrible Yellow Eyes is that from the beginning I knew I wanted the project to be a slow burner. It’s taken more time that I thought to manage the site but it’s not bad. Really since about the last couple months of 2007 when I was working on Le Cadeau du Temps for Zune-Arts I’ve consistently very busy with work projects, from Ticket to my story “Walters” for Flight 6 to my Grimm show, all late evenings in addition to client work at work and all these side projects. TYE has been a great break from that. It works out for me because truthfully I love to work. I get panicky if a vacation goes longer than 3 days. I just like to produce and I feel lazier than I can handle if I’m not working. It all goes back to drawing, I just really like to draw.
Do you have any other projects in the pipeline that you’d like to tell us about?
The big project that’s started the last couple weeks and will continue on into July is preparation for the San Diego Comic-Con. I’m putting together a lot of prints and a new 2009 sketchbook in addition to several original watercolors for the show. After that Justin and I will be a show that we’ve been slowly working toward the last year and a half, a show all based on Greek mythology. You can look for that coming later in the year.
What advice would you give to aspiring illustrators wanting to break into the industry?
Work! Do what you love, and draw what you love. Don’t fool around trying to be something you’re not, just go ahead and draw.
That concludes the interview - I hope you all enjoyed reading about this talented illustrator.
I’d like to thank Cory not only for generously giving his time to answer these interview questions, but also for the thorough critique of my work that he was kind enough provide.
Links:
Cory’s blog ‘Light Night Rains’ >>>
The stunning entire series of illustrations from Cory’s ‘Grimm & Other Folk Tales’ gallery show >>>
Cory’s print store >>>
‘Terrible Yellow Eyes’ - Cory’s tribute site to Maurice Sendak & ‘Where The Wild Things Are’ >>>
Portland Studios - Cory’s place of work >>>
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Thanks for posting this interview, Jon! I love Cory’s work.
Ah! I loved where the wild things are ever since elementary school! it’s so interesting to actually hear about the illustrator. thank you for posting it!