This is where I make stuff.
This is where I make stuff.
Contrary to the popular and nebulous myth perpetuated that Macs...
Contrary to the popular and nebulous myth perpetuated that Macs are better for "creative" things, that's simply not the case. Software dictates everything and the Adobe Creative Suite which covers most digital creative trades is available universally, and with a very tiny number of Mac or PC exclusive pieces of software, none of which fall into the realm of digital painting (Photoshop, Sketchbook Pro, Painter, Manga Studio, etc. are all cross-platform) — which you choose is more a preference of workflow and budget than one with a definitive answer. I own both and while I've used both extensively, I personally have grown to prefer macs for my workflow for two main reasons:
- I find that how files are organized and accessed in the interface to be much more logical, and thus quicker to get to. This is one of those things that really depends on how cemented you are in using one operating system or another and how well you know the little tricks and gestures behind them. (Though my opinion of Windows deteriorated substantially with Windows 8's fragmented interface)
- The hardware is more reliable in my experience by a very wide margin — wide enough that the price tag Apple slaps on them has proved to be totally worth it.
I build my PCs so I'm very aware how much more bang for the buck one gets when things aren't encased in ultra-sleek aluminum and slapped with an Apple logo — but I've never had a single issue with a Mac I've owned, and many with the PCs I've built over the years, including the one I just built, despite it having the most reliable and highest-end parts I've ever used. I can happily fix these issues, but I don't want them on something I rely on so heavily for work. But know that artists can create the exact same level of things across Mac or PC, so it's not a matter of capability — it's taste and budget. Before I had any income to make that decision, I used what I could afford and that meant a mid-spec PC and it did the job just fine — don't feel like you need top of the line shit immediately. Beautiful work can be made with entry-level bamboo tablets and decade old PCs — the speed, efficiency, and quality of the tools you use can improve the experience of creating things digitally, but it won't improve you magically. Much like oil painters start out with diluted student-level paints and cheap synthetic brushes only to eventually graduate to artist grade pure pigments and fine sable brushes, or a photographer starts with a disposable and works their way up to a 5D MkIII, let your equipment evolve with your progression and needs as an artist.
Cosby sketchin'
Cosby sketchin'
"Tobias Fünke" - Illustration by Sam Spratt Have a...
"Tobias Fünke" - Illustration by Sam Spratt
Have a happy Arrested Development binge-viewing everyone.
Another few day gap between client approvals so here's...
Another few day gap between client approvals so here's some progress on a piece I'm just working on for Fün(ke).
It’s hard to blame Tumblr for the deal with Yahoo when their attempts at monetization were...
It’s hard to blame Tumblr for the deal with Yahoo when their attempts at monetization were selling digital stickers and push pins for your posts.
"Dwight Schrute: Bears, Beets, & Battlestar Galactica" - by...
"Dwight Schrute: Bears, Beets, & Battlestar Galactica" - by Sam Spratt
With The Office ending tonight, I felt it was appropriate to bring back this illustration I did a couple years ago.
I doodle-ized a critter.
I doodle-ized a critter.
"Bond" - Portrait by Sam Spratt I've been...
"Bond" - Portrait by Sam Spratt
I've been going just a bit crazy bouncing between client projects for… well awhile now… but I've got a few days before things go back to insanity and a good 'ol fashioned portrait of Daniel Craig seemed like a great way to refresh.
Art is just communication. Sometimes we sit around in a circle...
Art is just communication. Sometimes we sit around in a circle and have surface-level, vapid, but highly entertaining and fulfilling conversations with each other about why The Avengers would've been at least 372% better if every character were played by Ian Mckellen. Occasionally we escape and have an all-night one-on-one conversation with someone about the deepest complexities of our ooey gooey souls and feelings — earnestly saying things like "Man… looking at all these stars really makes you think about things… and stuff." Many people even just talk to themselves revealing their most honest and personal truths… mostly in written form granted, but I'd be lying if I said things don't get verbal now and then when I'm painting for long stretches. The point is: communication (art in this case) doesn't "have" to be anything at all, you choose what to say and when to say it. A teacher can hate what you have to say and grade you accordingly, however arbitrary that may seem — but at the end of the day, you have the choice to be as "deep" as you want to with the things you say.
