20+ Questions with Drew Friedman
Hi, Drew! Thanks for taking the time to answer a few questions. First of all, can you tell us a little about your background?
I was born in 1958, grew up in New
York, first on Long Island and then my
family moved to Manhattan when I was
13. Early on, I had a love for all things
cartoon art, comic books, animated
cartoons, bubblegum cards, MAD Magazine,
New Yorker cartoons, caricature,
and I knew that somehow, some way,
that’s what I wanted to do with my life.
My parents would send me to afterschool
art classes, then I was enrolled
briefly as a teenager at the High School
of Music & Art, and finally I attended
the School of Visual Arts, which had a
“Cartoon Department” taught by many
working cartoon professionals.
When did you realize you could draw for a living? Was it always your goal to be an artist?
Yes, really early on and probably when
I was 5, I realized that’s all I would ever
be suited for as I hated school and only
wanted to draw cartoons and funny
faces, much to my teachers’ anger. My
earliest goals were to someday work for
MAD Magazine, to be one of the “Usual
Gang of Idiots,” and to also do work for
the Topps bubblegum company, who
were then producing “Ugly Stickers”
and “Wacky Packs,” two series I was
particularly obsessed with. At that time I
thought my goals were probably impossible
to achieve, but I somehow managed
to achieve them both!
What is a typical day like in the life of Drew Friedman?
Typical day is to get up fairly early, run
the two beagles in the yard, then get to
work around 10-ish. I have a downstairs
studio, so joined by the beagles, that’s
where I can be found through most of
the day, with a quick break for lunch. I’m
usually wrapped up by 5 or so, even if
I’m on a deadline, and that’s it as far as
work. When I was younger, I’d sometimes
work too late, or even occasionally
[pull] the dreaded “all-nighter,” but no
more. My nervous system finally couldn’t
stomach it!
If you couldn’t do what you do now, how would you make money?
I’d be either a figure skater or a
grave digger.
What art-related activities do you do in your free time, or, if not art related, what do you like to do?
Actually, pretty mundane. My wife and I
live in the country, so aside from tractor
pulls, there’s not much to do around
here, which is just the way we like it.
We tend to stay in, cook together, relax
with the beagles by the pool or watch
old movies on TV. We’re about 80 miles
from NYC which is perfect since most of
our friends live there so it’s a pretty easy
visit. We love to drive into New York and
also we love to drive home.
Do you take any art classes now? If yes, what? If not, what would you like to take?
No, no art classes. I’m basically self
taught, or at least I learned how to do
what I do by paying attention to other
people’s work and through personal
trial and error. I’m convinced that’s the
best education.
You have a definite style that is unmistakably “Drew Friedman.” I am struck by how meticulously detailed everyone of your drawings is–how long does your process take?
It depends on the piece or assignment.
If it’s a rush job for a publication, I just
don’t have the luxury to put in the detail
that I’d normally like to do. But if it’s a
piece with no particular deadline, I’ll
sometimes spend up to a week on the
illustration. I love drawing the small
details, even if it’s just people, or even
portions of heads or bodies in the background
of a drawing. Sometimes that’s
more interesting to me than what’s supposed
to be the focus of the illustration.
I want the viewer to absorb the entire
piece, not just the main image.
Much of your past work entailed stippling, but now you seem to be doing more painting–why the change?
I worked in the stipple style very early
on, starting at art school, the School of
Visual Arts in New York. I sort of stumbled
into that style of drawing (tiny dots),
and it let me achieve the more photo-realistic
effect I was striving for in my early
work and especially in my comic strips,
where I was depicting actual people, TV
actors, movie actors and celebrities, in
semi-realistic, dark noir-type situations.
The best example was an early comic
strip I drew, written by my brother Josh,
about a black man visiting the Andy
Griffith town “Mayberry,” and the horrible
aftermath. I worked in the stipple style
for about a decade but finally switched to
painting when I was concentrating more
on magazine assignments, some with
tight deadlines, and celebrity portraits.
Also, the stippling was beginning to
strain my eyesight, something my artistic
hero and friend Robert Crumb had
warned me might happen.
Can you explain your current working procedure and how it varies from the way you used to work?
