@bonyfingers

Instagram: @bonyfingers Twitter: @montadrew Tumblr: bonyfingers.tumblr.com  

1. What's your story? Where are you from?

I grew up in London Ontario Canada. Working-Class family of 5. A few pets over the years. Now I live and do freelance in Toronto. I'm also working on a mystery comic called the Montague Twins

2. Tell us about your aesthetic..

Clean but textural. I mostly work digitally now, but I always try to maintain a tactile feel to the work. I’m not a perfectionist so sometimes I’ll let mistakes into the finals, I think there’s a human quality in that I want to show.

3. What is your favourite medium and why?

I’ll always go back to pencil. It’s versatile and rudimentary. I’ll always consider myself a drawer and a pencil is THE drawing tool. I recently started a comic book called the Montague Twins and i did it all in pencil. I just felt natural to tell the story with that medium.

4. What is your artistic process like?

Eliminate ideas to distill clearest concept, execute final within one sitting if I can. Commercial illustration is collaboration, so listening to ideas that aren’t your own is important to that process.

5. Who and/or what inspires your work?

Mostly my peers, and then the various other forms of pop culture i consume. experimentation. keeping my eyes up and open. I think inspiration is just a very dense amalgamation of all of your collected sensory inputs and experiences. Sometimes that part of you becomes triggered and you feel like making something that comes from there.

6. What role does art play in your life? How does it change the way you view the world?

Probably a larger part than I’d like to imagine. I mean i’ve made sacrifices for it, so I guess that’s something you do when something plays a large role. I don’t think i view the world through a lens of art, I think it works the other way around.

7. Where did you study?

I took Illustration at Sheridan College in Oakville Ontario, but everything I know I learned from failure.

8. Where do you see yourself in five years? Working in an agency?

I try not to plan that far ahead. If you asked me the same question 5 years ago I don’t think I could have seen myself where I am now. Just do your thing, and keep your ear to the ground for opportunities. over time the collection of those opportunities will take you where you need to go.

9. What about in ten?

Saying “no” more.

10. What do you hope to achieve with your art?

EVERLASTING GLORRRYYYYY. jk. I like the idea I can help other people tell their stories. I’d rather be the rod than the lightning. Achievement requires some sort of plan to come to fruition. A lot of the times my plan is to just sit down and make something, and see what happens. I’ve achieved everything I wanted to the moment I sat down to start making it.

11. Now, tell us a little more about you as a person: what is your favourite food?

I’m in an ever-lasting war of self-doubt vs confidence. one side will win the battle one day and the next day, the other side wins. Finding that balance to believe in yourself and stay humbled is an eternal struggle. To take care of your loved ones, and take care of yourself… and on and on. These are things that consume most of waking thoughts. So when I’m out there in the world, this is me. as a person. I really like Phở.

12. Favourite book?

Island by Aldous Huxley

13. Favourite genre of music?

Who’s got just one?? genres reflect moods to me, so it’s whatever i’m in the mood for.

14. What are your hobbies?

I like anything that’s a creative outlet or recharges my energy to make stuff. so reading, watching movies, eating a well-prepared meal by a talented chef. trying to create a well-prepared myself. trying new shit. walking around. hanging out with friends. meeting new people in a low-key setting.

15. If you weren't an artist, what would you be?

A corpse. oh man I am on a roll today. again, joking, I would have tried to become a therapist. It’s always easier to fix other people’s problems than your own right?