You don't have to pick a side. What you say and what you make doesn't have to all be profound or all be simple and surface-level. You're a human, and if you're human like me… some days you've got labyrinthian feelings and ideas that need to be unleashed in high concept personal artwork, some days you just want to paint something because you "like it", and some days you feel that the Dowager Countess should be in a leopard pimp coat, Ron Swanson should have a chestache, or that robots should just be girls in awkward cardboard boxes.
Art doesn't have to explore a philosophical concept. Art doesn't have to be much of anything at all really — but personally? A balance helps. People have many facets to themselves and creating artwork is a great way to share these facets, all of them. There is a chance that your teachers are repressing your artistic freedom and trying to force you to do what you don't want to — but, before you climb up on the desk, rip your shirt off screaming "FUCK THE OPPRESSORS" and start burning things down in some sort of occupy art school frenzy — consider the (good) chance that they're doing that exact thing only to see if a bit of pushing can get you to share those other sides of you in the event that you might have something else worth saying.
I made no sacrifices as melodramatic or as biblical as...
I made no sacrifices as melodramatic or as biblical as say… slicing open a goat on an alter and rolling in its blood… but several common aspects of life were given up, occasionally in extremes when I graduated from college, and a few I still largely keep out. While if you're one of the special lotus blossoms who attended my NHIA lecture, you already are on top of this, when I left school, I was essentially asked what I was willing to give up to succeed as an artist.
Not what I would DO to succeed, but what I would GIVE UP.
I answered: everything. I would give up everything.
This vague "everything" ranged from sweeping changes to my social and personal life down to substances and content consumed to entire aspects of my personality. These things removed aren't all HORRIBLE, EVIL, things, but especially for my first year trying to improve, they were some of the most distracting constants in my life that I knew I needed to ditch or change to try to make it.
ALCOHOL: I drank and partied a ton in college, less than some, but I was regularly pushed to the limits of my own stupidity. I removed that from my life entirely for about a year, and since then I keep such things very moderate — and only unleashing college-level stupidity on very special occasions.
LADY FRIENDS: My longest stretch without a girlfriend in college was about 4 weeks, I was in love with the idea of serial monogamy, I was a total sap. I still had and have relationships since I left, but they are either very distant and not something that eats into my time working, or very surface level and thus devoid of any of the emotional displacement of energy that makes most people go insane and want to velociraptor their faces off just thinking about their significant other. Easy, breezy, brief.
NON-LADY FRIENDS: In college, though they were ever-changing, I was constantly swept up in friend circles of 20-30-40 people who did EVERYTHING together. This is a fantastic, beautiful, crazy, dramatic, and worthwhile experience, but not one that a) allows you to get much done, or b) offers stability or independence. When I left, I cut it down to a core few, and since then, like most people do far younger than I did, It clicked that the quality few always trump quantity.
CASH MONEY: For much of my life, when I made money, I spent it. I never listened to my parents about saving it little by little, so when I left school, I decided they may be on to something, and spent my first year stingy as can be. Pinching the hell out of every penny. It sucked. It felt embarrassing, especially since when working at Gizmodo that first year, I was only making 20 bucks an illustration. But it paid off, I moved to New York with every cent I'd saved, I invested back into myself and my business, it's gone quite well, and now I just don't ever have to think about it. If I hadn't been so extreme in my thriftiness initially, there are MANY opportunities, huge ones, that I would have missed later on that really built my career.
WASTING MY LIFE AWAY ON THE WEB: I was glued to the Internet long before tumblr existed, I wasted away my days on forums, blogs, writing fan fiction (seriously), and frequenting gaming websites, never getting anything done or learning anything new, just consuming content that never helped me at much of anything. So that first year out of school, I spent all of that time learning how social media worked and the pathways that information flowed through Internet instead of digesting cat picture after cat picture. I've eased up substantially since then, but I still keep things at a minimum, and the time spent is mostly to learn or share, not endlessly scroll through nothingness — I don't do boredom.
DIAL DOWN THE DOUCHE JUST A NOTCH: I had always been told that I was very stubborn and set in my ways, thinking I have the answers and that the answers were set in stone. Stubborn makes it sound endearing so I long agreed with it. It's a word many like to use, but if I'm being honest, being stubborn mostly just feels like being narrow-mindedness and egotistical. Though perhaps the least tangible, the biggest thing I've (attempted) to give up and continue to attempt to, is an ego. I was really riding high when I left college. Despite all of the distractions mentioned, compared to highschool me, I had turned my life around and thought I was on top of the world, ready to tackle its obstacles.
