2017 Golden Nosey Interview

2017 Golden Nosey Interview

Author	Cory Lally
Subject	Manny Avetisyan
Genre	Article, Interview, Golden Nosey Award
Published	EF Issue 2018.1
Publication date	Winter 2018
Media type	Print, Digital
Pages	18-20
Website	caricature.org

“Paula,” acrylic on canvas board

“Tom Fluharty,” acrylic on canvas board

“Dave Smith,” digital, Clip Studio Paint Pro

“Chess game of Thrones” digital, Clip studio paint pro.

“Dilbert, carny extraordinaire”, marker, Art Stix and Neocolor 1.

"Bogdan Petry,” digital, Clip Studio Paint Pro.

"Mr. Orange,” digital, Clip Studio Paint Pro.

Article Transcript

Keeping up with this year’s Golden Nosey winner isn’t easy. Last I checked, he was in Argentina. Or was it Brazil? His Facebook page reads like something out of National Geographic! But no matter where he is, in between taking photos of beautiful landscapes in remote locations, he always manages to find the time to draw. I am sure this persistence helped him to score this year’s top award. Luckily, he was able to find some time to Skype with me all the way from somewhere in South America. Here is an excerpt from that interview.

What kind of artistic background do you have?
As a kid, I grew up drawing a lot. I loved drawing! My cousin would draw these cars in 3D, and I thought that was the coolest thing. He would turn the tires ever so slightly so it looked like it was comin’ at ya, and it blew me away as a four-year-old kid…so I would always try to copy that. That started my love with drawing. So, when we came to America, I was six years old…and as a refugee, weird immigrant kid, I would draw in class and get a lot of attention from kids. I realized that if I’m going to survive and make friends in this country…I’d have to be good at drawing. It was a means of survival in the beginning.

When & how did you get your start with caricatures?
I started caricature back around 2000, right out of high school. I was attending the Art Institute and getting my degree in computer animation, special effects, and silliness. I would often go to the zoo to draw the animals, and one day I was passing through and they opened a caricature stand there, at the LA zoo. Joe Torres was like “Hey, is that a sketchbook!? Let me see your work!” He liked my work and said I should totally come and interview! I ended up going to a group interview, and Jeremy (Miller) and Jason (Riggs) gave us some tests to do, let us practice on some sample facial features…and it was just difficult. I’d never gone to straight marker before or drawn cartoony. But I got the news that I was hired!

Who are your influences?
None of this would be possible without the guys who got me started, Jason and Jeremy. They hired their friend from Ohio, Quincy Sutton, and when he came in, it changed my world. I ended up watching over his shoulder as often as I could, and for a long time my style looked like a bad version of his. I’d say he was my first influence caricature-wise. When I got back in…the person I have to give a lot of thanks to was Paul Evina-Ze. We worked well together, and we had a good dynamic. He was opening my mind up to new ideas and art. Watching Paul do his thing, just exaggerating like crazy,

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