We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Cillian Cubstead. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Cillian below.

Cillian, appreciate you 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.

I often say I’ve been drawing my whole life, but drawing well for the last ten or fifteen years. I had good art teachers I sometimes ignored. They were great. But they didn’t want the same things I wanted from art at times. Going to conventions, like L.A. comic Con, WonderCon, or the different comic conventions and showing working professionals my portfolio was paramount to gaining skill. They would tell me what would never work and what was great. I mean, art teachers taught me a lot in school of course, but getting as many pointers and advice from as many sources as possible will make you a better artist. I learned so much from showing art to professionals who let me know some classic art techniques didn’t work in comics. At least not the same way. Putting a white outline around Mona Lisa would be a crime, but Spider-Man needs an outline on a regular basis.

Speeding up my learning? I think my ego got in the way there. Not that I didn’t think others had valid opinions. I did and do think all opinions on art are valid. But when I was younger, getting non-artists telling me what was wrong with my work was something I took personal. Artists can give you pointers, but non-artists can give you perspective. Knowing that in high school instead of learning it at thirty would have been nice.

What skills do I think are most essential…? Perspective is a must, anatomy of course– but, I think watching movies, television and other visual media so your panels and pictures look alive might be the most important. Being able to put your self in a scene, and find what’s missing? If you’re drawing a city street, where are all the people? Are there cars going by? How many people should be walking dogs, or are their stray cats that live on the streets. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve looked at my own work and saw something that made a picture feel wrong. Our hero rushes down a busy street and I forgot to draw street lamps. Remember to draw the everyday things in each panel (well, any picture, painting or drawing), houses have paintings on the walls, or family photos. Streets have parked cars, graffiti and street lights.

In the age of YouTube and Pinterest, the only obstacles at getting better at art include avoiding the internet. If you need to learn perspective, someone has it on YouTube. Same with anatomy, digital painting, classical painting. Learning is always close. When I first started I had hundreds of magazines for photo references, that part is much easier now. As far as obstacles in the business go, they don’t seem to go away. I have to prove myself repeatedly, and other pros have told me the same. Little Finger and Hannah Montana aren’t messing around. Its a constant climb.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am a small time creator of comics. I worked on a few books, Dirge of Viqdis was my first and that name was bad. That does happen, you fix what doesn’t work and try again. Later it was called Archangel Aurora, I’ve drawn comics for clients that never saw the light of day. Like The Black Hand or The Apophis Corp. I write comics for myself, but for my clients, I take their ideas and put them to paper. I take what they can only imagine and give it face and try to bring it to life. Most of us don’t think in comic panels. I try to tell them what’s missing, what they are amazing at, and what I can do for them. And they tell me something I never imagined before. Its a symbiotic relationship when it goes well.

How I got into the industry? Weirdly. Every story I’ve heard is different. I was trying to do comics alone, I met some others who wanted to make comics and we made one together. We went to conventions to sell it. I kept with it, I still do the same thing, repeatedly and just keep going. it costs as much as it pays most times. But I hate every job that isn’t this one, so here I am. I know you can go a lot further than me (you reading at home) if you work with a team. My self published comics barely leave the western half of the United States. Hell, I wouldn’t mind being further discovered now.

I am most proud of my work for clients like Greg Boucher, Joshua Lee, Christopher Peterson and The Stone Brothers (James and Steve). My first Stone Brother’s comic will be out later this year. I hope that I can take what a client sees in their heads, their dream and make it a physical form. It isn’t easy to do alone. I hope to get the Brothers Stone through the hardest part. Making it reality. Sometimes we painstakingly create a character’s look over months and sometimes they hand you a script and say, I need this before July.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I am a reserved person. I don’t go out of my way to intrude on people, I kind of sit back and let things happen. Business does not reward this attitude. The best advice for this is to be willing to make mistakes. I sat back an analyzed things to death, and missed opportunities as a result. Be willing to make mistakes and fix them. Because, overanalyzing achieves one thing and one thing only, is actually not doing anything. Meet as many other pros as you can, make mistakes together. Somethings will turn into great art, and everything else teaches you what not to do next time.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

I’d love to grow an audience. I’d love to live more comfortably, but first things first. I’d love to have a group of people who enjoy aspects of my comics. Whether that is the art, the story, the characters, or hell, someone liking the ideas just enough to make up their own. I was inspired by 90’s comics to make my own. I look back at them, some are amazing, some are regrettable and aged like cottage cheese. But they inspired me to draw, to write, to create and to just get better at all those things.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @cubstead
• Facebook: Cillian Cubstead
• Twitter: @cubstead
• Other: @cilliancubstead on TikTok

Image Credits

Art by Cillian Cubstead