Interview with the 4th place winner of Derby 105
Not only does KidGrenouille have the unusual honor of being one of the only Derby "Chomps" (as opposed to Champ, Chimp, or Chump for the 1st 3 prints), but he has also been plugging away at this since almost the beginning! He's definitely a patient man and I'm glad that he is -- he has great comic-book style linework with an eye for simplicity and boldness -- one of my favorite Woot artists. Here's a few more facts about him.
Shirt.Woot Stats? (first derby / shirts bought / shirts printed)
6 (Fake me out to the ball game) / 2 / 1. I'm an old-timer! I first entered way back in Derby #6, "Fake Me Out To The Ballgame: Imaginary Sports Logos." I must be a glutton for punishment. I've bought two Woot shirts: STAY SHARP! and CROWS. Looking back at their stats now, neither one of them was very popular with the wider Shirt.Woot audience. STAY SHARP! was reckoned in its first week, and CROWS only sold 571! This suggests I am badly out of step with Wooters' tastes, which would explain the low vote tallies I usually get in the Derby.
What are your tools of choice?
For this kind of thing, I make my sketches the olde-fashioned way -- in pencil. Then I do the finished linework with Micron pens on a light table. I scan the art into
Photoshop for cleanup, then do coloring and finishing touches in
Illustrator, on a
Wacom Intuos 3 tablet.
What is your typical process for going about a design?
Given the super-short timeframe of the Derby, I have to have an idea almost immediately, or I won't enter. I sketch it a few times, trying to refine it, and then move pretty quickly into working on final art. I usually work do that overnight so I can be ready to enter at the opening bell.
It's a pain in the neck, but (for me, at least) there's just not time to do it another way. If there's any chance at all for me to compete with entrants who have name recognition, or networks of forum friends they can mobilize to vote, I have to be entered early.
Besides, then when my submission crashes and burns right away, I can get over it before it ruins my weekend.
What design or art experience do you have outside the derby?
I work as a freelance illustrator.
Which artists or designers inspire you?
My favorite artists are Honoré Daumier, Eugène Delacroix, Harvey Kurtzman and Frank Frazetta.
Would you like to do art/design full-time? If so, what is your dream job?
My full-time occupation is already in a creative field, but I guess my dream job would be "international pop music icon."
Any plans to ever sell your designs using a print-to-order shop like SpreadShirt or CafePress?
Time permitting, sure. I experimented with Bountee, but found the results disappointing.
What advice do you have for new derby artists?
With my poor track record in the Derby, I am in a very bad position to give advice. But I would give one piece which should be totally obvious already without my saying it: If you find the Derby more frustrating than fun, don't enter. After staying up all night to work on something that gets totally ignored by voters or rejectorated by the judges, I've repeatedly thought I AM NEVER DOING THAT AGAIN.
Then when I break that vow later, only to get the same result -- low vote totals and/or rejectoration -- well, that's one of those "fool me twice, shame on me" situations.
The voters can be totally fickle and arbitrary and impossible to predict. You have to regard that fickleness and unpredictability as part of the fun, or you'll go mad. MAD, I TELL YOU.
