tw www.​tony​we​in​stock.com

Intro­duc­tion

Tony Wein­stock is an illus­tra­tor living in north­ern Cal­i­for­nia and has worked on comic books, fea­ture films, and casual games.

How did you develop your work to such a high stan­dard with­out pin­ning your­self down to a spe­cific field within the indus­try you work in?

I would say the largest part of that is get­ting work in dif­fer­ent indus­tries and just trying to get work of any kind and there­fore devel­op­ing port­fo­lios that fit those jobs… Oops… I’d love to focus on one thing though.

What type of illus­tra­tion work is the biggest money earner as far as you’re concerned?

While I haven’t done a huge vari­ety of work yet, I have to say that the best money earn­ers are always jobs where the client is look­ing for you and your style specif­i­cally, and not just another pair of hands. Then you’ve got more lever­age with all aspects of the project.

Apart from illus­tra­tion what other things are you into?

I’ve been a big soccer player for a long time, but I enjoy just about any fast paced
sport. I still play video games although I think the Xbox will be my last con­sole pur­chase. I’m def­i­nitely a movie fanatic, espe­cially when it comes to ani­ma­tion and mar­tial arts. Jackie Chan for­ever! I also really like to travel, but I only pull that off every once in a while. When free time is more abun­dant, I like to read comics, graphic novels, and the aver­age every day fan­tasy or mys­tery novel.

Who are your favourite artists/illustrators alive today?

Sam Weber, Carter Goodrich, Peter de Seve, Glen Barr, Bengal, Eyvind Earle, Enrique Fer­nan­dez, Chris Sick­els, Omar Rayyan, Joe Sorren, Ashley Wood, Tade­hiro Uesugi, Brett Helquist, Dave Mckean, Ragnar, to name a few.

Although all your work is amaz­ing I have a soft spot for your pic­ture book stuff – In your opin­ion do you think it’s stronger than your other work?

I’m gonna go with an artist should create for enjoy­ment. How­ever, if an artist wants to make a living, some­times suf­fer­ing becomes an ingre­di­ent. I also think that part of what keeps an artist going is the con­stant chal­lenge of one-​upping him/herself and to finally achieve on paper what they see in their head. Some­times, that feels a little bit like the suf­fer­ing, but hope­fully not always. As for the pic­ture book stuff, that was the first sec­tion of my web­site and the sec­tion I’m most inter­ested in pro­mot­ing. How­ever, after a little while I didn’t want to just wait for “it” to happen, so I started to show­case other skills in order to cast a larger net.

Can you tell me a bit about how Spec­trum 13 came about?

I had actu­ally cre­ated a dig­i­tal sketch for a char­ac­ter design port­fo­lio for Nick­elodeon that showed my idea of the trees have eyes in them, and that Decem­ber, I think a friend reminded me of the com­pe­ti­tion dead­line. I work­ing on and off on a fan­tasy series using the female char­ac­ter in that paint­ing, and I had also seen a James Chris­tensen paint­ing of a char­ac­ter cam­ou­flaged amidst a bunch of birch or poplar trees. I really liked the way snow cre­ates high con­trast and the way that the trees could become great com­po­si­tional and fram­ing ele­ments. In the end, that paint­ing actu­ally came together rel­a­tively quickly. As for the piece with the line of frogs it was based on a paint­ing I had done ear­lier which really didn’t come out well and only had two frogs instead of seven.

Have you ever or are you inter­ested in show­ing you work at galleries?

I’m def­i­nitely inter­ested in gallery work, although I have never inves­ti­gated it and know very little about it.

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

At the moment, I’m look­ing for work again, free­lance and full­time. How­ever, I am dis­cussing being the col­orist for a graphic novel drawn by my good friend Geoff Shafer. Who would I like to work with… I have a soft spot for comics and I’d love to con­tribute to the Flight books that come out each year.

What’s next in the pipeline for Tony Weinstock?

I’m look­ing into work­ing as a col­orist for a graphic novel and I’m about to get started on a children’s book for Shenani­gan Books due out in 2009. YAY!

Ice-​cream or Beer?

Ice-​cream. Lots of ice cream.

Tin-​man or the Lion?

Tin Man.

You can see more of Tony Weinstock’s work at
www.​tony​we​in​stock.com

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Cats: Animation, Editor's Choice, LCS Interviews
Tags: Ashley Wood, California, Carter Goodrich, Chris Sickels, Dave Mckean, Enrique Fernandez, Geoff Shafer, Glen Barr, Interviews, Jackie Chan, James Christensen, Joe Sorren, Nickelodeon, Omar Rayyan, Peter de Seve, Sam Weber, soccer, Tony Weinstock, www.tonyweinstock.com