I think ego is very perceptual. Depending on who you ask, it varies in size, ex: A super nice girl at my last lecture made it sound like it's non-existent, but I've encountered many who view it as a giant triceratops of one, and I think either is valid, though that girl definitely gets my favoritism for obvious reasons. I wouldn't post my artwork and my thoughts if I didn't at least have some confidence in them, (the crippling fear and self-loathing is less seen by people), but what changed a couple years ago was simply checking myself (before the wrecking of said self). What I mean by that is, I believe in being true to who you are — if you're confident, be confident — don't fake your way through being humble just because you'll get less shit for it. It's easy to be something that's never disagreeable. But at the same time, your confidence must always come with rules, fine print, and a very unflattering mirror. Know who you are, what you're good at, and what you've done, but never make it more than it is. Never put yourself above anything or outside the crossfire of criticism. For me, I needed very badly to just let go and understand that my knowledge is rewritten and expanded on a daily basis, my work has a million miles to grow, my viewpoints on the world will only extend as far as I've dared to look, and that a balance does exist out there where I can care passionately about what I do, feel empowered by sharing it, and not do so while being a ginormous twat waffle in the process. It's not the search for false humility, but rather just understanding my place, my REAL place, knowing that it's not that high, and communicating at least a vague awareness of it while I try to grow. Even writing this out makes me feel like a breakfast food/insult combo — this is very much so a work in progress for me.
IN CONCLUSION:
Sacrificing/giving up the things in life that are often viewed as just common place things or everyday indulgences, can actually give you a little momentum — it can bring clarity to what you're doing. You don't need to become a saint, it's not some religiously-induced choice, it's a personal one solely made to eliminate distractions when you have a goal in mind that demands your full attention. Since I was asked this question by a professor when I graduated, it's now the same question I throw back at everyone who ever asks me what they need to do to succeed as an artist. The things you need to do to succeed are obvious: time, effort, passion, practice, knowledge. End of list.
But what are you willing to give up?
I've been on a binge of...
I've been on a binge of back-to-back-to-back….to-back projects but had a break today during client approval so I started sketching out this little guy… I made it about 2 hours before workaholism kicked in and filled out my next few weeks with a few more "backs".
Good news: cool projects. Bad news: no new artsiness for awhile.
Update: muscles.
Normally, I feel that whenever I answer questions here, whatever...
Normally, I feel that whenever I answer questions here, whatever perspective I have to offer will suffice, but this one left me with a laundry list of opinions, most of which conflicted with one another. While it would probably be most expected for me to think that art can change the world, and it's other professions that serve a more tangible purpose that would look down on art as a career choice – if I'm being honest, my gut feeling was that me deciding to become an artist and continuing to be one IS incredibly selfish and narcissistic. Even when I engage with people considering following a similar career path, my words of encouragement boil down to "I love what I do, it fulfills me immensely". From artist to artist, that's exactly what you'd expect, but suddenly I considered the possibility that all of my artistic "advice" was just perpetuating a cycle of selfishness – encouraging people to pursue things only to make themselves happy. Having an impact on the world was never even a consideration, I just… like making things.
Is what I do, is what all artists do, just for themselves? Are we really just choosing a path that puts a smile on our faces when we should be picking careers that tangibly assist people? I was at a loss. I knew that I lacked the proper perspective to answer this question in full on my own.
Thankfully, two of my brothers happen to be in fairly interesting careers that contrast my own as an illustrator: a Doctor and a Rabbi. While we sat around a coffee table in Manhattan eating Thai food — my niece running around in circles holding a Superman action figure, and my 6 month old nephew smiling in a dapper baby outfit while he happily filled his diaper – I broached the question to see what two people who respectively save lives and save souls, would have to say about this. However, unlike myself, they almost immediately dismissed it as absurd.
The narcissism and selfishness was one of the first things they tried to dismantle — saying every profession, no matter how seemingly noble by label, attracts people who do it entirely for themselves, a doctor being no exception. I argued back saying that in these instances though, regardless of the reasons FOR pursuing these practical professions, a doctor still saves lives.
