Keith Thompson is a freelance artist whose work features in everything from books and magazines to film, tv and videogames. You really need to explore his website to understand how great this guy is- incredible concepts and ideas with awe-inspiring style and execution to each and every piece. I hope it’s clear to see why he is one of my favourite Illustrators working today. I was fortunate to catch up with Keith over a very busy new year…

SICKMANSICK: Hi Keith, thanks for joining us for an interview, what have you been working on recently? Would be interested to hear about your involvement with ‘Leviathan’ and the videogame, ‘Borderlands’.

Lately it’s all been Leviathan, specifically the second book Behemoth.
Anything to do with Borderlands is from over a year ago (which was late in the game’s development, since usually I’m involved right at the start.)  A lot of my work was on the core story.  A lot of that got shaved pretty thin, possibly to make time for the art direction revamp that occurred very late in development.

SICKMANSICK: Could you tell us a bit about working on Scott Westerfeld’s series ‘Leviathan’, how it came about and a bit about the process of producing the artwork for the story?

Scott dug me up while looking around for steampunk artwork.  From my perspective at the time, a lavish fully illustrated book mimicking those from the time in which it was set, sounded a little too good to be true.  Scott was awesome enough to really fight for the vision and managed to get it to happen.
The actual process of creating the book was extremely conducive for creating artwork, and work has been quiet and smooth.  In fact looking back on the complexities involved, especially in the early stages, shows what good luck was had.  The visual designs for the rest of the book were established very early on without the freedom of time to test them.  Since the books are being written as the artwork is created it’s also great that the two visions of the world of Leviathan are running parallel.

SICKMANSICK: I loved the ‘Leviathan’ advert which brings your illustrations to life by combining moving-image; could you tell us about how that was made and how much of your work is eventually realized in some form of moving-image? (View trailer here.)

The publisher, S&S, got Motherland (http://www.motherland.us/) to work that up.  I think everyone was definitely impressed with how it turned out.  Normally I would balk at someone chopping up my illustrations for a flash animation, but seeing those framed portraits emerge and fold open was really spot on.   Great sound work too, I love it when the sound work makes the hairs stand up on the back of my neck.

SICKMANSICK: You have a remarkable ability to create whole new worlds and characters, what is your usual approach in order to produce a selection of illustrated characters or environments? Where do you source such inspiration?

I love getting the opportunity to really be idle and explore things in my mind.  I’m able to conjure up such persistent and intricate places to explore that it’s been a big source of fun since I was very young.   I’m voracious for enjoying other people’s imagined worlds, and I spend as much of my spare time as possible doing that as well.  When I work I simply schedule time to pace around thinking about interesting parts of a world and all the little details that would be compelling.  The real trick is gently directing these worlds to overlap something I have to work on so I can call on them for inspiration.

SICKMANSICK: I am familiar with the great work of ‘Visual Futurist’ Syd Mead. He is renowned for his incredibly thorough approach to Concept Art and Image Making. Is this very thorough approach something you share with your work process or do you feel the image-making process shouldn’t need to go to such rigorous lengths to become ‘justifiable’?

It depends on the overall approach to a collective work.  It’s very rare that a rich background and highly realised technical foundation doesn’t contribute hugely to a project’s worth.
The danger with heavy research and technical thoroughness is a stiffness and constriction of the
evocative elements in a work.  It’s important that the work is fluid and visionary, and that the technical parts support this core vitality rather than impeding it.

SICKMANSICK: What is your background as an Illustrator?

In highshool I worked at an animation studio (this is where I picked up the habit of using animator’s pencils.) I also started freelancing as an independent artist.  I studied Illustration at Sheridan College and simply continued freelancing during and after.

SICKMANSICK: For many years now there has been ongoing debate about the boundaries of Graphic Design, Illustration and Fine Art becoming blurred and transgressed by many practitioners; is this something you can identify with or have you had a strong focus with your work from the outset?

