Fancy an eldritch squirm or two? A relaxed artist interview today, dear listener, with that jolly nice chap Russell Smeaton, who has been noticeable recently for his Mythos-related work, amongst other pieces. His campaign for Lovecraft Mythos art prints this year went very well, and his plate in Occult Detective Quarterly #3 (for Bob Freeman’s story ‘Birds of a Feather’ was extremely popular. He also illustrated a poignant and beautiful novella, The Dollkeeper by Rob F Martin, which came out this Autumn. So we thought we’d have a word…
Russell Smeaton
greydog: Welcome to greydogtales, Russell. People calling in here will probably know you primarily through your art, but why don’t you tell us a bit about yourself to ease us in?
russell: Thanks for having me, it’s a big honor and actually my first interview! Okay – a little bit about me. Let’s see. I was born in the south of England but my family moved to the North when I was two and I guess that’s where I think of as home. After graduating and doing some random jobs (milkman, door to door salesman, admin in a trucking firm, ditch digger, IT support), I left England in 1998 and travelled around the world for about 10 years. I taught in various countries such as Maldives, Guyana and China. I came back home to England about 10 years ago and have been working ever since at my local University. During this time I met my wife, and we’ve been happily married for about 13 years. My lovely daughter is now 8 and continues to keep me young. I think that about covers it?
greydog: When did you start producing illustrations on a serious basis?
russell: To be honest, I don’t consider myself to be a proper illustrator. Even now that I’ve sold a fair amount of art I still think of it as a hobby. That doesn’t really answer your question. I guess if I was going to put a time frame on it, I’d have to go back to when I sold my first picture, which was about 3 years ago. When I got the email to say someone had purchased a print, I didn’t quite believe it until the money went into my bank account. Even then I didn’t dare spend it in case they asked for their money back.
greydog: What sort of process do you use? Do you start with sketches and outlines, or do you move straight to computer rendering?
russell: I start all of my creative processes in the bath. I’ll lie there and daydream. If I’ve been asked to do a commission, I’ll try and focus on that. That time gives my mind the space it needs to put everything together. Sometimes I’ll go for a walk to the beach (I live by the sea) and that almost always gets my mind clear and ready. Once I’ve got the ideas in my head all set, I’ll fire up the computer and see what happens. More often than not, the idea I had in my head changes into something else entirely but that’s cool. I like that random factor.
Some of my most popular pictures started off as simple tests for new models that turned out quite nice, so I never turn away from an unexpected opportunity. I do rely on my friends’ input. I’m lucky to have some very patient friends (and great 3D artists) who have given me great advice over the years. My good friends Stephen Taylor, Kadri Ozel, Ade Levi, and Craig Menne have all provided brutally honest suggestions which has been just amazing. I’ve never met any of them but we all used to belong to a digital illustrators forum which was where I started to develop my craft.
greydog: We’re curious – what was behind the Sad Diver theme?
russell: I was doing some session drumming for a local musician called James Riggall (https://www.facebook.com/J.P.Riggall/ – well recommended!) and he asked if I could do him “one of my pictures” about a sad diver. There wasn’t an actual song or anything else to go on, so I had a little think (in the bath) about divers, sadness, that kind of thing. I had in my mind one of those old deep sea diving helmets and luckily I had a 3D model of one, and that’s what I started off with. When I finally sent him the first picture (the Sad Diver sat in the bath), he said “That’s almost too good!” so I got carried away and made a load more pictures using the same character. I was quite surprised how popular they were, I’ll be honest. It’s not the cheeriest thing I’ve done, but it’s one of the things that I’ve been most proud of.
greydog: Nowadays you seem to do a lot of Mythos related work. Is that a reflection of the public’s interest in that area, or a personal preference?
russell: A bit of both. I’ve been into Lovecraft since I was about 14 or so. I got the Grafton anthologies as my first introduction to Lovecraft – these all had covers by Tim White who is amazing. I then picked up the RPG hard cover rule book and I totally loved the art work in there. Not quite fantasy, but something more, something cosmic. I never really got into (digital) art until much later and when I first started producing pictures I was more interested in sci-fi kind of stuff.
