By Grits
Walking down Artists’ Alley at the Arlington convention, it’s easy to get lost
amongst the talent that presents their various works. There are all the comics,
the sketches, and all of the various paintings to view and of course the artists
themselves to speak to so when you come across a booth where the work is
done primarily on wood, it’s hard to walk by without taking note. Daniel Crosier
takes some time off from “working his wood” for a quick, and very humorous,
exclusive Busy Gamer interview.
Grits: I'm sitting here with Dan Crosier, an artist we’ve met at the Wizard World
Convention in Arlington, Texas, and he has some unusual pieces of work that
we're going to be talking about. The first thing we have to ask is Dan, are you a
Busy Gamer?
Dan: Yes I am.
Grits: Sweet! We're looking at your pieces here, and they are done on wood.
As uncomfortable as most guys might be talking about another man's wood,
why do you work on wood?
Dan: ‘Cause it's hard.
Grits: *laughing* Okay, that's a good answer, but seriously now...
Dan: The reason I like drawing on wood, and not just wood but other alternative
materials, is probably because of my background in fine arts, using other
mediums like foam and steel. I've drawn on steel before, and wood panel is
just very natural to me and it provides some interesting textures too when I'm
illustrating. Being an actual fine art gallery artist, I would bring together all kinds
of different mixed mediums for whatever purposes, different compositions,
whatever I'm trying to get across. There's a message in the artwork sand so
translating that into illustration on different materials I think makes it even more
exciting whereas the comic book industry is mostly traditionally on paper and
it's usually very straightforward. Luckily, there's a few other artists out there, like
Cody Chamberland, who is using all types of different styles and alternative
materials, like collage. As far as what I'm doing, I really like working in a lot of
detail trying to get the little happy accidents out of the individual wood grain, and
most of what I am using right now is poplar, which is more commonly used in
furniture. Some of these older pieces, like Edgar here, are from pine, which has
a larger grain and is more spread out. It doesn't make for the best wood, but it's
pretty pliable. Poplar is nice and smooth, and you can get finer details out of it,
but the real reason is it's just damn hard.
Grits: How did you get into drawing? Where did you get your start? Did you get
going as a kid?
Dan: I started illustrating pretty much from what my parents tell me shortly after I
was born. I was pretty much born with a pencil in my hand. In the third grade, I got
held back because I never did my homework. I was always doing art in our daily
journals in third grade. I was drawing G.I. Joe or Transformers. I think from early
on, I was a comic book artist and it's taken me awhile to come full circle because I
experimented in a lot of genres of expression and art.
Grits: Where do you get your inspiration for your original pieces? I see that you do
have some of your stuff that's based on the Green Lantern, and other pieces, I see
those, but I also see some of your original work.
Dan: My inspiration is pretty haphazard. It comes from a lot of different areas,
most of it just crazy Red Bull impulses. It just really depends on what my mood is
at the time. I can knock something out on assignment that I might not really care
too much about. A lot of this stuff here, like with the spray foam brain and
everything, that's based on a story that's coming out next year. The imagery has a
lot of suggestions to propaganda and things of that nature, mind control
manipulation. I guess as far as the more fine art influences and backgrounds,
politics do play into it, with that type of commentary. As far as specific
influences, as far as illustration goes, guys like Jim Lee, which you and I talked
about last night, and Marc Silvestri, those guys really got me motivated to go to
college for illustration. Also, fine artists like Francis Bacon, I think, is my favorite
painter of all time, very expressionist surrealistic painting that borders on
macabre. His work is very pointedly about the human conflict, human element, the
human condition. Then there are the obvious influences too, like Alex Ross, a very
contemporary comic book painter. I also looked elsewhere for influence, like
music. You got your Black Flag, your Henry Rollins, and I was talking about that a
lot last night too. Music gets me really pumped up even though I'm not a musician.
I take that drive a lot more seriously than any of the visual stuff and I put it towards
the visual applications. Film has also been a really big thing. Filmmakers like
Akira Kurosawa with "Seven Samurai" and "Rashomon". Also contemporary
filmmakers like Takashi Miike who did "Ichi the Killer". Anybody that is doing
anything really creative and out of sorts that can really capture my attention for
more than a couple seconds is great. I am obviously a child of the MTV
generation…and a coke fiend *laughing*. That has just confessed to using
drugs. *laughing again* And I’m out of caffeine. Mostly.
Grits: *laughing* I don't want to take up too much more of your time. One more
thing; do you have a website or somewhere we could direct our readers?
Dan: Yeah! You can go to www.thothengine.net. That's my personal website with
all the visual art. It links to film projects, films that are on the Internet. Also there is
my performance group, odAm fEi mUd, where we do the samurai choreographed
fighting and ridiculous over-the-top Gwar-esque armor, bloodletting, and good
times had by the entire family. We even occasionally make balloon animals.
Grits: *laughing* Alright Dan, thank you for your time, and try to stay off the Red
Bull.
Dan: Not gonna happen!
Dan’s artwork is unusual even without considering the mediums on which he
works. While he has some more traditional super hero pieces he has worked on, it’
s his original art work that will catch your eye. And as he mentions in the interview,
he is involved with a performance group called odAm fEi mUd. All of his work,
both art and performance, can be viewed on his website, www.thothengine.net, or
at his My Space profile, www.myspace.com/thothengine.
If you ever meet Dan in person, make sure to bring him a Red Bull and an escape
plan. You may need them both.
