{"id":1229,"date":"2011-10-23T01:12:09","date_gmt":"2011-10-23T01:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ilovemega.com\/blog\/?p=1229"},"modified":"2014-07-29T15:01:30","modified_gmt":"2014-07-29T15:01:30","slug":"chi-birmingham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ilovemega.com\/blog\/chi-birmingham\/","title":{"rendered":"CHI BIRMINGHAM
Interview with the US artist"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chi Birmingham interview.<\/h2>\n

Chi Birmingham is an illustrator living and working in Brooklyn, NY. <\/strong>
\nHe received a BFA in Painting and Drawing from the California College of the Arts and recently receuved an MFA in Illustration at the School of Visual Arts.
\nMore about the US artist<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Chi

Chi Birmingham illustration of the Riot Gear history<\/p><\/div>\n

PLEASE INTRODUCE YOURSELF<\/strong>
\nI’m an artist and illustrator with a studio in Brooklyn, NY. I grew up in California, and moved out to the east coast about four years ago.<\/p>\n

\"Chi

Chi Birmingham Magic Mirror drawing<\/p><\/div>\n

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR WORK?<\/strong>
\nGraphic, Direct, Playful.<\/p>\n

\"Chi

Chi Birmingham taser illustration<\/p><\/div>\n

PLEASE SHARE WITH US YOUR WORKING PROCESS<\/strong>
\nMost of the work I have been doing lately has been for newspaper and magazine articles. When I get an assignment, I read the text that my illustration will accompany and start to make a list of ideas. Once I am finished I do a rough drawing of all the ideas I have written down. Once I have three or more that I think could work, I do a tighter sketch of each and send it to my Art Director.
\nFor my final illustrations I work in Flash. I import the sketch and do my draw over it on another layer. I use a stylus and build up the images in layers in the way that I would with a painting. (I used to do all of my work with Gouache, and I think I still work with the same approach.) The software allows me to change individual colors very easily, so I typically start with a grayscale version so that I can make sure that the value relationships are working. <\/p>\n

\"Caveman

Caveman artwork by Chi Birmingham<\/p><\/div>\n

HOW DOES YOUR ENVIRONMENT INFLUENCE YOUR ART?<\/strong>
\nI work in a studio with four of my closest friends. During the day we take a lot of time to talk about or work, or just play cards, and it is a big help in keeping me sane.<\/p>\n

WHO ARE YOUR INFLUENCES?<\/strong>
\nI grew up looking at a lot of painters. Richard Diebenkorn, Luc Tuymans, Jenny Saville, Euen Uglow and of course Lucian Freud were my favorites. I wasn’t interested so much in their subject matter, but was very impressed by the way they rendered forms. For the first few years that I painted I was really only interested in draftsmanship and creating a compelling illusion of a light source.
\nIn college I became more interested in using art to tell stories and started looking at a lot of different narrative painters. I started to look more closely at the children’s books I had grown up with and began to cobble together a world for myself that was based very much on the aesthetic of 60’s era Golden Books.<\/p>\n

\"Chi

Cover of the book Life In This Old Bones Yet by Chi Birmingham<\/p><\/div>\n

ANY LAST WORD?<\/strong>
\nI couldn’t do any of this (and wouldn’t want to) without the support of my incredible wife, Lorissa Rinehart.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chi Birmingham interview. Chi Birmingham is an illustrator living and working in Brooklyn, NY. He received a BFA in Painting and Drawing from the California College of the Arts and recently receuved an MFA in Illustration at the School of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4286,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[30,27],"class_list":["post-1229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists-interview","tag-usa","tag-slick-illustration"],"yoast_head":"\nCHI BIRMINGHAM Interview with the US artist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"interview with US artist Chi Birmingham who is an illustrator living and working in Brooklyn, NY. 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