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THEISPOT INTERVIEWS PETER ARKLE

May 2, 2023

Peter Arkle lives in New York City, where he's a freelance illustrator of books, magazines, ads and whatever else comes his way. His answers to our questions are delightful and unexpected - read on!

How would you describe your art style?

I like to work in several related styles ranging from very simple drawings that are more about the ideas than the drawing to very complicated drawings that are packed with lots and lots of detail and words.

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Humor is often an important component. Really complicated drawings are fun because (as long as the main drawing answers the clients brief) I get to sneak in extra wee things for my own amusement.

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In between the extremes of super simple and super complex there are all sorts of things:

I draw graphic colorful images that have no words (some clients do not like any words in their drawings).

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I draw very simple portraits and very complicated detailed portraits that are just about making a drawing that looks like a real person.

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Recently I have really enjoyed being able to add movement in the form of simple GIFS to my work.

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I love when I get to look at real life and observe how something really is (a place or event) and to try to capture it. This is way more fun than just having to Google things or making things up all together ––although that can be fun too.

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It’s important to me to not work the exact same way all the time. It stops me being bored and allows me to work for a wider range of clients.

The boxes I most often check when uploading images to my iSpot page are: EDITORIAL, REALISTIC, ANIMALS, LINE WITH COLOR, DIGITAL and HUMOR.

Share a favorite project and tell us about it.

One of my favorite ongoing projects is the page I draw for the Japanese magazine Popeye each month.

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They let me go wherever I like in New York and document what I see and hear there. I love hanging around observing. I love the random and surprising things that I come across. It’s particularly good now that New York is back to being its normal full-on, crazy busy self. When I started making these pages it was right at the start of Covid. Hardly anyone was out and about and the people I did find were quiet and always at a safe distance. It was really hard to overhear anything. Things are so much easier now. I do sometimes feel sorry for the magazine’s translator who has the difficult task of taking weird colloquial New York language and turning it into Japanese but, I confess, I do like to challenge her.

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Which artists inspire you and why?

I am inspired by the style and clever satirical content of The Simpsons. It’s amazing to me how that show is still so good after all these years. I love the simple, fun but realistic drawings of Richard Scarry.

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I often get tempted to anthropomorphize animals –– especially in my work for the Sierra Club (I draw something for their online magazine every week).

I love all artists that look at real life and celebrate the details they find there.

Name a bucket list item.

I would love to do drawings for a series of wine bottles ––as long as the wine inside is delicious!

Other than illustration, what job would you like to do for one day?

I would love to spend one day being one of those people who stands in the street holding a STOP sign.

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It would be great to just watch the city go by for a whole day and to have the power to control a small bit of it. One day of this would be fun.

When left to my own devices, between commissioned work, I like drawing from nature. At the moment I am working on a large painting of a teasel seed head.

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Tags: Peter Arkle, Illustration, Interview, Theispot Interview

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