COLOURlovers Interview with Artist The Skid

Today we are featuring an awesome artist and giving you all a bit of an insight into the creative process behind his pieces of art. Each piece is bright and vibrant and  each tell a story.

This talented artist started small and kept, all the while he gained more and more traction in the blogosphere and now you can see his art work featured all over. The artist behind it all is Adam Sidwell, AKA The Skid. Check out his Tumblr for lots more pieces are art that are not featured here, you’ll definitely get lost in the great color palettes and pieces he has created.

First up, why don’t you tell the community a bit about who you are, what you do, how long you have been doing it.
I was into illustrating as a kid. In 2010 I started doing weekly drawings of pop culture, started taking requests, and would post one online each week. The blog started gaining traction after some time and I started freelancing.

What past experiences do you think have contributed the most to where you are now?
Growing up as a kid in the 80’s, playing video games and watching movies like rambo and terminator, that had the most influence on me in terms of content.

How do you choose your color palettes?

Generally I kind of stick to 6 colors. I primarily use green, yellow, red, orange, purple, blue. I usually use a lot of complimentary colors in the same series. As long as the colors are bright and vibrant there is really no method to the madness to the way I choose colors.

What colors do you think we will see a lot of in 2012?
I started out using very traditional colors but I like more neon and vibrant colors. I did a series of video game box posters and the way those colors blended together are my favorite colors of any piece.

What is your general design process?
I stick to thumb-nailing and sketching. Then I take it into photoshop and I usually redraw the image because I don’t use a wacom board the first time around. I like to get the feel of real pen and paper. I print out the wacom board drawing on water color paper and watercolor it, then rescan it then touch it up. Then the color palette comes to form and I start creating from there.

As an artist, what is the best advice you have ever received?
There is always going to be someone more talented than you but you can always work harder than them. I’m from the midwest, hard work ethic is what I grew up with. I was a part of a blue collar family and it is transformed to the digital sense.


Source: All Photos by Adam Sidwell

When you are feeling stumped, where do you turn for inspiration?
Tumblr, but it is sort of  bad because I get stuck. I don’t explore that much outside of that.

What’s one thing you tell designers that are just starting out?
I feel like a lot of people take things too personally, whether it comes to critiquing or posting and not getting likes then giving up. I started out and my friends at work and my mom were basically the only one’s following me. I kept at it and the blog gained footing and things took off. That never would have happened if I just gave up. It is kind of hard receiving negative criticism. I see artists start up and get discouraged and though they are creating awesome art work they give up. Basically, just keep going and going.

 

Allison is the blog editor and gal behind the Twitter, Facebook & Pinterest at COLOURlovers. When she is not spreading color love around the web, she writes and manages Engaged & Inspired, a wedding blog and vendor resource for brides.