@elliotkruszynski

14/1/2017

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

I don't have a very good story I don't think. I come from a city called Gloucester in the UK which is a real shit hole. Pretty much all I can do is draw so thats what I've done most of my life and somehow I'm managing to still do that.

2. Tell us about your aesthetic.

I guess its just very simplistic. I use flat colour and easy shapes to build images up. I don't like a lot of detail, but I do like a little bit of well placed detail.

3. What is your favourite medium and why?

My fav medium is probably screen printing. Its not one that I can really use in my commercial work at all, but its the process that has informed my work the most. After uni where I was just terrible I kind of stopped what I was doing and re-learnt to draw in a way that made me a bit happier. I was printing a lot at the time and the use of shapes and stencilling and how you approach the print process really helped me think about drawing differently.

4. What is your artistic process like?

Normally I start by drawing for a little bit on subject matter thats relevant then I'll do a load of little thumbnails of different compositions. Once I've been drawing for a little bit I normally have a pretty clear idea of what the final image is gonna look like so once I've got a little version of that i'll scan it into a computer and start re-drawing the image in Photoshop. This is normally quite an organic process, I don't like to plan stuff out too much before hand otherwise I get really bored when i'm colouring it all on the computer, some of my thumbnails I work from are so vague they look like trash. Obviously though with client work roughs that get sent to them have to have some semblance of what the final image will look like.

5. Who and/or what inspires your work?

I watched a shit load of cartoons when I was younger which have no doubt had a big influence, mostly Hanna-Barbera stuff. But then I pretty much learned to draw by copying Pokemon as well, like when I was young I was so sick at just drawing pokemon perfectly at school. Its a talent I've unfortunately lost which is a shame because it was probably the highlight of my school life (this was year 4/5). Even though its not massively evident in my work I fucking love background paintings in older cartoons, people like Mary Blair and Maurice Noble are just amazing. Tove Jansson and Tezuka Osama are also true OGs massive shout out to them. Then just like everyday life pretty much. Most of my work is just really boring everyday things that I've tried to make not look boring. Also Kanye big shout out to him.

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

It plays a fairly big role I would say. In that everyday i'm drawing, and if I'm not then I'm probably thinking about what I need to draw next. I think i'm a fairly perceptive person and pay attention to a lot of little things. Because my work kind of revolves around the everyday I tend to look around at things that I can use a lot more than if I say worked at Halfords. So yeah I would say it has changed the way I look at things. (That's not an assault on the workforce of Halfords). final1