I tend to work to actual size, or maybe
just slightly larger, although when I take
on a commissioned piece, I’ll work a bit
larger (for me), up to 12 inches tall or so,
since most people like to collect or hang
up larger pieces. I work almost exclusively
in watercolor, not oil, with some
color pencil used for hi-lighting. I don’t
work at all on my art on the computer,
although my wife Kathy will touch things
up before we send it out to whomever. I
still do things the old-fashioned way!
Also, most of your work seems to be in black and white, with lots of vintage images. What do you use when you work in color?
Actually, these days it’s more 50-50 as
far as color vs. B&W. Early on I worked
exclusively in B&W, but as art directors
were demanding color more often, I
gradually taught myself to paint in color.
It was a slow process of a few years before
I was finally pleased with the results.
I have a huge photo file of B&W and
color photos, and of course these days you can just Google-image practically
anyone, but one of the things I most enjoy
is using a B&W reference photo and
transforming it to full color. Two good
examples of that are the full-color cover
of my first Old Jewish Comedians book,
Milton Berle. That was based on a tiny
photo of Berle I had clipped from People
magazine back in the eighties that I just
had a feeling I knew I’d use someday.
Also, my recent Sideshow Freaks book.
The reference photos I had for the sideshow
performers were, in most cases,
grainy B&W photos. I did all the portraits
in full color. Always a fun challenge!
Do you ever try to challenge yourself by working outside your comfort zone?
Well, honestly, I prefer not. At this point
I know my strengths and weaknesses.
I do hate drawing attractive people and
try to avoid that. I like drawing people
with more “interesting” faces. I’ll occasionally
get an assignment that’s
completely wrong for me and I try to be
honest with the art director and steer
him to another artist that might be better,
even suggesting a particular artist.
But there have been times I’ve accepted
the assignment, maybe because the
money was just too appealing or the
challenge was exciting. One example is
when Field & Stream magazine called
me to do an assignment a couple of
years ago. Now, I’m a Jewish, anti-hunting
vegetarian, but since the art director
was someone I had worked with at another
magazine and liked, I took the job,
although I agonized over it somewhat.
So of course the editors were delighted
with my illustration and I was hired to
do regular work for them! Oy Vey! I did
about a half dozen assignments for
them till it slowly dawned on the editors
that I was subtly drawing the animals to
look heroic and the hunters to look as
stupid as possible. Finally they stopped
calling with the assignments.
Another example is when the TV sitcom Friends was popular, I kept getting assignments, especially from Entertainment Weekly, to draw the cast members in various situations. Now I don’t watch much TV, and I had never watched Friends, I didn’t want to (to this day), but I kept getting assignments to draw those people. Finally, I instituted a “NO FRIENDS” policy, and stuck to it. Mercifully, the show finally went off the air and I could breathe easily!
How do you handle doing a commissioned piece when you just can’t find the right reference photos?
The reference photos are so important
to me. Like I said, these days you
can Google-image almost anyone, but
many times the same photos appear
over and over, or it’s the same standard
shot of the person looking directly at
the camera, something I try to avoid. I
do have a large photo file, something
I’ve kept since I was a kid, so I have
many rare, obscure photos of various
celebrities, authors, comedians, etc. But
sometimes, I just can’t come up with the
right ref photo. When I was working on
my three Old Jewish Comedians books,
I really wanted to include Arnold Stang,
the nebbishy comic actor who did the
voice of “Top Cat.” Now, the novelty of
these books is that I depict the comedians
in their “golden years,” and although
there were a couple of recent photos
online of him as an older man, nothing
struck my fancy. So I finally just had to
leave him out. Not really a huge deal,
but I had to break the news to Arnold
Stang’s BIGGEST fan, who I’m in touch
with. She was shattered.
A fellow just commissioned me to do a portrait of his hero, the author Raymond Chandler, but the same 5-6 images of Chandler, most of them already used on various book covers of Chandler’s stories or letters, popped up over and over on Google. And since I had no photos of him in my files, I finally had to decline.
Is there one celebrity that you struggle with in getting a likeness?
Well, like I said, I hate drawing “attractive”
people, young celebrities...to me,
in most cases, their faces are just so
bland and uninteresting. One of the reasons
I issued a “NO FRIENDS” policy. I
remember struggling with a Brad Pitt assignment
a few years back. Just nothing
to sink my teeth into. The caricaturists’
lament. I love nothing more than drawing
comedians, old and young. When I
get to draw a Woody Allen or Howard
Stern, I’m in heaven. Also Jeffery Ross,
who wrote the forward to the latest OJC
book. What a puss!!
