We already featured the stunning talent of Sam Taylor on our blog and today we had the opportunity to have a little cconversation with this peculiar illustrator. So please take a sit and enjoy the interview, hope you guys get some good tips and insights from this.
You can see more of Sam Taylor illustrations at his Official Website or at his Tumblr blog, you can also follow him on Twitter.
1) First of all I would like to thank you for doing this interview, it’s an honour for us to present more about you to our readers. I would like to start asking about how was the beginning of your career?
Haha! Thanks. One of the first proper jobs I did was for Death Skateboards, it was a board graphic for my friend who (coincidentally) is a professional for them, Boots. Then I did another graphic for Science Skateboards, a company that my good friend (Chris Morgan) owns and I skate for. From there I got more and more work, until I did something for VICE and that became a regular thing.
Sam Taylor version of Jim Phillips “Screaming Hand”
2) Please share a picture of your workplace and tells us more about your daily routine.
I wake up at about 9am, get a coffee, put on BBC 6 Music, sort myself out and then start drawing. If I already have a brief I like to get drawing straight away. After I’ve done all the drawing I scan everything in, then maybe I’ll get some food, after I’ve eaten I get on Photoshop and make it all look really pretty. When I’m finished with that I’ll go skate or bowling or something fun, then go to the pub.
Beside your daily work, do you have any hobbies? Please share it with us.
Skateboarding and bowling are my main hobbies. I’ve been skating for about 13 years, I love it. And I recently got into bowling with a few of my good friends, it started out as a joke but now we go every week and are all completely hooked. I love beer as well and that ties in nicely with my bowling addiction.
What you think are the next steps for you as a professional and as a person? And how do you see your creative area on the next 5 years?
Wow, I don’t know. I’m pretty happy where I am right now. Maybe I’ll get into animation or do more comics, we’ll see. Hopefully I’ll be better at bowling in 5 years.
Please share five golden lessons you learned to this point.
1- Aim for the pocket, so you can get a strike.
2- Draw every day, so you can grow rad images.
3- Eat your 5-a-day, so you don’t die.
4- Listen to the radio, so you know what’s going on in the world.
5- Never say no to fun.
What’s the best thing about working on your business and what is the worst? Why?
The best thing is getting to draw every day, I love it. Picking my own hours is good too, I’m pretty well organised. The worst is probably cabin fever, being stuck at my desk for long periods of time, alone, it’s not that bad but it kinda sucks. I like people. Oh and waiting for briefs to come in.
Do you have any heroes? What make them your heroes?
My heroes are pretty obvious; like Robert Crumb, Matt Groening, John K, Danny Devito, Larry David, Daniel Clowes, Mark Rothko, Bill Hicks, Nick Cave, Monty, Prince Naseem Hamed the list goes on.
Tell us in one picture how you’re feeling about your life right now.
Now for some quick and short answers:
– A Food: Chilli
– A Animal: The Common Street Fox
– A Colour: Black
– A Tool: Computer
– A Person: Myself
– A Place: London
– A Song: ‘Golden Slumbers’
A Movie: Die Hard With A Vengeance
– A Quote: As Slipknot so eloquently put it: “People = Shit”
Thanks again for your time, please leave a final message for the ones who are starting out on this kind of business, tell us something we should expect.
Don’t stop drawing, learn as much software as you can, be on all the different social media sites and always have fun. (Also follow me on Twitter, thanks).