While there are definitely different concerns and disciplines in those general categories, I’ve always viewed them as a collective group of skills an artist would usually be interested in.   While I completely understand specialists in those areas bemoaning the sloppiness that comes with blurring boundaries, I really view those skills as fundamental aesthetic traditions and foundations that can only benefit from being expanded into more areas (despite initial dilution.)

SICKMANSICK: As a professional Illustrator and doing what I assume you love for a living, how does Keith Thompson like to relax when not at the drawing board?

I’m not great at relaxing these days.  I relax well when I really sink into sources of inspiration.  Just finished up the game Demon’s Souls which was unbelievably wonderful.  Anything that conjures up a really evocative atmosphere is something I love to lose myself in (books, music, games.)

SICKMANSICK: Who/What would be your dream client/project to work on?

Anything that gives me the opportunity to produce the most evocative work I can, unfettered from fiddling.  I’m really not picky on the details as long as the finished thing at the end is something I can then go and truly experience first hand.

SICKMANSICK: What does 2010 hold for Keith Thompson?

Not sure, I try to flow organically through what I do artistically at the moment.  Should be making some public appearance finally; things like Comic Con.

Thanks Rich!

-Keith Thompson

SICKMANSICK: Keith, Thankyou very much.

Check out Keith’s website www.keiththompsonart.com

Rich.

Hugely talented professional photographer ‘Perou’ kindly agreed to answer a few questions for SICKMANSICK.

To see his work please visit perou.co.uk

You’ve just been in Milan. How was it, and what were you up to out there? 
“I love italy: I love italian food so I’m always happy to shoot there. I was shooting ‘Andrei Shevchenko’ the footballer, for a reebok campaign. And eating well.”

Do you find that there is a slight difference in approach to ideas for shoots between English, European and American clients/celebrities or are you given 100% creative input most of the time?
“Kind of depends who I’m shooting for.
European clients want something different to american clients and I generally have no idea what japanese clients want (it seems to change). The amount of creative control I have varies from job to job: sometimes people employ me for my ideas as much as my ability to put those ideas into a photo.”
sometimes people (advertising people) come with a drawing and say ‘can you do this?’.”

I get the impression (through your website) that your vision of the photography industry’s future seems quite bleak. In your opinion, what is hurting it and how is this affecting the professional photographers?
“When photography first came out people said it would be the end of painting. It wasn’t, but painting became an art form: the day to day making of images was taken over by photography.

When digital came out people said it would be the end of film but really silver halide photography lives on: more as an art form or craft: the day to day capturing of images is done digitally: passport photos, wedding photos, holiday photos etc… the amateur market which drives the industry in bulk form is digital now.

I’ve been saying for a long while that the ‘decisive moment’ in photography will end soon.
and certainly now, still photography will be replaced by moving capture: video.
the latest cover of esquire in the states which features meagen fox was shot on a ‘red’ HD video camera and a still was pulled from the 25fps (?) that were shot. The quality is ALMOST there now. Trying to capture something a freeze it in a split second will go art just like film and painting went before it.

This isn’t necessarily a bleak thing, just something to be aware of.Things move so quickly it’s hard to remain relevant and contemporary. Everything in life seems so transitory these days: people want everything NOW and get bored of it immediately and want the NEXT thing.

There are too many people calling themselves photographers. People think that just because they have a digital camera and the easy ability to take correctly exposed, in focus pictures that is all there is to it. Then also there are too many colleges with assholes teaching people how to take pictures and become photographers when they know there aren’t jobs for those people to do when they graduate, this should be stopped immediately. It’s wrong.

…and as magazines fold under the pressure of the internet and the way media is evolving, there are even less jobs. The industry IS imploding. It is imperative for ‘us’ to understand how to make money in new media and through the internet. If you can crack that, you’ll survive.

…or just shoot for pleasure and yourself and don’t worry about it.”

How has the way clients approach photographers (and vice versa) changed since you first started, and do you think that there will be another shift soon? 
“People phone me or email me or my agent. It’s been this way for a while…don’t know how that would/could change? I advertise myself online and on television now which I didn’t used to. Guess that’s a different way for me to hit clients. I still meet a lot of mine at parties though, best to meet a prospective client socially and ‘off duty’.”

