[projectaon] Fwd: <>--- Interview Questions : Answer No.2 ---<>
- From: "Jonathan Blake" <blake.jon@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Project Aon List" <projectaon@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 27 Apr 2008 14:28:44 -0700
Feel free to send me follow up questions to forward along.
--
Jon
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: <paj@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sat, Apr 26, 2008 at 2:19 AM
Subject: <>--- Interview Questions : Answer No.2 ---<>
To: Jonathan Blake <blake.jon@xxxxxxxxx>
_____________ M I D - W I N T E R- 2 0 0 8
_____________ PETER ANDREW JONES PUBLISHING
---- ORIGINAL PAINTINGS : LIMITED EDITION PRINTS & BOOKS : ART
GREETINGS CARDS
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AFFETTI : CRUX MILLENNIUM : HEROES & VILLAINS : RURAL DREAMS : SOLAR
WIND : URBAN DREAMS : WINGS OF FIRE
PAINTINGS of CHURCH STRETTON of LUDLOW of SOUTH SHROPSHIRE of
SHREWSBURY & PAINTINGS of LONDON
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
_______ MEMO
Hi Jonathan,
Herewith answer to Q2.
2) The majority of the UK gamebook authors know each other reasonably
well, since most of them worked for Games Workshop at one time or
another. Did the artists and illustrators for these books have a
similar fraternity?
Two answers to that - yes. And no.
As mentioned in other Q & A texts, as a professional Artist, not a fan
Artist, my involvement was always initially a phone call from a
publisher, or author, wanting me to make a contribution, the brief for
which was a focus that was in line with what I was already then doing
on SF books, taking an approach that would put books into mainstream
book outlets, either via a launch picture (as in the case of very
first release of Warlock of Firetop Mountain) or as a series overview
(for example on the Editions Gallimard French editions of Lone Wolf)
so at that time, especially as I was a freelance Artist not a staff
Artist (say at GW or on Dungeons & Dragons in the States for example)
I knew nobody who was in that sort of position. So in that sense the
answer is "no". I was very much "out on my own" not part of a
fraternity.
As to the "yes" - Since my "job" was to position books so as to reach
a wider market, in the high street (though it was not nearly as
clinical or cold as that makes it sound, more a recognition by
publishers that my enthusiasm was well worth tapping . . . . . ) once
I'd done that it followed that other Artists who were also in that
position were also commissioned, in the case of Fighting Fantasy, to
create covers, and inevitably I had either known, or known of, these
Artists for years or had come to know them a few years prior to
roleplay books being taken more mainstream.
Not all were roleplay artists but even the ones that weren't in many
ways had a strong influence on roleplay works that might not be
immediately apparent? Whilst I can't honestly say that any other
artist in SF/F ever really had ultimately nearly as much influence on
me as artists outside the genre, it was not possible to be rubbing
shoulders with Chris Foss and Bruce Pennington in Art Director's
offices and not be at least a trifle aware if what they were doing,
and what they thought about what they were doing when I was speaking
to them. Even if I had disliked anybody's Art, which was never the
case, it'd still have had an effect because we all react to what we
experience and it becomes part of one's intake of experience and
influences. Also, I have always been very open to appreciating what
anyone else is putting energy into. I am a great respecter of anyone
who "makes and effort for him/herself" as indeed those major talents
were doing when I met them.
In that sort of scenario I got to know most of the Artists of the day
and once I'd worked with Roger and Martyn Dean on the Solar Wind Book
I then got to know a few creatives working in the music and film
businesses, so it all got rapped-in together in terms of "who knew
who" because of the Dean's showing up in the book publishing scene
coming out of the rock music scene. A very broadening influence and
one I totally enjoyed.
Chris Achileos and I knew each other very well and he knew other
Artists and we used to take turns meeting at each other's studios.
And so it went on.
So it was not a fraternity perhaps but there was a degree of contact
varying in degree from relationship to relationship.
