interview with damien weighill

Interview with Damien Weighill about his multiple-faced blog & some more -  

Image from Damien's page

Q1: How did you get into illustrations in the beginning? Are you now a full-time illustrator?

A:
I studied graphic design at uni which involved a fair bit of illustration. From the work I exhibited at our degree show I was lucky enough to pick up my first commission and got approached by an agent. After that I worked as graphic designer for 3 years working on illustration projects on the side. So far I've been making my living solely as an illustrator for just over a year.

Advertising Meeting by Damien Weighill.
Advertising Meeting - from Damien's flickr

Q2: Are there any particular influences throughout your artistic career, e.g. other artists, certain types of music, certain social phenomenon etc.?

A:
I'm inspired by so much it would be impossible to single any one artist out but I guess the most consistent influence would be the people I spend most of my time with. I'm lucky enough to have a group of friends all pursuing various creative paths. There's no way I could sit back and see what they create without attempting to keep up.

yourface%5B1%5D.gif (490×272)
Banner of Damien's "Your Face" blog

Q3: Your 'yourfaceblog' started in Jan 2007 and I guess it's been doing quite well from all the people sending photos and various comments received. How the process work? How do you develop the character of each 'face' based on just a single photo people sending in? Do you ask them what they would like to 'look like' in your illustration?

A:
Some people tell me a little about themselves and others send a blank email with photo attached but I usually just draw the first thing that comes into my head that amuses me. That could be inspired by something they wrote or maybe some little thing in the background of the photo but I don't really do requests. I think if I was just drawing from people's requests then I would have got bored of this project before it even got into double figures. There would also be a lot more portraits involving cats on the blog (and a lot less portraits with abundant facial hair). I get a frightening amount of emails from people telling me they like cats.

t-shirt by you.
The queen on T-shirt, available in a shop at Earlham Street or online

Q4: Of your commercial commissions, which one(s) do you enjoy the most in terms of overall experience, or final outcome?

A:
There are a lot of commercial projects I've enjoyed working on but two recent projects come to mind first. 

A book I worked on for Conqueror paper - Coming up with ideas is the part of illustration that really interests me so this job was perfect. I was given a number of broad themes like Nature or Transport and then was given room to fill the book with hundreds of ideas.

Conqueror - Endless Possibilities - Spread 2
Image from Damien's page

Then there's the Giggle Party music video. Almost all of the time I'm working on projects on my own so it was really great to have someone else to throw in ideas into the ring that I would never have come up with and to take things in new directions (co-director and animator Stephen Wake). The music throws up some pretty crazy scenarios so it was a lot of fun getting together to try and match that in the visuals.

Q5: A more technical question - how much time (proportionately) in general you spend between hand-drawing and computer-illustration on your works?

A:
90% Hand-drawing. 10% Computer. I keep my work in my head and sketchbook as much as possible. I mainly like to colour illustrations digitally because of the flexibility it allows and the fact it means I can spend less time colouring and more time focusing on the ideas.

Q6: Any future plans? What's next?

A:
I've got superhuman powers when it comes to making plans, plotting and scheming so I'll stick to the most immediate ones. Next is salad - Most likely involving mozzarella and pine nuts. Then I've got a bit of an obsession with ideas for birthday/greeting cards. I just printed a couple (http://damienweighill.com/2009/09/thinking-of-you/) and intend to print more as soon as I can. Oh, and portraits of course. Lots more portraits.

Further reading -
Damien's flickr collection
Damien's MySpace
Another interview Damien's done before with atribecallednext.com earlier this year