One of Ben’s award winning examples
What is your primary medium?
So technically, it's mixed media. Most of my end products are digital. But I always start out with a pencil under drawing. And I do digital line work in procreate, and I color in Photoshop, and I animate in Photoshop and After Effects. So it's kind of a broad range of things. So that's why I say mixed media.
How long have you been working in art?
Yeah. So I mean, I've been drawing and illustrating since I was a kid. But I got serious about it and started leaning into more professional illustration work about five years ago.
What's it like to support yourself doing art?
I think accomplishing things professionally within the world of illustration is super validating and exciting and intimidating and enthralling, and all of those things at once. And yeah, it's a whole range of things. But mostly, it's super exciting because illustration is such a meandering career path and it's so untraditional I think in the normal sense of a career. I think once accomplishment starts coming down the pipeline, it starts to get exciting and validating in a way that's different than like a traditional career trajectory.
Can you talk about your awards?
Yeah, so 2020 was a big year actually. I had a few successes submitting to award shows fortunately. I was able to get awarded by 3x3 Illustration Annual as well as, more recently, Communication Arts Illustration Annual and American illustration.
Has the recognition made a difference for you?
I think that it results in more traffic to my website nowadays. Squarespace gives you a really basic analytics tool if you run a portfolio site through them and so I've been noticing the numbers kind of jumping up a little bit and getting more consistent. Then also some more attention on the social media pages. I think the primary result from the award shows is a certain level of accreditation. It gives you a nice in to communicate with art directors at publications and they take you more seriously as an illustrator. And so it sort of starts to result in more commissioned work.
What's it been like trying to get your work out there?
Super hard and complicated and scary and, for the longest time, I thought that it wasn't going to be ready. It was hard to know when I had portfolio pieces that were good enough and consistent with each other. About a year ago I paid for an online portfolio review through 3x3 magazine and they have an editor who really knows his stuff and I was just chatting with him and at that point, he kind of encouraged me to just get going and I took that as my tipping off point. This was at the beginning of 2020. So after I had that portfolio review, I felt really encouraged and I decided to just start moving forward with all of my strength and start dedicating all my nights and weekends to illustrating. So it began with sort of getting some validation from an editor who had a credible reputation in the industry that I wanted to work in and from there it just progressed to gaining exposure to my clients and starting to get some commissioned work out of that.
Do you think it was worth paying for a portfolio review?
Oh, I mean, the best $35 I've probably ever spent. I mean, you know, every once in a while you have things that stand out to you in your memory because it becomes a turning point. That's one of them. I remember walking outside on one of the trails behind Camel's Back after my review with him, and I was like, holy shit, I could actually do this. This is something that I could accomplish if I wanted. Just because of someone's opinion. And I don't think it should always be that way, but it worked that way for me and encouraged me in the right way. I was like, Oh, my God, this is actually possible. It blew my mind. I was off to the races after that. And actually, I had done an interview with that same editor a year before, where he was like, “This is trash, this needs to go, you need to take this off your Instagram. Don't do this anymore. Your website's confusing in this way.” And it was actually mostly negative. But he gave me like 20% encouragement where he was like, “You got chops. You could do this if you want, but you need to correct these things, course correct here.” And so that's why I came to him a year later, because I had spent that whole time working on the things that he was telling me about in the first paid critique. So I guess, the best $35 I've ever spent, but also the best $70 I've ever spent.
What drives you to get up in the morning and work?
Well, it's hard to make myself sit down and work. Especially during the summer, I would so much rather be out on a trail somewhere sometimes. But there's a certain number I have in my head of hours that I want to work every week to accomplish my goals. Before I implemented that style of structure and regimen to my creative process, I wasn't seeing the results that I wanted to see. And then by doing that, I started to see the results that I wanted to see. So initially it was a lot scarier to invest that time because I wasn't sure if it was going to pay back. I wasn't sure if it was going to be worth it at all. But once I started getting even the smallest little successes it helped that snowball and helped build momentum and build motivation to get up in the morning and put in those extra hours to accomplish what I wanted to accomplish. Even now It's hard to find new motivation. I think, because your accomplishments start to look like something, and then you might start to feed into that rather than creating new things and engaging in the initial process that got you there to begin with. The advice that's never failed me was from my professor at Boise State in the illustration department, Bill Carman. He said, pretty much to the effect of, “Butt in the chair working longer and better.” You know, it's just putting hours in.
Do you think your time at school was worthwhile?
For me it was. I don't think people have to go to school for whatever they end up doing. Frequently that's not the case. I think that's becoming more of a dialogue around this whole thing. People are becoming more aware that you can kind of carve your own path. I personally found a lot of value in my education because it kind of opened up a new world to me that I wasn't aware of before I discovered my favorite illustrators in school. I discovered a career path in school and these are things that wouldn't have happened to me had I not gone to pursue a degree. So I think it definitely had value for me personally.
Are there any Boise specific opportunities you’ve had?
A part of the initial momentum that I've been able to enjoy as an illustrator here has been in large part due to the Boise City Department of Arts and History's public art programs, like the traffic box, and the various grants that they put out throughout their cycle. The first public art project that I worked on last year was a traffic box. I also worked on a transit shelter last year. So they have been awesome to work with. They have a really competent, engaging and well organized team over there. They provide a lot of opportunities that are really cool. The budgets are right, the work is put up in amazing places. It's fun to go see your work as a part of the environment here. So I would say that, yeah, the public art stuff has been really beneficial.
Why do you think art is important?
Man, that's not fair. I think art is important because it captures abstract concepts that we become detached from that are intrinsic to our meaning and our biology and evolution as creatures. I think it attaches us to those abstract patterns of behavior that are beneficial to us in life. I think music does that. I think visual art does that in different ways. But I think if you did away with that, life would be too rigorous and logical.
Is there anything I haven't asked you that you want to talk about?
Well, one of the main motivations for me when I'm interacting with people surrounding my illustration work is that I feel like if there's anything that I could put out there for people that are coming up behind me who are about to make a whole bunch of amazing work and overtake the field in some way is that, you can do that and you should. It's better for everybody if you engage in something that's meaningful to you and whatever your dream is, if it's inside of art or inside of music or something that's less traditionally defined, you can accomplish it as long as you're willing to put the work in.
Do you think art is something you'll ever stop doing?
No.