We recently connected with Anthony Carpenter and have shared our conversation below.

Anthony, appreciate you joining us today. We’ve love to hear an interesting investment story – what was one of the best or worst investments you’ve made? (Note, these responses are only intended as entertainment and shouldn’t be construed as investment advice)

I would say my best investment…at this point…would be the combination of my iPad and Procreate. I had some well-paying gigs during the 2020 lockdown and decided to splurge on an iPad after seeing a video of illustrator Steve Simpson working on one. After watching that, I knew that the Apple Pencil would make a huge difference in how I worked digitally. I’m a pencil artist first and foremost. I draw all the time. Being able to draw directly on the screen opened up a world of possibilities for me digitally. Procreate is full of surprises and I learn new things I can do with it all the time. Sometimes I work directly in the program but I mostly start with drawings on paper (I’m still analog at heart) that I scan and then I mix them with digital voodoo until things look the way I want them to look. The flexibility of being able to bounce back and forth between programs like Illustrator and Photoshop as well as jumping between the iPad and my laptop…allows me so much creative freedom. It reenergized me. The fact that I can create art for a 30’ mural while sitting in a coffee shop is pretty wild.

Anthony, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

When I started as an illustrator, I wanted to work in the fields of fantasy art and comics. That’s what I was drawn to growing up. I wanted to be Frank Frazetta or Neal Adams or Bernie Wrightson. I drew constantly and that was my direction. It continued through college where I found myself an odd man out. I went to the Maryland Institute College of Art. I was interested in learning about making the art itself…so I left my Illustration major behind and switched to Fine Arts so I could paint and draw, make prints and sculpt. Illustration leaned very heavily into graphic design. This was when computers were still coming up so there wasn’t much of that being done and the Fine Arts crowd didn’t cotton to my weird need to draw monsters, spacemen and sword-wielding women. I stuck it out…in spite of their attempts to teach me about abstract art, Picasso, Klee et al….that I didn’t feel pertained to what I wanted out of my art. Now I love all of that, though.

I continued on that path after college and started doing commissioned art for collectors. I drew a lot of pinups, superheroes and fantasy characters over the years. Then…out of nowhere, the Mid Century bug struck me! I started getting interested in design. All the movies and shows I had watched as a kid came into focus and I realized I loved that stuff as much, if not more, than the fantasy art. I started looking at work that was more cartoony and stylized and realized that I was much happier working that way. The real tipping point, though, was when I stumbled across Sven Kirsten’s The Book of Tiki. Life-changing! I fell in love with tiki art, design and culture. A new calling was born.

My background with fantasy art gave me a good drawing foundation to use as a basis for stylization/abstraction so I was able to mix things up in an interesting way. This new direction got a jump start when, in 2010, I did my first poster for Super Happy Funtime Burlesque. That led to doing gig posters for Tip Top Deluxe Bar & Grill, Dr. sketchy’s Anti-Art School and work for assorted other bands and events. Meanwhile, I was becoming better known in the tiki world and eventually was hired by Mark Sellers to create art for his first tiki bar, TikiCat in Kansas City, Missouri. That put me in front of Holden Westland at Tiki Farm and get me into mug design. All of this kept snowballing and now I’m doing all manner of amazing projects for a variety of clients. As I’m writing this, I’m working on new artwork for Tony Marsico of the bands Cruzados and The Martini Kings and a painting for the next Tiki Oasis event in San Diego.

As for services I provide, I do book covers, CD covers, posters, comic book art, mural design (I create digital illustrations that can be printed on metal, vinyl or glass and mounted on site), tiki mugs, role playing game art, gallery paintings, drawings, illustrations for weddings invitations, birth announcements, etc. and much more. Recently, I’ve been turning my attention towards surface design. I’ve been learning to design repeat patterns for use on fabrics, wallpapers and packaging. I’m also dipping a toe into the world of children’s illustration.

I just love drawing and creating…especially if the subjects are offbeat and a bit weird. I can do “normal” but I really shine when things head in a more fantastical direction.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I covered some of this in a previous answer but here it is in more detail. My big pivot came in 2009…when my mother passed away. She was my biggest supported and always encouraged my work. I was living with her at the time…driving her places, etc. My world was fairly isolated and I was mostly working on commissioned illustrations. After she died, I was a bit adrift. I knew I needed to get out of the house and not just sit and dwell on my loss. I started taking my sketchbook to coffee shops and getting out into the art community by going to galleries/shows. I had met Rachel Finan before she was a member of Super Happy Funtime Burlesque. While out and about, we reconnected and she told me she was part of the group and invited me to a show. Shortly after, she introduced me to Corey Eno Ruffin and he hired me to do a poster. That was the start of a whole new world for me. I met a lot of other artists, musicians, photographers and show people and that led to new adventures, new projects and it opened my eyes to new possibilities. Leaving my comfort zone behind and putting myself out there….changed everything.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

One of the rewarding aspects is seeing the work in its final form. Walking past a window with one my posters hanging in it or seeing my murals in a restaurant or in the background of photos taken by customers. I love seeing people using the menus I illustrated or drinking from glassware I designed. Each time I stumble across a post on social media that features someone showing off their mug collection…and I see one of mine on their shelf…it’s a thrill. An even more rewarding aspect is seeing/hearing about how much the client or customer is enjoying the work I made for them. It doesn’t get old. I get to pull something from my imagination, put it down on paper or digitally and then see it take on a whole new life out in the world and see people’s faces brighten when they see the piece that speaks to them. That’s a great feeling!

Contact Info:

• Website: artosaurus.wix.com/illustrationsville
• Instagram: artosaurus_66 and anthonycarpenterdesign
• Facebook: Anthony Carpenter, Anthony Carpenter Illustration and The Tiki Art of Anthony Carpenter
• Youtube: Anthony Carpenter Illustration
• Other: I have two Patreon pages: patreon.com/AnthonyCarpenterArt (mature audience) and patreon.com/AnthonyCarpenterIllustration437 (all ages). I have an Etsy store: anthonycarpenterart.Etsy.com and a Threadless shop: illustrationsville.threadless.com and I self publish an art digest called “jazu”. All five current volumes are available on blurb.com (mature audiences only)

Image Credits
Jon Clay Photography