jm www.​jeffmira​cola.com

In your opin­ion which medium do you con­sider is the eas­i­est and which is the tough­est to work in and why?

Work­ing dig­i­tally is by far the tough­est for me. I’ve made a con­scious deci­sion not to mimic my tra­di­tional style in a dig­i­tal space because I feel I can say so much more with my dig­i­tal style of art. The imagery and ideas come to me on a much more sub­con­scious level. When I work dig­i­tally, I am tap­ping into the feel­ings that got me excited about art as a child. When­ever I invest emo­tion into my work, it becomes dif­fi­cult to create. And I invest a lot of emo­tion and thought into my dig­i­tal work.

Tra­di­tional draw­ing and paint­ing is the eas­i­est for me. Once I knock out a sketch, I can be on autopi­lot for an entire paint­ing. That isn’t to say I don’t push myself, but work­ing with paint feels so nat­ural to me and I don’t have to think too hard about what to do.

Does your bank bal­ance reflect your talent?

I wish! Man, I have some mad skillz. I can set layers in Pho­to­shop to mul­ti­ply, ras­ter­ize shapes and define pat­terns like all the big guys. So why don’t I have a gold-​plated Wacom tablet or a dia­mond encrusted Mac? Hold on, let me log into my bank account and check the balance……. (Jeff cries).

Apart from illus­tra­tion what other things are you into?

Spend­ing time with my kids. If I could find a way to get paid to be a dad, that would be my only job (note to self, make kids start paying me). My three kids are awe­some. There is noth­ing better in life than just hang­ing with my kids. When I’m not painti­fy­ing or dig­i­tiz­ing, I’m doing any­thing I can with my kids – bikes, boards, games, paint­ing, shop­ping, etc. It’s all good.

Who are your favourite artists/illustrators alive today?

Frank Frazetta, Brom, John Jude Pelan­car, Kris­ten Olsen, James Jean, Anita Kuntz, Odd Ner­drum, Todd Schorr.

Are you an avid card collector?

I used to col­lect cards, toys, etc. I don’t do that any­more. Col­lect­ing can get out of hand. I stopped col­lect­ing stuff because I found it took too much time to main­tain the col­lec­tions and I wasn’t get­ting enough art­work or other more impor­tant things done, like sleep! Sadly, I am a com­pletist, so I always have the poten­tial to become a col­lec­tor of some­thing again. And once I do, I have to get all of it. So I’ve found it more ben­e­fi­cial to just say no.

Have you ever thought about becom­ing a full-​time fine artist?

I’ve thought of it, yes. But I have never actively sub­mit­ted to gal­leries and prob­a­bly won’t until I feel my work is worth having others ponder over. Dis­play­ing a piece of your art in a gallery is so very dif­fer­ent than cre­at­ing illus­tra­tion for hire. The illus­tra­tion serves a par­tic­u­lar pur­pose like sell­ing a prod­uct. The impor­tance is on that prod­uct whether it’s a card game, video game, mag­a­zine arti­cle, etc. When you hang work in a gallery, you are plac­ing all of the impor­tance on that piece of art itself and essen­tially plac­ing your thoughts and feel­ings on a wall for others to love or destroy. It’s a bold step that I don’t take lightly. When and if I’m ready for it, I’m sure I’ll know.

Are you involved in any col­lab­o­ra­tive projects at the moment and is there anyone you would like to work with?

I am col­lab­o­rat­ing with an author right now on a children’s book and I’m excited about that project. I haven’t ever had enough time to work with another artist, but if I had to choose one, it would be Todd Schorr. His work is amaz­ing! And if I col­lab­o­rated with him on some­thing, I could learn all his secrets. I could also see myself work­ing on some­thing with my daugh­ters. One has a talent for sto­ry­telling, the other has a talent for art.

What’s next in the pipeline for Jeff Miracola?

More cards, more edi­to­r­ial illus­tra­tions and a children’s book which will be taking up a lot of time this year.

When are you going to have orig­i­nal work and prints for sale on your site?

Hope­fully soon. I am look­ing into a few options for prints. As for paint­ings, I just need to find the time to put all the pric­ing info on the site. There is never enough time in a day.

Amaz­ing adven­tures or comic capers?

Amaz­ing adven­tures of course! because they are A-M-A-Z-I-N-G.!

A bottle of Bud or a fresh banana smoothie?

Why am I taking this more per­son­ally than I should. I feel like this ques­tion is putting my mas­culin­ity to the test. Do I grab at the bottle of Bud, twist the cap off with my teeth and slam it down? Or do I gin­gerly reach for the smoothie and sip it through a twisty straw? hmmmm, one of life’s more com­plex ques­tions. I think I’ll just have a cup of Ama­zon­ian tea and stare at my screen­saver for the next 5 hours.

You can see more of Jeff Miracola’s work at
www.​jeffmira​cola.com

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Cats: LCS Interviews
Tags: Anita Kuntz, Frank Frazetta, Interviews, James Jean, Jeff Miracola, John Jude Pelancar, Kristen Olsen, Mac, paint feels, Todd Schorr, Wacom, www.jeffmiracola.com