tm www.​pix​el​gar​den.com
www.​tysonm.​word​press.com

Intro­duc­tion

Allow myself to introduce… myself. My name is Tyson and I’ve been paint­ing and draw­ing all my life, but started making a living at it back in 1991. My dad was a ter­rific painter hob­bi­est who dab­bled in real­ism, cubism, and impres­sion­ism, so I had plenty of influ­ence and inspi­ra­tion grow­ing up. In descend­ing order, favorite-to-least, oil, acrylic, and gouache on board were my favorite medi­ums through high school and art school, but during the mid 90’s I began using the com­puter to create full illus­tra­tions dig­i­tally and that is how all the magic hap­pens today.

Can you still remem­ber how to sharpen a pencil?

Yeah, my work is all dig­i­tal, but I sketch reg­u­larly and keep sketch­books. All my pieces begin by pencil sketch and once approved, I scan in and use as a tem­plate. There are rare occa­sions where I sketch on the com­puter, but there’s some­thing spe­cial about sketch­ing on paper. It just feels right. In fact, as I am delv­ing into gallery shows, I’m actu­ally break­ing out the oils and board again. It’s been a long time coming and feels great.

How much money do you earn on aver­age per day?

When I decided to do com­mer­cial art as a career, I had many admo­ni­tions about how I won’t make any money and ulti­mately live an unhappy life. Being 18 and con­sid­er­ing all this, I decided I’d rather be poor and do some­thing I enjoy than do some­thing I hated and make some money. Money is nice, but it’s not a guar­an­teed path­way to hap­pi­ness. I’ve been for­tu­nate to bring in enough dough to con­sis­tently eat and fund the mort­gage to a decent house in a great neigh­bor­hood, where my wife is a stay-at-home mom with our two kids. I’m really happy about all that and the gravy is this huge ladle of art­work I get to serve up on top of it.

Do you have an agent or do you handle every­thing yourself?

I handle mostly every­thing myself. I do ads in the source books each year, do post­card mail­ings, and keep in touch with folks I’ve worked with in the past via cards and email. It’s a con­certed effort keep­ing you in the mind of art buyers, but I really enjoy the rela­tion­ships I’ve devel­oped over the years. Many of my clients have become good friends.

In con­junc­tion with this, I do have an agent, Munro and Cam­pagna, and they con­nect me with projects when some­thing is a good fit, but we’re not exclu­sive. They have their own mar­ket­ing and pro­mo­tional sched­ule I par­tic­i­pate in as well and they are ter­rific to work with.

15 years is a long time to be work­ing in the com­mer­cial illus­tra­tion busi­ness. How much has the indus­try changed since you started? Would you still want to be an illus­tra­tor – if 2008 was to be the start of your career?

The fun­da­men­tals of the illus­tra­tion busi­ness seems the same to me. There have been sig­nif­i­cant changes in com­mu­ni­ca­tion and the work­flow process as we as a soci­ety have inte­grated com­put­ers and the inter­net into our lives, but this change has hap­pened in most indus­tries. The unique change is how many illus­tra­tors have shifted from tra­di­tional media to cre­at­ing art­work digitally.

Back in the day, there were seri­ous debates of the valid­ity of dig­i­tal illus­tra­tion. There was a lot of sus­pi­cion and mis­trust of how much the com­puter actu­ally per­formed in lieu of the artist’s skill. Today this issue seems to have dis­ap­peared for the most part in the com­mer­cial world and rested in the fine art world, although I see that erod­ing as well. As all of us have incor­po­rated the com­puter into our daily work life and home life, the mys­tery and sus­pi­cion of the com­puter has dis­si­pated quite a bit. The mys­tery is gone so to speak. People real­ize that it takes some seri­ous skills to pro­duce good art­work dig­i­tally and that the com­puter is a beast not easily tamed.

Work­flow aside, the nuts and bolts of illus­tra­tion as a busi­ness trans­ac­tion seems the same to me: Art Direc­tor needs art, Art Direc­tor hires illus­tra­tor, illus­tra­tor cre­ates art, Illus­tra­tor deliv­ers art, Art Director’s com­pany pays illus­tra­tor. I didn’t know any more about the busi­ness than that when I started in ‘91 and I know I’d make the same deci­sion again if I were start­ing out in 2008. I’m more about find­ing out what you like to do and doing that vs. find­ing rea­sons not to. That be a weak­ness, but it’s also proven to be a strength in my case. I knew I loved draw­ing and paint­ing and wanted to do that for a living, so I went for it. I’d do it again.

Apart from art and illus­tra­tion what other things are you into?

I’m into music. Big time. I’m not a great instru­men­tal­ist or any­thing, but I play elec­tric guitar, bass, and offer some vox. Often, I write and record music–it’s a great exer­cise in cre­ativ­ity but a nice diver­sion from visual art. Me and some close friends free-​form jam every few weeks or so. I love to rock.

Who are your favourite artists/illustrators alive today?

I’ve got to say my favorite artist right now is Alberto Cerriteño. I was a judge at an artshow last year and gushed over his entry, The Melan­cholic Cat. I got the chance to meet him, and he was the nicest guy. In fact, he was just fea­tured in the Fresh sec­tion of Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Arts. He rocks.

