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Spraygraphic Interview with Nora Krug
By Spraygraphic | October 29, 2007
Spraygraphic Interview with Nora Krug
SG: Please tell us about yourself?
NK: Hello. My name is Nora Krug. I’m an illustrator and animator. I also publish visual narratives on real and fictitious peoples’ lives and I’m an Assoc. Professor for Illustration and Curriculum Development at Parsons the New School for Design in New York. I also exist outside the world of illustration and art.
SG: Where do you currently live and work?
NK: In New York. But I also spend some time in Europe.
SG: What mediums do you work with?
NK: It depends on the kind of work, the theme of an article or story or the time frame. If it’s a rushed piece for a client I often just use pencil, heighten the contrast of the line to make it black and colour the illustration in Photoshop. I like 2B pencils best, and I feel like I have more control over the line when working with pencils as opposed to markers. If I have more time for a job or when working on my own illustrations and visual narratives I prefer using colour pencil or brush and ink because it’s warmer and it better conveys the atmosphere I want to describe. Sometimes I make the medium dependent on the kind of paper it’s going to be printed on. If it’s a glossy magazine, bright computer colours work better and if it’s a magazine that uses a slightly rough and yellowish paper I prefer working with more organic media, such as colour pencil or paper collage.
SG: Describe your working process when creating a new work.
NK: I easily get bored once I notice I’m using similar concepts, compositions and media and I try to always explore new themes and ways of working. When working on a personal piece the process can be really torturing. I can get very deeply involved and forget where I am. Every time it feels like I’m starting at the very beginning, like a puzzle with thousands of parts, and no reference image on the cover. I take a long time for sketches and I often have no idea what the final piece will look like. Every line I draw can be a struggle. But when I’m done and happy with the way it looks I feel extremely fulfilled. It’s a completely different story with my commercial work. I work much faster there and have a good sense of what the final piece will look like.
SG: What kind of things do you do when you get blocked or find it hard to create something?
NK: I get very annoyed and angry and can’t stop thinking about possible solutions. It takes me an hour or so of socializing and thinking of something else until I emerge on the surface again. Usually the only way out is continuing to draw and redraw until it works. Sometimes it also helps me to distract myself while I’m working, because then the whole focus isn’t only on my fear of not being able to create what I want. I love listening to BBC Radio 4 and 7 online.
SG: Where are you currently finding your inspiration?
NK: In everything. People, films, music, books, other people’s art. I’m also very inspired by peoples’ lives that have nothing to do with the arts.
SG: How did you get into being an freelance artist for companies like Comedy Central and newspaper publications (NY and LA Times).
NK: For a long time I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do. I had a lot of interests that I was seriously pursing, such as music (playing the violin), dance (Flamenco) and foreign languages (Japanese). I studied set design, graphic design, documentary film and illustration. For some reason I ended up pursuing illustration more than any of the other disciplines. I realized you didn’t have to stand around in a forest in the rain at two in the morning, because of a passionate film project there actually wasn’t any funding for. All you needed was a piece of paper and some pencils. What I also like about illustration is that to me it feels more poetic and personal than graphic design. You are hired for a particular visual language, rather than having to adapt your ideas and way of working to a particular client. I’m still trying to combine my other Interests with illustration. My visual narratives on real peoples’ lives feel like the perfect combination of my interest in documentary and illustration and that’s why it’s very fulfilling to work on those. When it became clear that I wanted to pursue a career in illustration I showed my portfolio around in New York. Steven Guarnaccia, then art director of the Op-Ed page at the New York Times, was one of the most popular art directors to see for SVA students. When I met him I was struck by his open mindedness, willingness to take risks and generosity. He was the first person to give me an assignment and it was due the same day. It was a wonderful feeling and I’m very grateful to him for giving me this chance early on in my career. I started working with an agent, Riley Illustration, from my second year at SVA. A lot of my jobs come in through them, including my work for the LA Times. After graduating I applied to Comedy Central as a designer and animator by showing them my portfolio. They were redesigning their web page and hired a number of new designers at the time. The art director there, Jesse Willmon, was great. He gave us a lot of freedom.
SG: What kind of deadlines do you work with when producing this kind of work?