Eventually, I drifted away from these sorts of relationships
completely. Probably, because I had always had self-publishing in my
blood, and because I have an extremely strong sense of "self contained
culture" (according to a Dutch client of mine in the 70's) I guess I'd
already drifted towards "going full circle" in the sense that whatever
it is makes me tick as an artist, rooted in starting drawing at a very
early age, always floats to the surface and, as mainstream roleplay
began to subside and computer games really went stratospheric, another
market that crept up on me and shot me to places I had never
considered going(!) I got to know Artists who worked as visualisers
inside corporate design studios because the deals got bigger and
bigger to the extent that a freelancer cold not carry a million pound
project responsibility, financed from Japanese banks, entirely on his
own shoulders - in short - "the team" was totally important and the
"relationship" was no longer "artist-to-Artist" and meeting for a beer
to discuss what book covers might look like, but more about knowing
other creatives and marketing people often far away geographically. A
bit different from "a quick tube ride up to see Chris for a cup of tea
and a natter".
There were "other fraternities" that possibly had strong effects on
roleplay art in the UK, via other Artists works as well as my own,
that are not immediately apparent perhaps. For example : I freelanced
at the B.B.C. for nearly five years alongside SF/F cover work I was
doing and this environment, and the commercial equivalent that I also
worked in as a result of referrals from B.B.C. clients was a rich
influence emanating from a group of extremely talented and skilled
designers, writers, producers and directors whose work, in its own
right as well as when mixed in with my own, surfaced through many,
many tv programmes that many readers of this text might know well. The
Two Ronnies Show, Horizon (plenty of drawn "imaginative" artwork in
that!), Dr. Who, The Tripods and more, and, reaching the wide audience
that those programmes did, inevitably had an effect on a generation or
two, and even though those people's talents went unsung outside the tv
studios it nevertheless produced a visual impact that leaked into
other areas via contemporary graphics and Art. Much of the tv
technique I was party to being developed then at the B.B.C., such as
"colour separated overlay" (more commonly called in the U.S.A. "blue
screen") on jobs such as the Two Ronnies Christmas Show are techniques
I currently use "the thinking logic of" where digital and organic
picture making possibilities meet. I got to know very many people in
the tv and commercial film world and jobs were attained through a
network of contacts who all relied on each other to identify whatever
talents were in the field with whatever particular skills, to pull
together creative teams for the project at hand - a kind of
professional fraternity I suppose.
It's the "commercial" Artist's lot. Markets come and markets go.
That's the nature of the beast. As such, some relationships come and
go, thrown-up by the market of the time.
"Commercial Artist" is the old fashioned term for "illustrator" and in
the ever-evolving nature of marketplaces I have been very fortunate in
my career to have worked with a wide array of extremely talented
individuals and whilst that may not as such be some sort of fraternity
it's how it developed, for me at least, and I guess if one's head is
in "self-publishing" then one's contacts are "always evolving" and not
static and ultimately, I guess, I drifted towards more of an
involvement with fans rather than other Artists, I suppose through
some sort of bonding that the imagery provides. Logical really. A
shared interface.
In my case, as I say, I was "always I fantasy artist" (my mother says
I drew horses with six legs when I was a child) so my "primary
relationship" is with my Art, not with Artists, though I have some
strong relationships with a few dead ones, like Dali and a few live
ones I have never me but whose Art I know intimately . . . . . (and
wished I owned, hanging on my walls . . . . . . .)
Or is being an artist even more of a solitary
existence than that of an author?
Well, obviously I don't know a million Artists so it is hard to say
what the common denominator might be, but at a guess I'd say that
these days, technology being what it is, social networking etc,
Artists have less reason than ever to be isolated unless that's how
they function naturally. Traditionally, I have never felt isolated,
but my relationships are not generally with other Artists except on a
purely professional level and have tended to be with people from other
professions or "the guy or gal in the street" and I go along with an
(Artist) friend of mine from Art School days who said "the best input
and influence one can have on one's creativity is from anything but
that" and I'd agree, especially where "career" is concerned. We all
tend to live in our own box so to speak and it is good to get the
views of those engaged in entirely different areas. But then perhaps
that's very much how I function. As I said elsewhere, we all start
from where we are, but that doesn't make that spot on the map the only
start-point except from individual perception of the onlooker?