Next on the chopping block, they dissected the notion that artists have no real impact on the world. There were a slew of very expected and easily rebuked statements thrown around. When I told my Rabbi brother that the impact he has on his congregation and community is deep, profound, instantaneously noticeable, and that I don't have a damn clue whether anything I've ever made has affected anyone, he was just his usual humble self and in denial of that fact. But my other brother said something that if there were ever a statement that gave any sort of real answer to a question layered with so many existential onion rings, I felt this was it. He said, and I'm paraphrasing here, "Sam, just look at history, Doctors, Engineers, and Scientists are the people who have an impact in the world and matter the most? If anything you could make a strong argument that these are the professions that are extraneous. Art pre-dates medicine, science, and engineering by very wide margins. Art has grown and expanded exponentially throughout history, it has transformed language and sold belief systems to entire nations. I gain more from looking at a beautiful painting or listening to good music than I ever do from how something is engineered. I mean even on a really basic level of what I do, without artists, what the hell would us doctors learn from? You have no idea how much the field of medicine relies on illustration."
I didn't have an argument for that. It was historically sound.
While I'm not sure that I have a definitive answer to your question, after filling my perspective and knowledge gaps from my brothers, I will say this: It's a slippery slope to say that artists don't impact the world. Art's effects may not be as tangible as the aforementioned career alternatives, but it's still around, broader and more widespread than ever, permeating ever facet of our human-made world. Its effects may not be as quantifiable as how many years a Doctor has kept a person alive, but as most doctors will tell you, quantity of life is not nearly as valuable as the quality of it, yet their job demands that they deliver the number over the experience.
Art demands nothing, we just make it. We express, we depict, and we rage on whether or not our impact can be put into numbers.
I'm on my way back to NYC already
But thanks so much to everyone at NHIA. It was a lot of fun on my end and I hope mildly helpful on yours. Some absurd talent among you and I appreciate you putting up with my oddities.
Also, If anyone happens to have a picture or two of the event, I’d love to have them.
If you live in New Hampshire or make a habit of road-tripping...
If you live in New Hampshire or make a habit of road-tripping for art lectures, I'll be giving one this Friday at the New Hampshire Institute of Art. It'll be a brisk 40 minutes of artsy goodness followed by a Q&A.
Bonus: I'll be sharing a process painting video that I've never shared online.
I will also be giving the same lecture tomorrow in front of my bathroom mirror, but that one is VIP only.
"Jeff Goldblum sketch" - by Sam Spratt Another...
"Jeff Goldblum sketch" - by Sam Spratt
Another smaller sketch to break from my big painting.
Are you in love with that girl you always paint? She's hot...
That said, Tara's a good friend, you can see the paintings I've done with her here.
Peter Dinklage sketch - by Sam Spratt I'm working on an...
Peter Dinklage sketch - by Sam Spratt
I'm working on an illustration that will likely take upwards of 100 hours to finish, but in the meantime, I'm determined to take breaks and do some smaller sketches like this. On a related note, this cello cover of the Game of Thrones opening theme song is awesome if you haven't heard it.
As a freelance illustrator working primarily at home, you seem to have an excellent work ethic for all your projects. I have a really hard time establishing a work schedule and I'm experimenting, so I was wondering if you can tell me what your typical work day schedule is if it's not too personal to answer. Thank you for reading.
My typical work day schedule:
- Wake up between 7:30am-8:30am
- Get coffee and make the massive trek over to my studio (in a different room in my apartment).
- Spend about an hour reading news while Daily Show/Colbert goes in the background.
- Get more coffee.
- With the exception of rare bits of food, bathroom breaks, and posting artwork/answering email, I pretty much draw from 8-9am until 8pm (I keep netflix shows on in the background, being able to blow through season after season of shows without thinking keeps my work flow from being interrupted. You would be amazed at how many series I have gone through, even bad ones).
- Work out.
- Eat.
- Bathe.
- Either work some more, write, or go out for my bi-weekly illuminati blood orgy/dance party.
- Sleep.
- Do it again.
Blood Brother Poster - Illustration by Sam Spratt I illustrated...
Blood Brother Poster - Illustration by Sam Spratt
I illustrated the poster for the winner of Best Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival. It's a gorgeous and refreshingly self-aware film that I'm happy to be a part of in some small way. It will be making its way around, but I believe the next upcoming screening will be at Sundance London — so you should see these plastered around if you're in the area.
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