Well everyone welcome to Graham Phisher dot com’s second interview, you may of remembered the last one with Addicted 2 Art, but now we got a new one. With, who I would consider very professional at designing skateboard decks, wheels, album covers, and logos, Kirk Shelton. I ran across him through DaFont dot com, and checked out his portfolio, instantly impressed with his work, emailed him, and talked about doing a interview for the site, and that’s what we exactly did. I’m sure your all going to enjoy his work, and this interview as much as I did, anyways check it out.

Graham: Hey Kirk first off thanx for taking the time to do this interview for grahamphisher.com, I’m sure a lot of people would like to know more about the guy behind the work. For anyone who doesn’t know, Kirk Shelton is a popular designer located in Martinez, Ca, who does illustrations for primarily skateboard companies and rock bands.

Kirk: Thanks for having me!

Graham: So the first question is, how did you get into doing illustrations and other designs, were you inspired by work you seen, or did you just fall into it?

Kirk: I was in a band for years and did all of our art and graphics so bands that were friends of ours would ask me to do stuff for them. And for skateboarding work, I was just doing paintings and personal stuff and hadn’t really even considered it until a few years ago when was contacted by a skateboard company to enter a skateboard design contest and from there I reintroduced myself to skateboard art I grew up being into and have since tried to emerge myself into that culture. Everything in one way or another just grew out of that.

Graham: What tools do you use to create your illustrations and fonts? Do you know of any sites or books that you would recommend to people to learn about these tools and how use them?

Kirk: Everything I do will probably end up in Adobe Photoshop at some point. Either from the beginning, or just to touch up hand drawn art. The fonts is something I’ve just started a few weeks ago and am getting addicted to. I use FontCreator 5.6 to turn hand drawn or digitally drawn letters into a font. I still have a ton to learn but I’m havin fun with it.

As far as books or sites, the best advice I can give is just google for tutorials or just do what I did and teach yourself the hard way by making mistakes.

Graham: How long have you been doing what you do, and how long have you been doing this as a career?

Kirk: I’ve been doing art as long as I can remember, and gradually getting into different things along the way. It’s only in the last several years that I have been trying to make money from art and I wouldnt really say I have a career in it. I work a 9-5 job doing CAD for a manufacturing company. It’s not glamerous but is flexible enough for me to be able to do other creative things.

Graham: When working is there any specific music you listen to like rap or rock?

Kirk: I primarily like rock. More specifically aggressive challenging heavier type music. I was in a band that got a recording contract and toured. That experience basically ruined how I see and hear music now. It’s like waiting in line for Santa at the mall and finally getting to sit on his lap and discover that it’s just some smelly fat guy in a cheap costume. The curtain had been pulled back and I really didnt like what I saw. I hope that wasnt too vague? But yea, it takes a lot for me to be impressed.

Graham: What are some of your favorite websites, that you visit daily?

Kirk: Daily sites.. hmm.. I spend a lot of time on a skateboarding site geared toward 80′s era skateboarding, art, and collecting. skullandbonesskateboards.com That site and the members there inspire me to keep designing skateboard art. Other sites are google of course. Google pretty much runs my internet life. A Lost TV show forum ssbreplacement.proboards76.com yea, It’s a bit dorky but I got hooked on that show in 04 and havent turned back. It makes you think. I try to stay current with lifehacker.com and sites like Brandnew – underconsideration.com/brandnew. For a good laugh I check out notalwaysright.com Oh yea dafont.com is a new site I’ve been on a lot lately.

Graham: Is there any other artists out there that you look up to?

Kirk: My biggest inspirations growing up were Robert Williams and Jim Phillps. Aside from Philips, and I cant name the artists but a real inspiration for me was skateboard artists from the 80′s and 90′s and heavy metal band album cover artists from the same era. Something so in your face and raw about all that stuff that gets me excited to rock out or to go paint something. Upon researching artists to design my own band’s album, I found art by Jeff Soto who we ended up hiring. Just talking with him through his process for our album really lit a fire under my ass to try to paint more and persue a career in it. Which I’m still persuing. Someone buy a painting!

thanks for the interview!
kirk

For more designs by Kirk, you can vist any of his following sites, kirksheltonart.com, kirkshelton.com, kirknoggins.blogspot.com, kirkfinger.deviantart.com, and galleryskates.com.