About the artist - Mock interview

Who are you and what do you do?

My name is Kieran Macdonald and I'm a college student. I spend a lot of my time drawing and trying to improve my observational skills. 

Why do you do what you do?

I started drawing in November 2015 as an infrequent hobby and after about 6 weeks of frustration I quit. It wasn't until around March 2016 that I continued drawing after I was asked to draw up some character designs by a friend. The designs had to be digital and after I picked up a graphics tablet, I was hooked. Almost every day since has been an effort to improve my artistic ability.

How do you work?

I normally work in monochrome, I like to do a lot of portraits, still life observations and photo studies. I start out with a rough sketch and throw paint on top of it until I'm happy with it! I like to work quite quickly, fixing mistakes as I go along as I get frustrated when I don't make much progress on a painting or drawing for a long time. 

What’s your background?

I'm a very late bloomer. I never had any interest in drawing as a kid, I tried it like everybody else but I never had any ability, it was around June 2016 that I decided I wanted to pursue it as a career so I weighed up my options and got into my first choice college to study as a mature student.

How has your practice change over time?

The only thing that has really changed about my work is the finished results. 95% of my improvements have come from happy accidents and paying attention. I never really paid any attention to tutorials, (though I watched a lot of them) I realised that I was drawing what I thought I was seeing and not what was actually there. The biggest change came with the bitterness that I've always felt towards my work. The displeasure I felt after spending hours trying to copy a simple cartoon character and not being able to get it right actually angered me to the point that I simply couldn't sit around knowing that I'd produced my best work and it was horrible. I actually hated drawing for a long time and I only did it because I'm stubborn, I'm happy to say that while I'm still not always happy with my work and probably never will be, that my work doesn't anger me anymore and I do truly enjoy the creative process now!

What work do you most enjoying doing?

I enjoy personal projects the most. I don't particularly like taking on client-based work because I often don't identify with it. Though I always prioritise paid work over my own personal work, there's nothing better than finding a topic or idea that I can really get behind and turning it into something that contains a part of me. 

What themes do you pursue?

At the moment I'm focusing on monochrome works, I've always struggled with colour works and while I'm still making time to study it in between projects, it's not something I'm comfortable incorporating into my display pieces yet. I'm still finding my style and while I'm constantly finding out the things I don't yet understand and learning about them, I'm not sure when or if I'll ever know exactly what I want to label my work as.

What’s your favourite art work?

Despite it being completely unrelated to my own artworks, "Bewitched Park" by Leonid Afremov is one of my all-time favourite paintings. 

Describe a real-life situation that inspired you?

I was probably most inspired by my best friend and seeing what she was able to accomplish with a graphics tablet and a computer. I had no idea about digital art before this point because I'd never looked for it or had any real interest in it. But watching her sit for hours, lost in an image and then seeing the finished results was very inspiring to me

What jobs have you done other than being an artist?

I've had several jobs, mostly in retail. I've spent most of my working life as a bartender working in several local pubs, clubs and restaurants. 

Is the artistic life lonely? What do you do to counteract it?

I don't feel like it's a lonely profession. Though my experience is limited, from what I can see, to have any success in the industry you need to be a people-person. Talent alone won't cut it, there are millions of talented artists out there and to be a cut above you need to have the ability to make people like you, if you don't have a good relationship with your clients, they won't want to buy what you're selling. I also really enjoy posting my art online for feedback and to inspire others. It's lovely to post something you've put a lot of time and effort on for others to see, especially when the comments are nice!

What do you dislike about the art world?

I dislike that it's very difficult to get into and that a lot of people look down on those studying art. I feel like there are a lot of people who undervalue the importance of art.  From a business perspective, in the modern world, if you want to sell a product, any product, you need an artist to communicate that, sometimes multiple artists to make sure that the visual side of your business looks as professional as the product you want to sell. And from a social aspect, there are a lot of important messages which are far more impactful when they are displayed visually as an image rather than written down with words, which makes art pretty important in my eyes.

What do you dislike about your work?

It's a love-hate relationship but probably that my works are often quite messy. I like to make my work mildly expressionistic, I think it's important to keep a painting "real" in the sense that you can tell it's been painted and it looks man-made. Even if it's very skilfully created, I don't want my work to look like it's just been computer generated. I want people to see my individual brush strokes. I feel like it adds an extra layer of feeling but sometimes I think things get a little too messy and need some more refinement for my taste but that contradicts wanting to work quickly, I like to get my ideas on paper and finished as quickly as possible because I always want to move onto the next thing, this will probably change in the future but I'm still learning the basics at the moment, I feel like I learn a lot faster through repetition rather than refinement. 

What do you like about your work?

I like how much progress I've made. I love finishing a painting, sitting back and looking at it and comparing it to and old piece and admiring how far I've come. There's a real sense of achievement and giving yourself a pat on the back, spending 5 minutes with an inflated head from time-to-time can be healthy. It's important to appreciate your work, because if you love your work, it'll keep you inspired and wanting to keep improving. 

What makes you angry?

Bad art days. I think all artists have them, a lot of the people I speak to talk about "bad art days", the days where your hand just won't co-operate and no matter how hard you try, your lines, weights, values, forms, they're just not going in the right places and everything looks off. I think it's a result of spending too much time with a pen in your hand, sometimes it's good to take a break for a day or two. 

What research to you do?

I like to see what other artists are doing. I spend most of my time looking at lesser known artists and supporting their work. I tend to keep my research limited to artists who are only a few cuts above me at any given time unless it's for a college project. I find that researching the masters and trying to imitate their work actually hindered my progress because I just got frustrated that I couldn't even come close to their standards. I think I'm reaching a point where I would feel comfortable doing master studies without wanting to tear my hair out, while I'm still years away from that level of talent and hidden subtleties hidden away in their work, I feel like there is an untapped fountain of knowledge waiting for me there and I'm excited to explore that as a part of my art journey.

What superpower would you have and why?

There's a lot and it's hard to choose from. I'd probably pick telekinesis, I've always been fascinated by it and used to try to move things with my mind as a kid. Second to that would probably be invisibility or flight. 

Name something you love, and why.

Related to art, getting lost in a drawing. Sometimes time seems to move so slowly and you're just watching the clock and waiting for the end of the day or counting the seconds until you can go home, but when I'm drawing it's like hypnosis, I could start a drawing at noon, finish it at 8pm and feel like only 10 minutes have passed, and then wake up from the hypnosis and be shocked at how far the drawing has come and then be even more shocked by what time it is!

Name something you don’t love, and why.

Again, related to art, I've never been a big fan of abstract art. Probably because I can never relate to it. I never see a hidden meaning or a story within. 

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given?

"Draw what's there, not what you think is there." and the long-time cliche "Practice makes perfect."

Professionally, what’s your goal?

I'm not sure yet, when I decided that I wanted a career in art I knew I wanted to be in some form of illustration and at the moment I'm leaning towards 2D concept artistry, particularly character design, though I am leaving several other doors open, including the idea that I might become a tattoo artist.