We interviewed Steven to learn more about his practice, inspirations, and what he is working on today.
What does your creative day look like, and what inspires you to make art?
My days typically start early in the morning. I start with a large cup of coffee and some sketching to warm up. For almost all the work I do, I originally plan first as black-and-white inkings, so sketching and illustration to start my day is essential to my creative process. I’ll focus on quickly sketching compositions with a thick black marker, then drills of lines to keep up my line technique. After my warm-up, I typically have my days split into either studio days or business days. For my days in studio, it’s fairly intensive, with a few hours of focused work first, broken up by an hour of exercise, before I’m back to work. Merging lineart and painting in my work is a technically intensive process, and I’ve always enjoyed longer work sessions because I can fully immerse myself in it. By mid-afternoon, I’m out of the studio, and I save time for myself to either relax after the painting or read some fun horror books to take my mind somewhere else. This time is an important part of my creative process, as it allows me to digest the whole day and reflect on the work I’ve done, and is when I’ll most likely get ideas for another piece I’d like to work on!
For what inspires me to make art, I’ve always been attracted to the new and unknown. Being someone who was raised with the internet, I’ve always felt like the extreme exposure to imagery and artwork has pushed people to trends or what's cool. As an artist, what was deemed general taste was never enough, and I was always searching for artwork and imagery that pushed the boundaries of what people were making at the time. At a very young age, I saw the work of French illustrator Gustave Doré, and I was immediately drawn to it. For me, I felt I had found what was new and unknown; it was the world of line art and engraving, and I felt it had not been fully explored in the world of fine art. It was an idea that was stuck in my head to understand and see the world of black lines and inking combined with the world of painting, and that same passion is what motivates me to make art to this day.
The person’s first impression would be confusion from all the sauce containers! Since I have to mix all my paints by hand to get the right consistency, I have to use dressing containers from the dollar store. Over time, this has built up to around 30 sauce containers throughout my studio, creating a ‘Mount Everest’ effect on my rolling paint table. The studio itself really does feel like a reflection of my transition from an illustrator to a painter, consisting of a mixture of pens, small brushes, and gesso, all on top of my pine drafting table.
Do you prefer a minimalist or maximalist set-up and why?
I’ve always preferred a maximalist set-up! Whenever I’ve tried to downsize my set-up to narrow my focus, I always end up looking for something just out of reach, inevitably disorganizing the set-up within minutes.
How did you get interested in your medium?
My interest in combining paint and ink actually began 4 years ago. Through experimentation with Posca paint markers and other paint pens, I began working on canvases to enlarge black and white inkings, and explore compositions with color. It was then that I realized my passion for linework and lineart could carry over to canvases through the medium of paint. I spent 2 years experimenting with the overall process before I settled on my current method. This is the most comfortable I’ve felt in this medium, and I still have the flexibility to showcase everything I love and learned about engraving techniques.
Nostalgic classical engravings meeting acrylic painting technique.
My style has gone through some very large changes over the last few years. The incorporation of painting into my repertoire completely changed the way I approach art and my creative process. My early work as an inker was concerned a lot more with gothic imagery of witches, demons, and the macabre. It was only afterward, when experimenting with color, that I took an interest in exclusively floral imagery with a stronger focus on design instead of intensive lineart. It was from this interest in design that my interest in larger paintings began, and a stronger focus on personal expression and narratives. I began hiding small moments of humor and my own experiences into each piece. This interest in how I expressed myself on the canvas would evolve with a greater appreciation for paint, as since then I’ve been engaging with paint even more. I've been learning how to infuse further inking and painting into narrative, personal pieces that capture the imagination of viewers.
I’ve been a big fan of fine acrylic brushes recently. I’ve found great success with using them to emulate the linework of a brush pen. For me, these brushes always pair best with sanded smooth pine panels as my canvases, as they mimic the texture of paper and allow for crosshatching and consistent line art.
Do you experience creativity blocks, and how do you stay positive and inspired? What elements in your studio inspire creativity?
I typically don’t deal with too much artist block, but when I do, I’ve always found that reading and writing are the best ways to engage with your creative side without demanding too much. It almost acts as a fast way to ‘jump-start’ your creativity if you ever feel like you’re in a rut. For elements in my studio that inspire my creativity, I actually keep a collection of vintage illustration and classical painting books. These I’ve always found are the fastest ways to feel inspired. The work of masters and the countless illustrations in these old books are a constant reminder of what other artists had to put into their work, and they act not only as a source of reference for future work but also as a reminder of how much effort and energy is required to make something great!
What artists – either contemporary or from history – have had an impact on you and your art practice?
For people who initially started my journey to learning to illustrate, there are contemporary artists like August Lamm, Nathan Yoder, Paul Heaston, Jōji "George" Morikawa, and Yusuke Murata. As for non-contemporary artists who inspired and continue to inspire me, they are Akira Toriyama, Muria, Van Gogh, Gustave Doré, Bernie Wrightson, The Group of Seven, and Clare Leighton. Almost all artists that have inspired me have a real focus on texture and lines, all things I carry through all my work.
What project are you working on right now? What would you like to do next?
Right now I’m working on a collection of new pieces that takes a turn towards more emotional expression than literal narrative storytelling. The use of color and paint in my work has opened up a new door for me into the realm of feelings and expression, and I’m currently focusing on a body of work that pushes me into a new uncharted territory for myself. I have had some ideas about how I want to express these feelings, either through portraits or landscapes to capture an array of moods, all while maintaining a focus on line art, texture, and layers of colors. I’m really happy with this medium, and the future projects I have planned will be getting bigger and better!