When I lived in London, especially during the gaming and software
games boom years following on from my Solar Wind Book, I used to get
many, many (slightly younger) Artists come and see me, as if I had
some magic solution to their career desires, as if I was some Guru who
could offer a clear idea of "what to do". I was always very willing to
help anyone who expressed a wish to develop their talent but I know of
no one who "made it" and looking back, while I am pleased I tried to
help, it was an exercise in time wasting, one which, as I get older, I
regret spending my time on when I could have painted more pictures for
myself. There are downsides to being a helpful fellow in terms of
one's OWN Artistic development. As one gets older one appreciates that
"time is at a premium" so to speak. So in those cases I "knew a lot of
Artists" - from "bottom to top".
Times change. I spent almost no time back then at SF conventions,
signing sessions, games days and the like, I was always either
crashing deadlines or having a kip on a 747 to/from a film job or
even, on one project, literally strapped to the gun turret of a
warship in a gale in the Bay of Biscay clutching a sketchbook - as I
mentioned before, I've always been a kamikaze, "totally up for it" so
I was always so into any project I was doing that I never, because of
the sheer extent of my client list, had a moment to stop and reflect
on what I was doing in the overview - it was always "a now happening
scene (man)". Perhaps that's good. Perhaps if I'd been less
self-propelled I might not have managed to create what I did. I can't
say as I ever really stopped to think about it frankly.
What I most like about going self-published, about being on the web,
is that, finally, I get time to be in-contact with those people who I
never really had the opportunity to meet. The fans. I do like that. I
enjoy giving them the information they ask for. If they want to know
how their favourite cover was made, how it came into being, it's a
pleasure to tell them, that way they get a deeper experience, and I
feel that's a way I can give a little back in return for the very
fortunate experiences I've had; and it's more rewarding to know some
fan of my work is happier for the contact than when I used to try to
help younger Artists who then don't make it. It is always nice to see
the fruits of one's endevours is it not? And anyone deriving even a
tiny bit of pleasure from anything I've every created is more
satisfying to me than if I'd not been bothered.
So if fans get a richer experience from e-mailing me up then that's OK
by me. No problem. Though there are limits . . . . . . .
What was a problem, and I did not enjoy it, is that at one point I was
being stopped in the streets in Paris when I was delivering cover Art
to Gallimard, and getting asked for my autograph. Now I'm sorry, but I
couldn't handle that. Perhaps there is a very private part of me, or
just a bit self conscious about being talented etc, but I did not
enjoy that, I felt embarrassed (and still would) and after that I
tended to retreat into the studio and hide. It wasn't restricted to
games work either. Because of involvement in film and tv I even got
someone harassing me in the studio from a phone box because they were
insistent I "knew Ridley Scott" and had worked on Alien (which I
hadn't, it was Jim Burns not me) and wouldn't take no for an answer no
matter how much I explained that I "didn't do that kind of motion
picture nor should I ever wish to". It upset my wife who really didn't
need to hear all that and so we got a Post Office Box and made our
telephone number ex-directory. This kind of thing was "not part of the
original plan" of being an illustrator, who "just enjoyed making art"
and this sort of thing was not ever going to be part of my world
willingly. I am not an ego-driven Artist. I'm just enthusiastic about
making At and sharing the fun of it with whoever is interested, so I
draw the line at having my life invaded buy obsessive individuals who
think I am a route to their own emotional release needs because they
are itching "to be an Artist" or "have access to the Artist".
So there you have it. Artists of all manner and means. Some fun, some
really talented and a privilege to know, some lost in time, some total
whackos - it "takes all sorts".
All interesting experiences and ones I'm glad to have had, even the
not so fun ones (all part of life's rich tapestry) but then again,
walking in the Shropshire Hills with a sketchbook and having a pint at
a country pub surrounded by more sheep than people also has a value .
. . . . . . .
Best regards,
P
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PETER ANDREW JONES PUBLISHING - "Decidedly Different"
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~~~~~~
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