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Hi Thomas, most readers will already be familiar with your excellent illustration resource site Escape From Illustration Island, so let’s start by finding out a little bit more about Thomas James the Illustrator - could you start by telling us a bit about yourself?
Hi Jonathan, and thanks very much for inviting me to speak with you at Zero 2 Illo. Currently, I’m a freelance Illustrator living in Portland, Oregon. I’ve done work for books, magazines, album covers, T-shirts and logos, and I’ve recently started a complete shift in my style, discarding all my old work in favor of new, more experimental work.
What are your artistic roots? Did you have an artistic upbringing?
Like most artists, I grew up with a creative spirit. I’ve always loved to draw, paint, write, make music, and anything else that inspires me. Pretty early on, I secretly held a dream to one day be a “professional artist”. The idea of making a living while spending so much time in a creative mental space has always appealed to me. My mother was always very supportive and encouraging, except for that one time when I was 11 years old that I “ruined” her dinner party by showing up in a makeshift superhero costume.
My artistic upbringing mostly consisted of examining my favorite artists closely and seeking out inspiration wherever I could. I consider my creative forefathers to be people like Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Rene Magritte, Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, Rimbaud, Salvador Dali, and Bob Ross to name a few. I have traveled quite a bit and consumed books and records with a hunger that I haven’t fully appreciated until recently. A desire to constantly immerse myself in all forms of art has had an amazingly positive impact on my life.
Have you always known you wanted to be an illustrator? Did you study Illustration?
On some level, Illustration has always been one of a handful of things that I always knew I wanted to do. Like a lot of artists, I didn’t ever assign the name “Illustration” to it until later on, but working as some type of artist as a full-time career was always the dream. I have also explored other avenues, such as record producing and making music, but have come to realize that Illustration fits my personality and my creative process the best.
I studied Illustration in school for a couple of years, but it came to a point where I realized I was already working as an Illustrator. While there will always be more to learn, I felt like I was getting less and less out of the expensive classes I was taking, so I decided to let that go and focus on my business. I’ve always taken a do-it-yourself approach to learning, and that’s what I’ve returned to with Illustration.
What was your first illustration gig and how did it all happen?
My first project was to create album cover art and package design for a local Portland band called Rogue Motel. They found me through craigslist and gave me a shot. I was really grateful and excited throughout the whole process, and I savored the feeling of working as a creative professional and putting everything I had read about into action. Some part of me vowed to never go back to punching a time-clock or working for somebody else, and that’s still a major motivator for me to be productive with my own business.
Your portfolio work is mainly digital - is digital art something you embraced early on in your career?
I’ve never really clung to just one way of doing things, so digital art is just one part of what I do. In addition, I’ve recently begun pursuing a new artistic direction that involves drawing with pencil or Prismacolors, then coloring in Photoshop. With this technique, the work is around 50% digital. Working digitally helps me to work fast and keep things fresh, but I also occasionally prefer to work completely analog because there is more potential for beautiful mistakes.
You recently said that your illustration work was going to take a back seat while you focus on EFII, but in doing so and taking the pressure off, you seem to be really enjoying creating new illustrations through the Illustration Friday challenges - did this take you buy surprise?
Definitely. As Escape From Illustration Island grew, I found myself more inspired by that new project than with my Illustration work, so I followed my instincts and poured a lot of heart and soul into EFII. I’ve been very fortunate in that the website and podcast have gotten such an overwhelming amount of support and positive feedback. By partnering with a handful of sponsors, I’ve been able to fund that project and build an alternative income stream, which allows me the unique opportunity to take a step back and revisit my Illustration work at my leisure. The surprising result has been a liberating sense of freedom and a complete overhaul of my style and technique.
How did your new style of work develop?
With my renewed artistic freedom, I realized that I had forgotten how to have fun making art. So, I decided it was time to begin creating the type of work I never had the courage to make before now. I’m focusing more on taking risks and trying to communicate concepts that reach deeper than the surface image. I’m also returning to the things I love to do, like drawing and experimenting with the emotional and psychological properties of color. I’m working a lot more from my imagination, which suits me a lot better and makes me happier overall. Most importantly, I’m creating the type of work that I want, and having more fun with my art than ever before.
What made you start the Escape From Illustration Island website?
Originally, I simply wanted to create a library of resource links that had built up as bookmarks on my computer. The idea was to put them all in one place while sharing them with other Illustrators. Pretty quickly, I got a big positive response and saw great potential in doing so much more than that with the site. EFII has evolved a lot since then, with the addition of the podcast, freelance business articles, reviews, tutorials, and the EFII community.
You seem to have endless creative ideas for content and the site is going from strength to strength - do you ever struggle to come up with new ideas or worry that they will run out?
Thanks for those kind words. I really enjoy writing for EFII, because I get to geek out on the business side of Illustration and share ideas with the community. Luckily, there is so much to talk about and so many ways to explore a topic that I see an endless supply of content for the site.
