I was fortunate enough for big Toons to allow me to do this interview. It’s generous enough to sit an environment where the minds of innovators of today’s Illustration and Art Entertainment world dwell. Soul Assassin Studio, known internationally from the works of such innovators like Mister Cartoon and Estevan Oriol are people who expand beyond the world of just tattooing and photography. Through Art Center, I chose to research the future of my generation of artists, and how things might be dictated for the next couple years in terms of a career. Education I think is by far the most important thing for us people, the masses to understand and except as a means to grow. So I focused on the use of computer technology versus the traditional artist and see how one might differ or out weigh the other. Check out what Cartoon had to say after the jump…


Jun Cha
Art of Research
Illustration Now: Computer Technology versus the Traditional Artist
Personal Interview
Location: Downtown Los Angeles, CA
Date: June 9 2008, 6:00 p.m.
Interviewer: Jun Cha
Interviewee: Mister Cartoon
Q: I’m here at the Soul Assassins Studio in downtown Los Angeles with Mister Cartoon interviewing the aspects of the influence of computer technology and it’s influence in comparison to the traditional artist and methods of today’s art industry. Cartoon is known as versatile and by far one of the most renowned illustrative artists in today’s entertainment world. His art can be seen in the fields of tattooing, graphic design, fashion design, product design, illustration and fine art and much more. I am here to ask Cartoon his insight on the subject.
Q: How do you feel about the ongoing advancement of computer technology in the fields of tattooing, fine art, graphic design etc.?
A: First of all, I own about five Mac computers, and I would have to say that it is a good tool and it has a good use. I also believe it’s a curse for all up and coming artists, and that it takes away from a pen and paper. A lot of these kids just learn how to use a computer and piece pieces of art together. And my idea is if the power went out, can you light a candle, take a brush and a paper and get busy and do it. That’s it bottom line, can you draw? And there’s no command z in tattooing, you have to be focused and focused on art. I think its’ going to injure a lot of young artists due to the fact that it takes away from the basic forms of art. Back in the days when we were all writing on walls, you got booed just for using a stencil to make a line on a wall, so it’s all about free hand. But am I grateful that I can use a computer to email my artwork when I’m done, yes. Do I rely on it to draw, no.
Q: With the technology such as Adobe Illustrator, or Photoshop, can those applications improve the situations for an artist?
A: It definitely can make perfect letters, perfect as perfect can be, the use of those tools if you were to blow up letters on the side of a skyscraper is just impossible to do by hand. But the power of being able to draw comes first, and then those things come. There’s some people that are great at graphic work and printing alphabets, but I want to know who created the font, you know, where’s he at? Yet there are some people like OG Abel who are so proficient in Illustrator that he’ll actually illustrate a car before he goes and airbrushes it. I think that’s fucking crazy. But I came from a time where there were no computers; I had 20 years of drawing experience before I even knew how to send an email. So, I’m interested in are these kids going to have that?
Q: Would you say the basis for you skills and the foundation for what you do is strictly hands on, so in other words, you don’t find yourself dependent on this technology?
A: Yeah, no. When I have to pump out a lot of t-shirt graphics, I rely on it. I rely on the computer to straighten up the letters so that it can be pieced together and perfect it. But can I do it without it? Yes. Have I don’t it most of my life without it? Yes. If my life allowed me to draw a logo with a brush pen and have my assistant who has more patience than Gandhi build on it in Illustrator, then yeah I’m all for it. But how does that apply to the kids starting out? I think it’s wrecking. They won’t know what it’s like to pain stacking draw those letters perfect. I use to have to get a cold pressboard and use an exacto to cut precisely every single shape, and line out. If I wanted a clown I had to cut that shit out. And it I wanted a shine in the nose I would use film to give sum extra touches, but this is how I came to produce a clothesline called “Sucker Brand”. And I started out by first drawing it then going back an illustrating it by hand with no computer whatsoever. Finally, finally, finally I had to send an email, and the luxury of delivering the artwork by a button really helped.
Q: Now as far as that transition, because the industry demands that kind of workload and ethic and it demands that level of productivity, how is that transition from a traditional artist to the use of the tools and abilities onto a computer screen?
A: Well it wasn’t so easy for me because I had no formal training. I didn’t have the patience to sit and listen to an instructor and we didn’t have the opportunity to learn none of that shit. So we had to kind of learn by mistake and sending the wrong artwork to businesses. So now these kids have to work ten times harder because they have that luxury and how are they going to stand out? Or maybe they just want to be an animator for Disney, or maybe it doesn’t matter how creative you are.
Q: Cartoon plays a variety of roles, and has worked with various companies in the industries of fashion, product design etc. Companies like Nike, Joker Brand, Famous Stars and Straps, Stussy, The Simpsons, and the list goes on, knowing that Cartoon, which industry would you say is crucial in having the use of computer technology?
A: I think the work that involves computers the most is the fashion industry. Where fonts and design must be a specific type and have to be consistent, it’s crucial to the clothing business. Tattooing, it used to be the Xerox is as high tech as you get with tattooing. You used to go to tattoo shop and they would have a library of books on all these different subjects, now someone wants a bizarre design I can just Google it and look at it.
Q: Now with the work you produced so far, do you feel that the computer has improved your skill as an artist or illustrator?
A: Me going into Illustrator now am like I can always do the work and clean it up later, or smudge it and finalize later, before I had to be perfect in every way with my shit. Before if you were to look at my shit it would be so tight and hand crafted, where as now I’m like I have the use of computers, but I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s laziness, it more towards the act of creating looser looks, looks that I normally wouldn’t be able to do with hand work. So computers helped where my hands and time couldn’t reach, so when I’m doing shapes ore design and we do illustrations on it we like it.
Q: Do you see a serious a need for this technology in the future; in other words, do you see the traditional artist as being obsolete?
A: No it’s going to go the other way. I think people are going to get burned out from computer generated work, even now you see responses saying “if it’s not hand done, I don’t want it.” That’s where I see it going. Because I think that the T.V, people are tired of it, they want to know that someone labored over that shit for 30 hours. People that do shit by hand are going to have more insight and be in higher demand and it’s going to take time for that.
Q: Now overall to sum up this interview can you define the difference between the uses of computer technology versus the traditional artist, and does one out weigh the other?
A: I think that I’d be lying to say that I don’t need a computer to use my art. Before I’d say it was weak, or cheating, now I’m older, more open minded, and I can say it definitely has its purposes. But I think the base of it all is learning how to draw, and then the computer can come and work its tools. Can a computer do it by itself without a real creative mind? No. You can have the best tattooing machine solid gold, incrusted with diamonds, but if you can’t draw that machine isn’t going to help you. Can Illustrators today override the accomplishments of renaissance painters through computers? Yes. But is the vinyl laid out on the Sistine Chapel the same as Michelangelo laid out on his back? No. But most of who compare ourselves to Michelangelo anyways is ludicrous, most of just want to get laid and pay bills and shit. I’m almost 39 years old; I was using type press to have everything done by hand. I think that computer Illustrator is much stronger than myspace, some of these kids are stuck on myspace, busy hooking up then actually trying to illustrate and use the program, thank God for Art Center, the community colleges have the kids on myspace. So the computer is a good tool, but that’s all it is just a tool. I’d be interested in what Jack Rudy has to say about it, but the main thing I’m worried about is these kids and that they can’t stop drawing. There’s no other way to improve than practice.