Interview with the 3rd place winner of Derby 143
CapedCrusader514 has been participating for almost a year and he just got his first print. Here's more about him.
Shirt.Woot Stats? (first derby / shirts bought / shirts printed)
102 (Pressure) / 20+ / 1. I've been lucky enough to get a splurge of HMs of late so the number of Woot shirts I own has sort of exploded, I'm holding onto just over 20 right now. I didn't actually think my shirt would print and then I ended up checking sunday morning at like 3:30(eastern) and was dumbfounded to see it actually did print -- excited is an understatement.
What are your tools of choice?
Normally I sketch it on paper, photograph, then ink and color in
Illustrator. Sometimes I use
Photoshop depending on the circumstances. Sometimes I also ditch the pad of paper and just draw on my
tablet. Take Earth's Heart Monitor, that was just drawn on the tablet as it was pretty simple.
What is your typical process for going about a design?
Normally I let the topic brew for a few hours, do some other stuff: music, tv, yadda yadda yadda and hope for some sort of divine inspiration. Some of my buddies like to think up ideas as well and they let me bounce ideas off them, that's sort of nice and I appreciate that.
What design or art experience do you have outside the derby?
I graduated from Clarkson University in 2009 with a degree in Digital Arts and Sciences and am going to start grad school for an MFA at another institution this summer (I'd rather not say yet because I'm currently deciding between two school).
Which artists or designers inspire you?
Woo woo woo woah. The big question. Alex Pardee is a hilarious genius. Ron English is also funny and awesome. David Choe is amazing. Banksy is great. Tim Hawkinson's pieces are spectacular. Matthew Barney... there really are no words. This might catch flack at woot because I know they and the rest of the world love the Beatles but Yoko Ono has beautiful stuff. Duchamp, Pollock, Chagall. Ugh, I'm missing lots but that's a start.
Would you like to do art/design full-time? If so, what is your dream job?
Absolutely. I'm going to get my MFA - after that I will hopefully be able to teach at a college level but practicing artist is the dream. Right?
Any plans to ever sell your designs using a print-to-order shop like SpreadShirt or CafePress?
Probably not.
What advice do you have for new derby artists?
The derby is a doozy. I still have no idea what anyone in it likes. Sometimes it's really frustrating as things get printed that are just bleghk and other times it's like woooooahhhhh. I think one of the biggest problems with my shirts is that they're sort of to "boyish" a large percentage of wooters are females and I feel like I've been ignoring them. Don't worry ladies, I'll get ya. Also, a lot of my designs are big, full t-shirt designs and that's definitely not for everyone but I swear I'll turn the wooters onto large graphics, that's a promise. It's sort of funny that Earth's Heart Monitor got printed because it isn't my normal thing at ALL it's way more idea oriented and didn't provide for a lot of heavy line work. This was for the earth day derby though and i thought Sierra Club would be looking for something a little more corporate and wearable by everyone.
Do you have a website or portfolio you'd like people to see?
TheRealChadSmith. Check it out, lot's of stuff there.
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