Bruce Pennington is one of my all time favourites and I was always trying to emulate that kind of style. One day I stumbled across a set of 3D models that looks like old and run down houses so I tried to make a very basic Innsmouth scene. When it got a lot of attention, fame whore that I am, I decided to explore it a bit further and I’ve hopefully gotten better and better at it over the years. So yeah, a bit of both.
greydog: You ran two successful Kickstarter campaigns for specific sets of illustrations. Was that easy, or a nightmare?
russell: It’s actually three now! The first one was incredibly stressful. I spent ages drafting it out, checking the figures, getting quotes and what not. Even when I was sure I had everything organized, it was nerve-wracking to click the “Submit” button to say the least. Once it ran I became obsessed with the campaign, checking up on it at all the time. There were some amazing mile stones: the first backer; seeing my friends supporting me; reaching the goal. There were also some heartbreaking moments: people cancelling; people not paying, but on the whole it was okay. Having to bang on about it on Facebook and Twitter got a bit annoying. I started to annoy myself quite frankly, so for the last campaign I stepped back a bit. Having said that, the last one was probably the easiest. I’d already sold quite a few of those prints so I knew they were quite popular. I was a bit surprised to get 250% of the target so that was very cool indeed!
greydog: You’re also musically inclined – you’ve been in at least one band, is that right?
russell: Well, I’m a drummer – not sure if that makes me musically inclined 😉 But yeah, I’ve been in a few bands in my time. Being a drummer, I’ve always been popular with other musicians. Nothing to do with my (ahem) winning personality – more to do with the fact that I have a drum kit. My first band had a proper record contract and everything. We even recorded an album, an E.P. and appeared on a few compilation records. It was a lot of fun. These days I’m still playing but we don’t really take it seriously. We tend to just drink a few beers and muck around with random music. If you’re so inclined, you can check us out here: https://www.facebook.com/TheColumbos/. You can see just how popular we are 😉
greydog: And you write weird fiction as well as illustrate it – is that a sideline to the artwork?
russell: That’s a good question. Writing is something I love to do, but it takes me a long time to get anywhere, and most of the time I haven’t the confidence to submit. It all started when one of my work colleagues, Sophie Nicholls (who is a real life, proper published author!) agreed to look at a few short stories I’d bashed out, gave me some suggestions but more importantly gave me confidence. I developed them a bit further and made them into longer attempts. As with art, I relay on more good friends to read through my stuff. Fellow writers like Sam Edwards and Rob Martin give me so much support, I’m forever in their debt. My good friend James Harris (who really should publish more of his own work) is a regular victim that I inflict my half-baked stories on, but the feedback he gives is just brilliant. So yeah, I love writing but art flows a bit quicker. Who knows? I hope to keep at it, get better at it, but I can obsess over a single sentence for far too long and never really get anywhere.
greydog: So which illustration are you most proud of creating in the last couple of years?
russell: I guess the Sad Diver. It may sound vain, but I actually make myself feel really sad looking at those pictures. Whilst that’s probably not a great emotion, the fact that they invoke an emotion in me is something that I’m very proud of. The one where he’s sat at home with the phone un-cradled is very personal to me. Back before mobile phones, I found it very hard to answer the phone for fear of not knowing who was calling. I would wait until the ringing had stopped, did one of those code things that told you the number and then ring back if it was a friend. I’m well over it now, but it took a while to move on. So that’s quite a significant one to me. The reoccurring cat is also quite important. I love my cats and they have had a profound impact on me. So whenever possible, I squeeze a cat into a picture. Or story!
greydog: Finally, any weird art or literary plans for the future?
russell: Erm….I tend to not really have any specific plans. I’d like to try and write more, and try to finish all the half-written stories I have laying around. I’d quite like to write a genuinely scary story. So far, I generally get feedback like “That was pretty funny”. Which is odd. I’ve never tried to make a story funny. Something for me to think about!
greydog: Many thanks for joining us. We look forward to seeing your work in 2018.
russell: Thank you for having me, it’s been a pleasure!
You can purchase prints of Russell’s work through tikirussy and redbubble.
https://www.redbubble.com/people/tikirussy
The Dollkeeper is available on Amazon UK and Amazon US
If we don’t see you again before the holiday break, we wish you great cheer. Some time in the next week, we will be releasing another Yuletide special, and this year it’s Panto Time at St Botolphs-in-the-Wolds. Expect mayhem…