You use both film and digital equipment, do many of your peers still refuse to use digital, if so, have they found that it has lost them a lot of business or are many of them big enough for this not to be too much of a concern?
“Most of my peers shoot digital and film. Nobody exclusively shoots one of the other: it would limit you.
right tool for the right job.”

Did you always know that you had what it took to become professional, or did it take a while for you to make the jump from semi-serious amatuer/hobbist to pro, I heard that you entertained the idea of being a missionary or a truck driver?
“People often ask me what was my big break in this business. There has never been one: it’s always been a long hard slog to the middle. It was very gradual: after a while I came off the dole…then I came off housing support…then I had enough money to start thinking about paying TAX…then I was earning enough that I had to be VAT registered.

There have been moments of self realisation: like one Monday morning in a limo through downtown tokyo heading towards a studio to photograph a major japanese pop star, listening to ‘song 2’ by blur and feeling so excited, thinking ‘I’m not on holiday: this is what I do for a living: it’s Monday morning and I’m going to work’.

I had another of these moments driving down sunset blvd (in LA) at sunset recently.
what I do for a living can’t really be defined as a job: it’s a lifestyle…that I’m very happy to be living.”

Who did you look up to when you were younger, both in the world of photography and just generally?
“Photographers: our lodger jeremy who wanted to be a fleet street photo journalist but smoke too much weed: used to dev films in the shower-room. brian griffin. anton corjbin. Don mc cullin. Helmut newton.”

I understand that your first commissioned work was to photograph someone’s dying mother, that’s sounds like a very intense first project; what was the nature of the work like?
“It was a friend’s mother who was dying of cancer: she wanted to leave her son a beautiful portrait which he could remember her by. Unfortunately I wasn’t a good photographer and I was using some very hard tungsten ‘studio’ lights.

I don’t have a copy of the photo but I’m certain it was a flattering picture. I could do so much better now.”

What area would you advise photographers who want to turn pro to start out in; Editorial, Freelance, Apprenticeships or is it simply work, work, work in any of those areas?
“Photograph everything all the time: live and breathe photography: if you want to succeed, it has to be your passion.If you can, assist a ‘big’ photographer: this acts like an accelerated learning curve.”

You’ve met a lot of interesting people over the years, I understand that you’re good friend’s with Marilyn Manson, is there anyone else that you keep in touch, and perhaps catch a beer, with after shooting them (so to speak)?
“Cider.
Or champagne.
Or sometimes girly cocktails.

I’ve become friends with a lot of the people I have photographed.
but I don’t keep a list of my celebrity chums.”

You’re obviously a very busy man but when you have a spare moment, other than photography what do you find yourself doing?
“Grass cutting.
Drinking cider.
Raising sons.
Eating Italian food.
Possibly in that order although sometimes I combine some of these.”

You broke your neck from a very early age, how did this happen?
“Some bastard 4yr old pushed me off a 6ft high wall I was skillfully running along.”

You’ve definitely got a unique dress sense, did you manage to get some stuff off Vivienne Westwood when you did a shoot for one of her clothing ranges?
“I have a ‘normal’ sized wardrobe full of westwood clothes and shoes.
My wife got a few pieces and so did my first assistant, frances.”

Have your sons shown an interest in what you do?
“Yes.

Not surprising really: Maximum used to do puzzles on the floor of the studio while I was photographing people like Dita von Teese. Temporarily, I don’t have a studio at home, but I have a gallery and we alternate shows of my work and my sons both take GREAT pictures but I don’t want them to be photographers…i want them to be divorce attorneys.”

Although your online gallery is extremely intimidating in terms of who you’ve shot, who would be your dream client?
“God.
Or the Devil.

Reckon they’d both have a few good stories to tell…”

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SICKMANSICK would like to thank Perou for his time and thoughts.

Cormac.