Grits – End Of Line
Walking down Artists’ Alley at the Arlington convention, it’s easy to get lost
amongst the talent that presents their various works. There are all the comics,
the sketches, and all of the various paintings to view and of course the artists
themselves to speak to so when you come across a booth where the work is
done primarily on wood, it’s hard to walk by without taking note. Daniel Crosier
takes some time off from “working his wood” for a quick, and very humorous,
exclusive Busy Gamer interview.
Grits: I'm sitting here with Dan Crosier, an artist we’ve met at the Wizard World
Convention in Arlington, Texas, and he has some unusual pieces of work that
we're going to be talking about. The first thing we have to ask is Dan, are you a
Busy Gamer?
Dan: Yes I am.
Grits: Sweet! We're looking at your pieces here, and they are done on wood.
As uncomfortable as most guys might be talking about another man's wood,
why do you work on wood?
Dan: ‘Cause it's hard.
Grits: *laughing* Okay, that's a good answer, but seriously now...
Dan: The reason I like drawing on wood, and not just wood but other alternative
materials, is probably because of my background in fine arts, using other
mediums like foam and steel. I've drawn on steel before, and wood panel is
just very natural to me and it provides some interesting textures too when I'm
illustrating. Being an actual fine art gallery artist, I would bring together all kinds
of different mixed mediums for whatever purposes, different compositions,
whatever I'm trying to get across. There's a message in the artwork sand so
translating that into illustration on different materials I think makes it even more
exciting whereas the comic book industry is mostly traditionally on paper and
it's usually very straightforward. Luckily, there's a few other artists out there, like
Cody Chamberland, who is using all types of different styles and alternative
materials, like collage. As far as what I'm doing, I really like working in a lot of
detail trying to get the little happy accidents out of the individual wood grain, and
most of what I am using right now is poplar, which is more commonly used in
furniture. Some of these older pieces, like Edgar here, are from pine, which has
a larger grain and is more spread out. It doesn't make for the best wood, but it's
pretty pliable. Poplar is nice and smooth, and you can get finer details out of it,
but the real reason is it's just damn hard.
Grits: How did you get into drawing? Where did you get your start? Did you get
going as a kid?
Dan: I started illustrating pretty much from what my parents tell me shortly after I
was born. I was pretty much born with a pencil in my hand. In the third grade, I got
held back because I never did my homework. I was always doing art in our daily
journals in third grade. I was drawing G.I. Joe or Transformers. I think from early
on, I was a comic book artist and it's taken me awhile to come full circle because I
experimented in a lot of genres of expression and art.
Grits: Where do you get your inspiration for your original pieces? I see that you do
have some of your stuff that's based on the Green Lantern, and other pieces, I see
those, but I also see some of your original work.
Dan: My inspiration is pretty haphazard. It comes from a lot of different areas,
most of it just crazy Red Bull impulses. It just really depends on what my mood is
at the time. I can knock something out on assignment that I might not really care
too much about. A lot of this stuff here, like with the spray foam brain and
everything, that's based on a story that's coming out next year. The imagery has a
lot of suggestions to propaganda and things of that nature, mind control
manipulation. I guess as far as the more fine art influences and backgrounds,
politics do play into it, with that type of commentary. As far as specific
influences, as far as illustration goes, guys like Jim Lee, which you and I talked
about last night, and Marc Silvestri, those guys really got me motivated to go to
college for illustration. Also, fine artists like Francis Bacon, I think, is my favorite
painter of all time, very expressionist surrealistic painting that borders on
macabre. His work is very pointedly about the human conflict, human element, the
human condition. Then there are the obvious influences too, like Alex Ross, a very
contemporary comic book painter. I also looked elsewhere for influence, like
music. You got your Black Flag, your Henry Rollins, and I was talking about that a
lot last night too. Music gets me really pumped up even though I'm not a musician.
I take that drive a lot more seriously than any of the visual stuff and I put it towards
the visual applications. Film has also been a really big thing. Filmmakers like
Akira Kurosawa with "Seven Samurai" and "Rashomon". Also contemporary
filmmakers like Takashi Miike who did "Ichi the Killer". Anybody that is doing
anything really creative and out of sorts that can really capture my attention for
more than a couple seconds is great. I am obviously a child of the MTV
generation…and a coke fiend *laughing*. That has just confessed to using
drugs. *laughing again* And I’m out of caffeine. Mostly.
Grits: *laughing* I don't want to take up too much more of your time. One more
thing; do you have a website or somewhere we could direct our readers?
Dan: Yeah! You can go to www.thothengine.net. That's my personal website with
all the visual art. It links to film projects, films that are on the Internet. Also there is
my performance group, odAm fEi mUd, where we do the samurai choreographed
fighting and ridiculous over-the-top Gwar-esque armor, bloodletting, and good
times had by the entire family. We even occasionally make balloon animals.
Grits: *laughing* Alright Dan, thank you for your time, and try to stay off the Red
Bull.
Dan: Not gonna happen!
Dan’s artwork is unusual even without considering the mediums on which he
works. While he has some more traditional super hero pieces he has worked on, it’
s his original art work that will catch your eye. And as he mentions in the interview,
he is involved with a performance group called odAm fEi mUd. All of his work,
both art and performance, can be viewed on his website, www.thothengine.net, or
at his My Space profile, www.myspace.com/thothengine.
If you ever meet Dan in person, make sure to bring him a Red Bull and an escape
plan. You may need them both.
Grits – End Of Line
| Dan Crosier (left) and BusyGamer Grits (right) at Wizard World 2007 - Arlington, Texas. Photos by Reverend Torres ©2007 BusyGamer. IMAGE IMAMS Comic cover art by Dan Crosier (right) |
DAN CROSIER
works his wood for busygamer.com
works his wood for busygamer.com