NK: I have very short deadlines when I work for newspapers or magazines, usually no more than 5-7 days. Of course the Op-Ed page is the most rushed job, since it’s a daily political page. Illustrators have from 12 to 5 pm to come up with and send sketches, wait for approval and send in the final art. But it’s a good exercise and you learn that you can actually produce a lot within a short time frame.
SG: Do the companies come back to you and say “change this” or “change that?”
NK: Mostly they don’t. Most art directors (at least in my experience) don’t tell you what to draw. I suppose they would hire a different kind of illustrator for that. Often art directors who have a precise idea of what they want can be convinced that a less direct idea works better, once you show them your sketches. But I have worked with art directors where I submitted 8 sketches and still didn’t get the idea right. But sometimes that’s actually very helpful because you learn to think more critically about your own concepts. So I wouldn’t want to say that that’s bad. Usually there is no time, though, for thorough revisions, because the magazines themselves are dependent on short deadlines.
SG: How much are you willing to change? Is there some kind of negotiation process you go through?
NK: I usually don’t negotiate. I either decide whether I want to do it or not. If it’s for a paper or magazine that had very high aesthetic and intellectual standards it’s very important to me that I do the work I’m most confident with. But generally I’m willing to change a lot. On the other hand, most art directors have left me a lot of freedom to do what I thought best.
SG: Where has your work been seen?
NK: In magazines, papers, on t-shirts, in shows, annuals and festivals in Europe, America and Asia.
SG: Where will it be seen next?
NK: I’m currently working on a narrative without words for the Belgian publisher BRIES. It’s going to be 340 panels altogether, so it’s going to take a while until it’s being seen.
SG: What is your dream art assignment?
NK: There are many…sequential illustrations for subway tunnels in New York, Visual Narratives for literary magazines, an experimental animation with a team of interesting artists, musicians and actors, an assignment that involves human beings in areas of crisis and helps making people aware of social problems.
SG: What is your favorite color?
NK: It used to be red. But now I wonder if it’s lime green. I like different colours for different things.
SG: Who is your favorite artist? And Why?
NK: There are many artists I love. There are some I love and I’m not influenced by and some I love and I’m influenced by. Just to name a couple: I like Tomi Ungerer for his balance between a strong concept, humor and great line. Chris Ware for his sense of design and powerful, sensitive story telling. David Hughes for his design sense.
SG: What book/magazine are you reading this week?
NK: Some of the current New Yorker issue, a biography of Hiro Onoda, I’m re-reading all Tintin books and I’m beginning “My Name is Red” by Orhan Pamuk.
SG: Ever do a self portrait? Where is it now?
NK: There is one on my web page. But I haven’t really done that since I was a teenager.
SG: Where is your favorite place to hang out?
NK: There are many. I like crowded bistros, such as Cafe Paris in Hamburg, dark bars like Decibel or Chumley’s in New York and ye good olde “Stube” in the Black Forest I go to when I visit home, where bacon and home made cheese are still served on wooden boards and you’re looked at angrily by the woman in the dirndl when you ask for an extra fork. The food and lighting are crucial!
SG: You have had an extensive academic and professional career that has brought you to Parsons. What kind of final words of advice do you have for aspiring artists?
NK: An academic career is important if you want to work at an academic institution. For your career as an illustrator what really counts is your portfolio and your stubbornness to go on even if you’re turned down. It’s important to always believe in your work, to be communicative and know how to position your work in the context of contemporary illustration, to consider yourself the author of your work rather than just someone who fulfills an assignment and to constantly think of how you might apply your skills in the widest sense. With the right skills, illustrators can work as authors of books for children and adults, as animators, toy designers, product designers, textile designers, game designers, interface designers, set designers and picture makers for areas that don’t even exist yet. It’s up to us to invent them.
ART:
1. Little Red Riding Hood
2. The End of the World
3. Meldorf Open Air Festival
4. No Man’s Land
5. Fish Poem
6. Bush
Topics: Artist Interviews, Paintings, Pencil Drawings |
December 6th, 2007 at 4:30 pm
[...] sure you read the rest of the interview here for more insights about Nora’s work and interests. Also, you can access the archive of [...]
January 10th, 2008 at 6:16 pm
fashion illustration portfolio…
Great post. The third paragraph is my favourite !…