Have the Howard Stern endorsements
helped or hindered sale of
your paintings and books?
Ah, Howard. I love the guy. He’s always
been so supportive to me, repeating
that I’m his “favorite artist,” hiring me
to illustrate his two books, and always
plugging my latest books on his show.
As far as Robin...
What type of deadlines do you usually work with?
It depends (not the kind old Jewish comedians
wear). If it’s a weekly magazine or
publication, the deadline is usually pretty
tight, sometimes needed the following day,
although I try to avoid those these days.
I’ve done close to 200 covers for the New
York Observer over the last few years
and for the most part, the assignment
comes in Friday and the finish due by
early Tuesday, and published on Wednesday
morning. If it’s a monthly magazine,
there’s usually a bit more time. If it’s a
commissioned piece, or a piece I’m doing
for one of my books, then I can relax and
spend a bit more time refining it.
We are all so tired of hearing the term “starving artist,” but most of the time it takes someone with a true business sense to make even a great artist be one who can survive financially. Who handles the business side of things for you?
I’ve become pretty adept over the years
in handling the business end, negotiating
the fee and assignment in general. There
was a time early on when I was starting
out that I was grateful for every little
crumb thrown my way and the pay was
secondary. I was indeed a “starving artist”
throughout the eighties when I was just
out of art school, but my wife was finally
very helpful in turning that all around.
Do you consider yourself a caricature artist?
Not really a traditional caricaturist, but
I’m referred to as one by many, which
is OK by me. Like some of my fellow
humorous artists, including Chris Payne
and Robert Parada, I tend to not so
much exaggerate facial features, but
distort, sometimes subtly. I’m more of
a “situational artist,” meaning I’m more
focused on the entire image, the poses
putting over the idea, the background,
the central “joke.” Rather than exaggerate
a face, sometimes a raised eyebrow
or how the head is tilted conveys what
I’m trying to put across. Now there are
examples of my work that do clearly fit
into the category of “caricature.” I was
hired by Howard Stern a few years back
to do drawings of a younger version of
him for a proposed animated TV show he
was trying to put together for FX about
his teenage years. I went full throttle with
the drawings, exaggerating especially his
big nose. He had asked me to make him
as “ugly and disgusting” as possible. The
show didn’t happen, but I’m including
some of my Howard drawings with my
visual presentation at the convention.
We are all familiar with your studio
work.
Have you ever drawn people live in hopes of retaining a likeness?
Early on, I kept a sketchbook and would
draw people I’d see on the street in New
York, but I haven’t for a few years now.
These days, I try to keep a mental image
in my head of various types I encounter,
I have a good memory for faces, or even
snap photos of various interesting faces
with the iPhone to use later. Walmart is
great for that!
A lot of your work is extreme closeups– how do you do that?
I think you’re probably referring to the
Old Jewish Comedian faces. I wanted
to depict them close-up, because that
conveys the way they actually are, bigger
than life, in your face, looking for
attention, never giving up, always looking
for a laugh! I’ve met a bunch of them and
that’s the way they are!
What color do you use for “liver spots?”
Oh that’s simple! Dr Martin # 37-B
“LIVER.” Actually, the good doctor’s
“Reddish-Brown” achieves the perfect
liver spot essence for me.
I have seen your caricatures in lots of books and magazines. Is it on any interesting products, besides “Impetuous Man” that you would like to tell us about?
I’ve drawn images for various products
over the years. Recently I created the
logo for McSorley’s beer, which is one of
the oldest bars in New York, on east 7th
St., big with NYU students. Their beer is
sold nationally, so it’s fun to see slobs all
over the country buying and drinking it!
The “Impetuous man” product was actually
a case of being totally ripped off,
although with a funny outcome. I had
drawn the comic-magician Penn Jillette
making love to a screaming woman for
Men’s Health magazine, to accompany
a short piece Penn wrote about how to
satisfy a woman in bed. A decade later,
the image was used on the box, and to
advertise a Chinese herb supplement
called “Impetuous Man.” I contacted
Penn and we both agreed it would be
fruitless and next to impossible to sue
this company in China, and besides, he
was quite flattered to be singled out as
the American ideal for sexual stamina.
With the internet, it has become much easier for anyone to steal an illustration and use it as they wish. How do you handle this?
