TSAT 7, interview

by Oren the Otter
©1999 Oren the Otter -- all rights reserved

OREN:	Good evening, and welcome to People Like Us. I'm your host, Oren the Otter, and with me today is the moderately famous internet artist, Ian Williams. Ian, great to have you.
IAN:	Thank you, glad to be here.
OREN:	Ian, I have been an admirer of your work for some time. You've done some wonderful transformation "snapshots", as I like to call them, along with a number of progressions, all of surprising quality. I'd like to ask you a few questions about how you do such great work. First of all, where do you get your inspiration?
IAN:	Well, a lot of comes from suggestions from friends... if an idea lodges in my head I almost have to run with it... other than that, stories, books, anime, ideas that I run with.
OREN:	And "run" is a good word, I think. You manage to get a great deal of action and emotion into your images, often telling a long and complicated story without the use of words.
IAN:	Thanks. I think of my art as trying to catching a moment in progress, movement is what makes that happen.
OREN:	Very true, and your methods of creating the image would seem to lend themselves to that. May I inquire how you generally compose one of your artworks?
IAN:	Well it usually starts out with a pencil sketch or three which tend to be absolute messes. Then when I get results I like I trace it, and then scan and color.
OREN:	I notice also that your style has a unique flavor to it, with hints of anime and perhaps even a little bit of comic book. Are there other artists you have studied to get this mix?
IAN:	Well, not studied really, but Michael Whelan lives in the same town and I'm a big fan of his, then Johi Mananbe (spelling wrong) is a big influence... along with other anime artists. I can't really quantify my American comic influences though.
OREN:	Next question: Why do giraffes have blue tongues?
IAN:	No Idea?
OREN:	Oh. Well, in that case, what are your plans for the future?
IAN:	Well, I'm trying to get some visibility in the "furry" world, and concentrating on some cooperative/competitive efforts with other artists
OREN:	And on that, we at TSAT certainly wish you well. Any other comments you wish to add?
IAN:	Not really.
OREN:	Thank you very much for joining us today. And for you lucky readers out there in Internet land, be sure to catch Ian's featured artwork in the Art section. Just click on the image below.

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