Interview with Torren Thomas
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| Author | Jon Casey |
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| Subject | Torren Thomas |
| Genre | Interview |
| Published | EF Issue 2015.4 |
Publication date | Fall 2015 |
| Pages | 16-17 |
| Website |
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An interview with Torren Thomas found on pages 16-17 of EF Issue 2015.4
Article Transcript
Q: Torren, a lot of our members are excited to see you speak about your work, and many of them may not have heard of you as a younger artist in our field. Can you introduce yourself to our readers?
A: Well my name is Torren Thomas. I'm just a regular guy born and raised in the Midwest who likes to draw and paint. I've done art pretty much the entirety of my life and decided I was going to try and make it my career around middle school age. I eventually attended and graduated from the University of Kansas with a BA in illustration and have been working on becoming the best artist possible ever since.
Q:Caricaturists often come into the field from a wide variety of entrances. What was your introduction to the art form?
A: My entrance into caricature was kind of on accident. I had always seen the guys who drew caricatures at the theme parks and thought they were awesome, but I never really had any desire to actually become a live caricature artist. I really got into caricature because I got bored drawing traditional portraits of people. I was drawing and painting a lot of celebrities and musicians that I liked, but I kept feeling like I was wasting my time doing something you could easily get with a photograph. I still loved drawing people and the challenge of capturing a likeness, but I needed something more. I just felt like I wasn't being creative enough at the time. From there, I started looking at caricature artists on Google and stumbled upon the work of this guy who goes by the name Jason Seiler. I spent about three days just looking at his stuff thinking how I could never get that good. Then I saw a ray of hope when I found out he taught an online class. I scraped the money together and signed up. From there I learned the basics and how to truly caricature a subject, and I've been moving forward with it ever since.
Q: Your paintings are often based on very hot topics in popular culture. Game of Thrones, hip-hop artists, the series True Detective and more.All show a reflection of the times you are creating work in as well as a personal viewpoint and passion for the subject matter. How do you choose what subjects you paint?
A: Choosing what I paint is always the easiest part of the process because I just go with my gut. A lot of the things I end up painting happen to be things that are trending at the moment or big parts of pop culture, but I never really focus on that. If it's not a job and I'm doing work for myself, I don't think "I bet a lot of people will like this" or "this subject is hot right now." I just kind of paint what I'm into. When I paint Breaking Bad stuff or Game of Thrones stuff or certain musicians, it's because I have a genuine love for the show or the artist. You can tell a lot about me as a person just by looking at the subject matter that I paint. It's all really an expression of me and my interests.
Q: What are some of the formats which you have published work in professionally? I’ve seen restaurants, CD covers, games? Can you share a few of your recent projects with us?
A: I'm still young in this industry, but I have been blessed to have some work in a lot of different areas. I've done a lot of character design for mobile and online video games; I have paintings hanging in restaurants in Las Vegas; I've done designs for clothing lines for rappers like Snoop Dogg; and I have had a few pieces in magazines like Casino Journal, Lawrence Magazine, and Akron Listed. I was also able to do some DVD box art for a PBS documentary, have a piece on the front page of the New York Observer, and recently I've started doing cover art for some musicians.
Q: What has been a favorite piece you have done in 2015 and why?
A: If I had to pick, it would be a tie between my Chris Christie piece and the cover artwork I did for rapper Clarkairlines. I really like the Clarkairlines cover because of what it represents. He's not a big-time artist yet, and his album packaging is very important when it comes to how his project is going to be received by the public. It's an honor when someone asks you to take on a responsibility like that, so I put in a ton of work to make sure it's as good as it possibly can be. I'm very proud of the results. The Chris Christie piece I like because it's just ridiculous. An important person like Chris Christie dressed as a cheerleader? What's not to love about that?
Q: What do you hope to share with our members at the convention?
A: I guess I just want to share some of who I am with everybody. There are tons of talented people way better than me who could probably tell you more than I could about painting and art in general. I just want to share my personal approach to art, my experiences, and hope that maybe someone will get something useful out of it.
See Also
External Links
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