I also really like Brian Despain’s work, we met at an art show we were both in–he’s really cool. We’re both fans of old-​school robots. He’s more of a fish guy than I am, but he makes it work tremen­dously well. I also met Echo Chernik at that show too. Her work is just great and she’s super nice.

The big names I like are Mark Ryden, Shag, Gary Bass­man, Bob Dob, Nathan Ota; I know it’s trendy to name obscure names, but I gotta be honest – these guys have had and kept my atten­tion for quite some time and keep bring­ing the goods.

What do you think about Disney’s ven­ture into more mature PG-13 market place, has the mouse had his day?

I love the old-​school Disney. I just rewatched Sleep­ing Beauty recently with my daugh­ter and was blown away by the style per­pet­u­ated by Eyvind Earle’s back­grounds. No one had attempted to apply a con­trived style like that to an ani­mated story before that point in time, and it’s just so beau­ti­ful. Over just the last few years I’m seeing fin­ished shorts and fea­tures still in pro­duc­tion at other ani­ma­tion houses where style is again becom­ing an inter­est­ing and inno­v­a­tive part of the story telling, and I’m very happy it’s moving that way. That’s where ani­ma­tion gets very excit­ing to me in exactly the same way as illus­tra­tion. The nar­ra­tive is enhanced by the ren­dered style.

We’ve moved past simply emu­lat­ing past ani­ma­tion works and push­ing the real­ism of 3D. Every­one knows that’s doable, so it’s not very inspir­ing any­more. That’s where I think Disney ani­ma­tion has been really stag­nant over the last few decades, although they’ve pro­duced some great films during that time. I wish they would really push style and keep it for kid-​rated sto­ries. That would keep it inter­est­ing for Disney, but I’m afraid they’re moving to PG-13 to attract more dol­lars, diver­sify, and all that. I’m sure Papa Walt wouldn’t approve either.

Why Blog?

Many of my clients have become good friends over the years and we have great con­ver­sa­tions catch­ing up over the phone when a project comes up, yet we haven’t even made eye con­tact. My busi­ness isn’t just about pro­vid­ing a pro­fes­sional, anony­mous ser­vice; I have rela­tion­ships with these good, kind folks. So this year I decided to find ways to show more of who I am, what I do, how I work, and what I think about things that are both pro­fes­sional and per­sonal. It’s time to get to know each other better. My blog is just one part of that.

With a choice of any space or gallery in the world; which city and venues do you con­sider to be hotspots and which ones would you like to show at?

I’m just start­ing to dip my toes into my fine art era, but if I close my eyes and dream a bit, I’ll start close to home with Roq La Rue Gallery in Seat­tle, take the VW Microbus down to 111 Minna Gallery San Fran­cisco, then free­way down to the BLK/MKT Gallery in LA, and finally jump on the jumbo jet to Jonathan LeVine Gallery in New York. For­tu­nately there are so many great gal­leries out there in so many cities these days cater­ing to col­lec­tors and voyeurs drawn to nar­ra­tive fine art usu­ally con­fined to the com­mer­cial world. The last ten years or so have really blos­somed in this genre and that works won­der­fully for me as an artist and a con­sumer of other artists’ works.

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

There are a few dis­cus­sions on the table with some col­leagues about ani­ma­tion shorts and children’s books, but we’re all so busy, I’m not sure when those will become a real­ity. I like to col­lab­o­rate with people I know–even if they aren’t artists. There’s noth­ing more inspir­ing than bat­ting around ideas with some­one who makes you laugh and push your cre­ative boundaries.

What’s next in the pipeline for Tyson Mangelsdorf?

Well, as I alluded to before, fine art is the next big deal for me. That involves doing some prints cre­ated from dig­i­tal work and pro­duc­ing some actual paint­ings on board. I keep so busy with com­mer­cial projects, that it makes it dif­fi­cult to do, but after the tremen­dous response I received from a show I was in last summer, I’m extremely moti­vated and am making it happen.

Daffy or Donald?

Daffy’s got that dark, old-​school looney schtick–that’s the stuff that can keep you up at night hud­dled in a ball with your pillow pulled around your ears while your hard-boiled-egg-like eyes peer in para­noia out into the dark­ness won­der­ing where that black duck will show up next. That’s much more inter­est­ing than the merely grouchy sailor, Donald.

Jammin’ or Wacommin’?

Wacommin’ baby. I’ve used Wacom tablets since my first serial 12×12” in 1994.

Doh!, Engage, May the Force be with you! or I’ll be back?

Mmmmm…tough to choose just one, but I’ll go with ”Engage” back to ‘66 with my boy, James T. Com­mand­ing a freak­ishly fast star­ship, having a best friend with pointy ears, and gettin’ chicks? I wouldn’t mind rolling like that.

You can see more of Tyson Mangelsdorf’s work at
www.​pix​el​gar​den.com

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Cats: Animation, Editor's Choice, LCS Interviews
Tags: Alberto Cerriteno, BLK/MKT Gallery, Bob Dob, Brian Despain, Gary Bassman, Interviews, James T. Commanding, Jonathan LeVine Gallery, Louisiana, Mark Ryden, Nathan Ota, New York, oil, paranoia, Roq La Rue Gallery, Seattle, Tyson Mangelsdorf, Wacom, www.pixelgarden.com www.tysonm.wordpress.com, www.pixelgarden.com