Interview with the 3rd place winner of Derby 45
Even though Rglee129 is one of my favorite artists at Woot, I managed to miss the fact that not only has he been around since Derby 32, but Springatron was his design. It's getting so busy around here it's getting hard to keep up. Starting this week I'm expanding my interview pool to include all 3 printed artists in order to get more new artists since
certain people seem to get the #1 win so often. So, depending on how the votes fall, you might see as many as 3 interviews in one week! Hopefully, you enjoy them as much as I do.
Shirt.Woot Stats? (first derby / shirts bought / shirts printed)
#32 (Line Art) / 10 / 3. My first derby was #32. I ended up with maybe 30 votes or something? I've bought 10 shirts, starting with "Killer Bees" -- still one of my faves, but my all time fave is "Delicious". I've had 2 derbies and 1 daily printed.
What are you tools of choice?
Always pen and ink on sketch paper;
Photoshop.
What is your typical process for going about a design?
First, I sketch it out with pencil. Then I pencil each of the components of the picture on separate pieces of paper (as opposed to the whole composition- that way I have the freedom to reposition them in Photoshop later) Then I ink them all, erase the pencil lines, and scan them in at 300 dpi. Next I play with the levels to get rid of any greytones, assemble the image, and essentially paint bucket the whole thing, occasionally using selection tools and fills. I keep everything on separate layers. Once the barebones image is done and colored, I print out a lighter version of it and ink details (textures, patterns, etc.) on the print-out, and then scan it back in. I delete the background and just incorporate the inked lines into the main image. I can then try different details and shading effects, etc., risk free. Then I just keep reworking it and moving around the objects until I get the best composition and I play with the colors until I like it.
What design or art experience do you have outside the derby?
I took classes in college and have done freelance graphic art part time for about 8 years. I've been teaching 7th and 8th grade Visual Art for 5 years. More than anything else, teaching the stuff has really helped crystallize my knowledge of abstract concepts like perspective, composition, 2-D design, etc. I learned Photoshop through trial and error as I self-published (more like self-printed) a couple of issues of a comic book. Oh man! I almost forgot about all the children's book stuff! I learned a lot about by making dummy books for my children's book submissions, as well as full color samples of what the final artwork for each story would look like. I've written and sketched out 8 picture books for children so far. I'm up to 160 rejections now, but it's really helped me in terms of character design and lots of other stuff.
Would you like to do art/design full-time? If so, what is your dream job?
Art is so mentally taxing for me I don't think I could do it 40+ hours a week consistently. It happens in manic spurts. Besides, I really like teaching. I'm very happy with the combination I have right now. BUT, if I could keep up the stamina, the dream job would be either writing and drawing artsy, David Mack type graphic novels OR writing and illustrating picture books.
Any plans to sell your designs outside Woot?
I'm planning on coming up with some designs for Threadless, Unetee, and Loiter. My summer has just begun, so I can go through my old notes and pull out some neat designs. I'll maybe look into printing at
Spreadshirt someday too.
What advice do you have for new derby artists?
Don't try to figure out what wins. For example, sometimes I think I've got the best design of the derby, like my summer "Badminton Robot". That design was AWESOME. But it only got about 80 or 90 votes? Then you have "Youbetchucan", which I thought turned out great, but I had zero expectation of winning (especially as a Sunday midnight entry) but it blazes up the charts like nothing I had ever seen! So don't try to predict what wins and don't pander (Well, pander a little). In fact, I just try to create for myself, but then take my ideas and give them as much mass appeal as possible -- (dark) humor, fun expressions, simple and and accessible aesthetics, etc. Also, don't try to pick a shirt color -- just use whatever color would look best for that particular design. AND try to let the color of the shirt show through as much as possible. And study the designs of others -- especially Cho and TGentry. They've really mastered how to squeeze the most out of the 6 colors/shirt color restriction. Their stuff always looks unified. AND here's a big one -- don't sweat sending in the print ready image unless it looks like you have a chance of winning. I initially wasted a lot of time on that. Good luck!
Check out more of Rglee129's work on his portfolio site: robbielee-illustrator
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