Were the podcast interviews always planned as part of the site or did that idea come later?
I’ve been a podcast junky for a while now, and as EFII grew I knew it would be a blast to start my own show to go along with it. It also allowed me to incorporate my passions for music and record producing into my Illustration world, which makes it even more enjoyable.
I had no idea when I started the podcast that it would grow so fast and allow me to speak to such amazing people like Drew Struzan, Steve Heller, Gary Taxali, and of course the great Jonathan Woodward (this wasn’t creative editing on my part, Thomas actually said that, honestly! 
How do you choose your interview subjects? Do you have specific criteria?
When I first started out, I wanted to focus on people who were providing a resource to the Illustration community. After a while I realized that I was in the unique position of being able to speak to top-notch artists and ask the types of questions that other interviewers weren’t asking, but that I thought my fellow artists wanted to hear. I still plan on mixing the show up and keeping things fresh, but lately I’ve been talking to a string of “famous” Illustrators and it has been very inspiring.
You seem to be a natural born podcaster and you always ask great questions - how much preparation goes into each episode?
Thanks so much. I’m having a great time with the show, and I’m enjoying coming up with unique questions that dig a little deeper than an artist’s basic biographical information. I feel responsible for providing quality content to my fellow artists and I try to cover new ground and ask questions that are unique to each particular guest. I always try to find some other reason to talk to them other than that their work is good. I generally do about an hour of preparation before an interview. It used to be more, but I’ve gotten more comfortable with the idea of finding new questions that arise during a conversation. This often leads to a more compelling interview than one with purely pre-determined questions. Most of the time-consuming work comes afterwards, when I’m editing and putting together the episodes.
Has the exposure you’ve received through EFII led to more freelance illustration work? Was this something that was in the back of your mind when you started the site?
EFII has become a great tool for connecting with the larger Illustration community, and that was its original intention. I can’t say that it has led to Illustration work, but I haven’t been promoting myself in that way for a few months. Once I get my portfolio built up with new work, I’ll be launching a new promotion campaign and putting myself out there again.
As a fellow recent father, what has the impact of your beautiful baby twin girls had on your productivity - it seems to have shot it through the roof?
I’m very surprised by the ways that having children has changed my work habits. It’s amazing how much of a motivation it is to have a family to support with a freelance business. I can’t believe that I’m getting more done now than before having twin girls, but I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that life circumstances are holding me more accountable for my actions than ever before. I spend a lot less time messing around and a lot more time being productive, because any time I have to devote to work is precious.
Do you have any tips you can share with us on how you manage your time (I struggle with just one baby, never mind twins)?
Fortunately, my girlfriend and I have worked out a good schedule where we are both guaranteed a certain amount of “baby-free” time each week. This has helped me to carve out a routine work schedule that I can depend on. I use that dedicated time as efficiently as I can, because it is such a limited resource. I highly recommend a structured schedule for all artists, whether or not they have children, because it makes room for the type of mindset in which you can get things done.
Has becoming a father changed you in any way as an illustrator? Has it made a difference to the kind of illustration work you like to work on?
Becoming a father has changed me a lot of ways. As far as my Illustration work, I think having children made me more serious about my work in that I don’t want to take it for granted any more. Instead, I want to take more risks, be bold, and create work that people will either love or hate. My days of wanting to make an Illustration look realistic are over, for the most part. I’m letting go of that in favor of searching for deeper meaning in a visual way.
What is next for Thomas James the Illustrator?
I’m riding my current wave of inspiration, so there’s a lot more new work coming. I’ll also be updating my portfolio site and revisiting my promotional strategy to decide how I’d like to market my new style. I’m going to try to find some unique approaches to promotion that both fit my work and make a splash in some way.
What is next for EFII?
What I’m most excited about with EFII is a new eBook that will be out in April. I’ve been working on it for a few months now, and I think it’s going to be a great resource for Illustrators who are starting, or re-starting their freelance business. I’m taking advantage of the eBook format to go into greater detail than blog posts allow, and trying to provide straightforward, step-by-step recommendations for building your business. I see a pretty large void in most freelance Illustration books because they don’t offer enough specifics. I hope to provide those specifics to artists in my eBook so that they can take those steps and apply them to their own situation. One of the best ways to build confidence as a professional artist is to see forward progress being made, and I hope to make that as easy as possible for new Illustrators.
Other than that, I’ve got a long line of inspiring guests coming up on future podcast episodes, more business tips, and new ways for Illustrators to interact with each other at EFII. Stay tuned!
View more of Thomas’s amazing new illustration work on his portfolio site. You can also follow him on Twitter and FaceBook.
Be sure to check out the amazing illustration resources over at Escape From Illustration Island, especially his excellent podcast interviews, weekly tutorials and business advice.
You can also follow Escape From Illustration Island on Twitter and FaceBook.
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