Molly Crabapple Interview

You two started out as graphic designers. What led you to become illustrators?

We had an itch that wasn’t being scratched. We went to a two year graphic design boot camp called Portfolio Center. It was an intense school taught by working professionals who constantly threw tomatoes at our work. We entered the field in New York City and learned all we could about the business end, the production end, and how to organize files prettily on our computer. We got our fair share of free office coffee, and then we ran. Ultimately, graphic design never felt as fulfilling as drawing did. We impetuously started a blog for our scribbles, which people liked. They later gave us money to draw astronauts, dinosaurs and carousels. We’ve been full time illustrators for almost three years.

You two are atelier trained (note for readers: the Atelier Method is rigorous, classical, and modeled after 19th century European art schools). What effect has this had on your work?

Honestly, our Atelier training is one of the only reasons we have a career. It has lead to a deeper understanding of the drawing process, and the fundamental thinking about picture making. We learned what the rules are, why they work, and how to push them. We started by rendering a single lit sphere for 16 weeks. Now we can draw moons and boobs and subway globes with sublime precision.

Most artists work individually, but you and Kurt are a team. What’s your process like?

We don’t know. The minute we start analyzing it, a distant universe might implode. It’s kind of a ridiculous situation. We work in a studio that is slightly larger than a fridge, and break up 13 times over each illustration. We’ve been at it for three years; it’s a lot of fun.

What contemporary artists most inspire you?

We’re mostly inspired by lots of dead guys from the turn of the twentieth century. There’s a beautiful time in illustration history (about 1870-1940) that spawned many artists we love very much, most of them known as The Golden Age illustrators. There are, however, a few that are breathing right now that make us swoon: Mathieu Lauffray, Paul Felix, Peter de Seve, Shaun Tan, Greg Manchess, Alex Kanevsky, Claire Wendling, Steve Houston, Mike Mignola, Nicolas Marlet, and Sergio Martinez to name a few. They keep the fire under us burning bright.

See full interview at: ChinaShop.com