We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kevin Tong a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Kevin, thanks for joining us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

The best way to learn anything is to just do it and keeping doing it and eventually there will be improvement and development.

Another thing that greatly helps with learning is being part of a community of like minded people, sharing tips, critiquing, and ideas. Part of that is being receptive and open to criticism. It’s not easy, but a thick skin is crucial.

To speed up my process, I wish I could have learned earlier on to put lots of detail in the important areas of an illustration and simplify lesser areas like the background. My old work and even my new work tends to be unnecessarily detailed. I have a tendency to get lost in the drawing phase.

All the aforementioned are important skills, but none of that matters if you’re not self motivated. A major obstacle for a lot of people is the difficulty of self initiating work which is not conducive to being a self employed illustrator!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I live and work in the Austin area and I’ve been a self employed illustrator since 2005. I received a great art education from California State University Long Beach.

My earliest professional work was all stuff for kids, like toys and education materials. I did a few editorials for local newspapers here and there too. I began working full time and in house for various toy companies and eventually I was fully employed as a lead illustrator for a major toy company. The jobs were great, but I wasn’t feeling personally or professionally fulfilled.

I always went to concerts and San Diego Comic Con and that was were I began seeing screen printed concert posters. Everything about them, the bold striking colors, the artist community, the lack of inhibitions compared to the visually safe things I was drawing day in and out for toys; all of that appealed to me. So I reached out to bands and began doing posters for them. The work rolled in and eventually I quit my job and I’ve been fully self employed since then.

The posters led to lots of other work. Right about now is the 15 year anniversary of my very first concert poster. Since then, I’ve illustrated just about every type of illustration for so many different clients. There are so many talented artists out there, I honestly have no idea what compels anyone to single me out for work, but I’m very grateful that they do.

I don’t really solve one type of problem for my clients, it depends on the client. Some have the concept all planned out and just want me to crystallize their dream into reality. Others want me to concept with them and create something new and exciting. These days, I prefer working with the latter.

What sets me apart is that I do everything I can to set myself apart. Whenever I start something, like a band poster for example, the first thing I do is look at what everyone else has done and come up with something new.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

In my view, our government should do more to support small business in general. That’s what a self employed artist is after all. Many other countries have art specific grants or programs specifically designed for up and coming artists in the form of spectacular public works or partnerships with more established businesses. Our country used to be like that (WPA, government building murals, etc), but that sort of thing has mostly faded away.

On a more individual level, I get a lot of people telling me, in person and online, things like “you should really do a poster for (insert movie, video game, band). I think that would be great”. I sincerely appreciate the vote of confidence, but I really don’t have the ability to initiate anything like that.

Instead, might I suggest tweeting that suggestion at the director or the company behind the thing you like and tagging the artist you like? If enough people join your anthem, something might actually happen!

Lastly, I feel really let down by social media. I got my start when those companies (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) were getting started. They all rely on people like my friends and myself who post content that drives views and interactions. When those things first came out, they were amazing tools to really spread my work and get noticed. I worked very hard to get all my followers organically, usually face to face at conventions. Lately, I feel like the companies hold them hostage from my posts unless I pay up and follow the algorithm.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

My only goals are to pay the bills and do something meaningful with my time on this planet. I can’t say I planned anything. When I was drawing multiplication charts for third grade math books, I probably would have thought you were messing with me if you told me what I was doing now.

I just did the work as best as I could, on time, and jumped on opportunities when they presented themselves to me.

The part that’s meaningful in all this is that I get to live a life that feels more genuine to me and there’s a wonderful community of artists and fans that I get to be a part of and contribute to.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.tragicsunshine.com
• Instagram: @tragicsunshine
• Facebook: Kevin Tong Illustration
• Twitter: @tragicsunshine

Image Credits
Kevin Tong Illustration