There’s not much you can do once it’s
online. I just accept it if I see someone
using one of my images on Facebook
or elsewhere online, as long as they are
not profiting. My work is fairly distinctive,
so it’s rare when anyone attempts
to use something without permission. If
it’s a case of someone actually taking
the image and putting out a t-shirt with it,
or putting it in a book, they’ll hear from
me...or my wife. But mostly it’s just sharing
on FB or on people’s blogs which
doesn’t bother me, although I occasionally
ask them to at least give me a credit.
The world we live in today...
Have you ever taken on an illustration assignment where you personally disagreed with the product or point of view being commissioned? Have you turned down assignments along those lines?
I’ve turned down many assignments
for different reasons, for the most part,
that I was either booked up or on a tight
deadline. It’s rare that I’ve turned down
assignments based on my principles, not
that I don’t have any, but despite the job,
I can usually steer a particular assignment
in my direction. A good case in
point was doing work for Field & Stream,
which we discussed before. The outcome
was they stopped calling, but that was
ultimately fine by me. As far as doing
political illustration, a good example is The
Weekly Standard who I used to do a lot of
work for. They’re a right-leaning publication
and if pressed, my politics tend to lean
towards the left. But they never once told me to draw a Democrat looking any more
ridiculous or stupid than a Republican. I
had editorial control to draw one politician
looking as idiotic as the next, no matter
the party.
That said, I probably would never do a cigarette ad, not that they even exist anymore?
So who are your main influences in caricature, past and present?
The list is so long that I am sure I’m gonna
forget a few of my heroes, but growing up,
I adored all the MAD artists, mainly Mort
Drucker’s movie parodies. I’d obsessively
study his artwork wondering how he pulled
it off. I also adored Al Hirschfeld’s work
and like everyone else, looked forward
every week to seeing his piece in the
Sunday New York Times and counting the
Ninas. Other early favorite caricaturists included
Miguel Covarrubias, Sam Berman,
Will Elder, Jack Davis, Al Kilgore, Ronald
Searle, David Levine, Robert Grossman,
and Rick Meyerwitz. These days I admire
so many. a few favorites include Philip
Burke, CF Payne, Roberto Parada, Dan
Adel, Barry Blitt, Stephen Kroninger, Joe
Ciardello, David Cowles, Steven Brodner,
Victor Juhasz and so many others.
What is your favorite accomplishment illustration-wise?
I’d say it would have to be having my
illustration of Barack Obama posed as
George Washington on the cover of the
New Yorker the week of his inauguration.
Even my crazy relatives were impressed
with that achievement!
So can you tell our members a little about what to expect from you at the convention?
I’m really looking forward to meeting all
the caricaturists on hand and checking
out everyone’s different styles. All my
books will be for sale for anyone not
familiar with my work, and I’ll be showing
many examples of my work during my
presentations and will discuss any topic
that comes up about the world of humorous
illustration and septic tanks.
What do you plan to show and discuss
for your keynote presentation?
I’ll be talking a bit about my background,
growing up the son of a celebrated
writer and getting to meet many celebrities
when I was a kid, including some
I’d one day draw, like Groucho Marx. I’ll
also be discussing some of my weirder assignments and the outcomes, working
for National Lampoon, SPY and MAD.
Also some of the reactions I’ve gotten
from various celebrities I’ve drawn, being
sued once for a comic strip I drew,
and the reactions from many of the old
Jewish comedians included in my books,
including...Jerry Lewis.
Do you plan to hang around and draw as well?
My guess is yes, at least for a bit. I’m
sure I’m gonna be inspired seeing everyone
else drawing. Also, if any lovely
faces stand out, I’m sure I’ll want to
capture them!
Is there anything else you want to tell us? Push a book or product?
My brand new book is Even MORE Old
Jewish Comedians from Fantagraphics
Books. I’ll have copies for sale which I’ll,
of course, inscribe. This is the third and
final book of Old Jewish Comedians.
I’m becoming an old Jew myself!! I just
recently spotted my first liver spot!!
And lastly, one of our members wanted to know if there are any old white Baptist comedians you would like to draw?
Yes, that’s my next book. It’ll be a pamphlet.
For more on Drew Friedman, check out his website at http://drewfriedman.net/ or his blog at http://drewfriedman.blogspot.com
This Navigation box may not show up on mobile browsers. Please see Exaggerated Features Issue 2011.4 for the full contents of this issue if the navigation box does not display.
 |
| | |
| |||
| |||
