EvokeOne - v5

XXXI

Current Exhibit Into The Void View exhibition View previous exhibitions

Sheldon Silvera An interview with IX: Discovery's featured artist

Alrighty. So let's start off with the generic stuff.
Tell me a bit about yourself, your name, age, location, etc.
I would say asl but then I'd sound like a stalker

=D

I'm Sheldon Silvera, living in a pretty little place outside of Oakland, California. I'm 17 and go to a highschool with a bunch of rich kids, but I'm not. I spend most of my time at school just drawin in my sketchbook. I love breaking and have been doin that for about 3 years. My time is split up between art and breakin and of course the rest of the good stuff we all do.

That's about the gist of it

So your hobbies are breakdancing and art I take it? Anything else to note?

That's pretty much what it comes down to. Of course like every normal person I enjoy games and stuff. I like freeze tag a lot.

Haha. Manhunt is better - but that's for another interview.

In any case, you're the featured artist for Discovery
You're relatively new to the Evoke scene.
How does it feel?

Like butterflies in my stomach. It's the first artgroup I've ever been in, and I've enjoyed making art for the packs. I think the scene has been really lacking in illustrations and creative works. I think since Evoke's return, the creativity of the packs has gone way up and I'm super happy to be a part of that.

Yeah - we've been trying to incorporate more traditional works into our exhibitions. Glad to have you on board.

Regarding that, which medium do you prefer? Traditional or digital?
Or are they simply different?

Well I've really been trying to link the two with my stuff. By day I draw, and by night I design. I'll get home from school everyday, scan the new junk I drew in my sketchbook that day, and try and create a nice composition with it digitally. It's a kickin process.

So I guess I like em both equally =)

Awesome. I've seen that sort of work in a lot of your pieces. Let's take apart one of them in detail to get an idea of how you do your work.

I personally like Pneumoencephalography (whatever that means ;D). How did you go about making that?
Just a brief overview - not too technical.

Alrighty. I started with a few sketches of random dudes from my head. Those were done with prismacolor pens, colored pencils, and crayons. I really like to mix a bunch of mediums. I scanned those in then I started to play around with photoshop brushes on my super wacom tablet. This was the first one that I actually developed the drawings farther with digital brushing. From there I just kind of did a bunch of wierd photoshoppy stuffs.

So your main tools are your drawing tools, and photoshop? Any other programs for those out there who may be curious?

Illustrator. I didn't use it on this one, but I've started to use that a lot more, especially for scribbles. Vectored brush scribbles are really clean and sexy. I like drawing with pretty much anything except a pencil.

Vector graphics make the world go around.

In any case, we've covered the technical stuff - let's discuss your thought process a bit. Your choice of color as well as your choice of figures seems to fit together for a sort of dreary scene in Pneumoencephalography.

What is your inspiration for creating that sort of an atmosphere?

Oh, well Pneumoencephalography is something that doctors used to do to treat psychosis. They drained fluid from the brain so that it would show up better on an x-ray. I wanted to make this one a representation of that feeling, or at least what I can try to imagine that would feel like. And thats why the guy on the left has swirlies coming out of his head.

My psychology professor would slap me for not remembering that word - but I can definitely see your representation of that idea here. In general, are there any artists or musicians that inspire your work?

Andy Warhol. Because if he can be regarded as an amazing artist.. then anyone can. And I love making art to the same music that I dance too. Hip hop artists like Eric B & Rakim, and Talib Kweli are usually playing while I make art.

I notice from your member page that you live in a suburb full of druggies and crap. Does this affect your ideas/artwork at all?

whew give me a second here i keep changing my mind haha

take your time

I am annoyed by the amount of boring people that live around here, but I really don't associate with them so they don't impact me or my art very much. The people I do hang with are really interesting and many of them are artistic. Yea.

The people I spend time with are super fun and keep me creative.

So you've found your own place. That's always good to hear.

Yeah

Just out of curiosity, how long does it take you to create a piece, on average?

Well including the time for drawing the individual elements, it usually take about 8 to 9 hours, but I tend to spread it out over a few days. I don't think I've ever spent more than 15 hours on a single work.

Have you ever considered doing graphic design or drawing for a career?

Yeah definitely, I recently applied to some colleges, mostly choosing them for their graphic design program. I'm interested in some sort of design career that will allow me to be creative and continue my illustrations

Well I'm glad to hear that. Good luck with your future work!

Now, a bit of a tricky question - give ONE piece of advice for an aspiring artist in today's world.

hmm

If you understand it, it's not art

=)

Clever - short and sweet to be cliché.

In any case it was good to talk to you Avant or should I say, Sheldon. Congratulations on being our featured artist for Discovery. We're glad to have you in Evoke and we wish you the best as an artist.

Is there any last statement you'd like to make before we wrap this up?
Something quirky, funny, anything.
It could be "I like cheese."

Aha, well first I just wanna thank you guys for featuring me and giving me a great place to get some exposure. And people need to draw more monsters and stop making pointless 3d abstract renders!

Amen. Keep it real man.

DeviantArt Page
Portfolio
Member Page