GW: How did you get your start illustrating?

TB: I always had an aptitude for drawing and loved doing it, so I knew early on
that I wanted to be a professional artist. I took a lot of art classes in high school, and then I went to Northern Illinois University and got a degree in illustration. I was lucky enough to study under an amazing fantasy and comic book illustrator, Mark Nelson, and he gave me lots of advice on how to solicit my work to companies. At the time, he was also doing some work for Dungeons and Dragons and opened some doors there on my behalf, but aside from that, I was sending my portfolio out to a lot of game and comic companies looking for work. I got some

GW: Your work comes from a pretty dark place, what inspires you? And who are
your influences?

TB: I do like painting scary stuff! Oddly, I’m not a dark person at all. I
think I just get a thrill out of something that scares me like a good psychological thriller or horror movie, so I enjoy trying to elicit that same reaction with my artwork. I think I connect with the idea that there is great power and strength connected with the “bad guys”, and that can be very scary. I’m also fascinated with abnormal psychology and the evil impulse in human beings (only in a clinical way – in truth it scares the crap out of me), so aberrant behavior, like that of serial killers and other anti-social characters, becomes a resource for creepy imagery in my art and writing.

I’m usually inspired artistically by artists that tend to be more “painterly”, have a lot of energy in their work and are, in one way or another, fearless in the way that they attack the page with loose strokes, lotsa energy, and a bold use of color and paint application. I have a wide range of artistic influences, but some of my favorite artists include Bill Sienkiewicz, H.R. Giger, Beksinski, Lucian Freud, Jenny Saville, John Berkey, Simon Bisley, and many more that are too numerous to list.

GW: What advice would you give to a student looking to break into commercial
fantasy illustration?

TB: Number one, no matter what, believe that you can have a fruitful life as an
artist, and never let someone talk you out of following your dream. Period.

I believe that you should do the kind of work that thrills you, then go out and find a market for it. Do you know how many times someone wasn’t interested in my work because they said it was “too dark” for their project. Ok, fine, I’ll go find someone who is doing dark projects and will love what I’m doing. It’s the same for anything. Do a little research in bookstores, online, at conventions, in trade magazines, etc. looking for a market for the kind of art you like to do. If you like drawing cartoony characters like Lilo and Stitch, you’re not going to find work doing Magic cards. But you will find work in lotsa other places.

If you want to get into commercial fantasy illustration specifically, it’s best that you look at products being produced in the section of the marketplace that you’re interested in, and see what kind of art they are using. If you want to work in a certain industry, you may have to mold your work a bit to fit what they are looking for. This is any easier way to break in and get work. You don’t have to try to paint like someone else, but if an industry like collectable card games uses mostly artists that paint in a fairly rendered and realistic manner and you like to paint in vibrant colors and highly stylized boxy shapes, you might have a hard time getting work. So you have to look at what’s out there, and look at your work and see where you fit. It’s also helpful to gear your portfolio towards what the art directors might be looking for. For example, you might have one portfolio of sequential art to show the comic companies, one portfolio of finished paintings of fantasy art scenes for gaming, and one portfolio of marker renderings to get concept work.

And, as always, continue to work on your understanding of anatomy and the human figure. Did you know that Disney likes to see life drawings in your portfolio, even if you do stylized cartoony characters? That’s because you have to understand how the body works so you can stylize it in a believable way.

GW: You work primarily in oils, what about oils do you love so much vs. other traditional mediums? What about Photoshop or Painter?

TB: I do like working in oils mainly because they are pliable. You can lay down
some color and work back into it with more paint, or scrape it away, or use solvent to make it smear. There is a lot of room for “pushing and pulling” the paint to create unexpected results. I also work with gouache, an opaque watercolor, on a slick illustration board which also affords me the ability to erase it away and build it back up. It’s really more about the way I like to work and then finding the medium that works. I can do the same push and pull with digital as well. I’m continually trying to loosen up and create happy accidents in my work, and I’ve found that it’s harder to do that in a digital medium. You have to work hard to make things look spontaneous. But I really haven’t explored it much yet.

GW: How important is realism? When do you break the rules?

TB: It mostly depends on the industry you are doing work for. If you are a
gallery artist, it doesn’t matter at all, but if you are a medical illustrator it is critically important. For fantasy art, you do need a degree of naturalism to “sell” the idea to the viewer. If you create a creature that looks like it wouldn’t even be able to walk, then no one will believe that that creature could exist and you’ve failed to do your job as an illustrator which is to help illustrate a story and draw the viewer into a world that he can believe and interact in. There is some latitude though for expression and stylization. In the end, I believe that you should do just enough realism to get the idea you are illustrating across.

GW: How many illustrations have you done for Wizards of the Coast and other
RPG (role-playing game) companies?

TB: Hundreds. It would have been interesting to keep track. I think I just
broke 100 Magic cards.

GW: What video game projects have you worked on?

TB: I haven’t done a lot of work on video games, but I did work at EA/Westwood
Studios as a staff concept and texture artist on a sprite based fantasy game called NOX, and its expansion. I also worked on Red Alert 2 and Yuri’ Revenge. I’ve also done some concepts for various games here and there.

GW: Of all the projects you’ve worked on, what’s been the most fun?

TB: Working on my own personal projects is always the very best! But of the
professional work I’ve done I’d have to say that the work I did on FASA’s Shadowrun role-playing game was the most fun. There are a couple reasons. Shadowrun was a great universe that mixed cyberpunk and fantasy, so there were a lot of cool things to draw. The art director was an artist himself, so he gave me lot of room to experiment with both subject matter and technique. And I was just starting to oil paint at the time so the latitude he gave me allowed me explore new mediums and techniques and really “play” as an artist. Magic and Dungeons and Dragons are both a lot of fun because of the subject matter.

GW: And the most challenging?

TB: Some of the more challenging projects are ones where I am not very familiar
with the subject matter, or when I have to draw in a style that is contradictory to the way I think. For example, I was working on a ccg (collectible card games) that was a mix of historical fact and fantasy, so I had to do a lot of research to get things right. That’s a pain. Some guys really get off on making sure the character’s buttons are accurate to that era, but I don’t. World of Warcraft is difficult for me because I was never very good at drawing huge armor, mostly because it’s not really possible for
characters to have a full range of motion while wearing it, so it’s hard to make it work. But it’s good to push my boundaries and challenge myself once in a while.

GW: What’s next?

TB: I’m developing more ideas and products around my Wicked Fairies characters.
I also have a ccg that I’ve created and am I’m shopping. I never seem to run out of ideas of ways to express my creativity! Please take a look at my website www.BaxaArt.com for all the latest! And thanks for your continued interest in my work!

*All images courtesy of Tom Baxa.