Chitchat: Jeffrey Smith

December 31, 2011 2

Your Full Name
Jeffrey Smith

Tell us about you.
I am a digital painter as well as a traditional artist & photographer. Art is my life, it’s my war and I strive to push myself as far as possible to voice myself through it.

When was the first time you fell in love with the digital art world? And why?
The digital medium was something I was drawn to long before I ever started digital painting in 2006. For many years I had created work with pen & ink, color pencil and scratchboard. I eventually hit a wall with how far those mediums were taking my art and when I discovered digital painting it opened the doors.

Coming from a mostly graphic style background of art, I fell in love with the digital medium when I trained myself in the world of color and painting.

I had to rediscover myself as an artist when this new medium was presented to me, which eventually led to the road I had been searching for. I continue to learn and discover new things I love about the digital medium to this day.

Where are you now?
I currently live in the Midwest in the United States. I previously lived in Washington State for 15 years.

What makes your works stand-out or different from other digital artist?
I make what I want, the way I want it, as the way all art should be. This comes from the inside out, with the absence of expectations or trends. The work I create is personal, its my truth, and I take it very seriously. To ever create something outside of that truth would discredit & butcher what I personally believe means to be an artist. I knew that If I was going to create this work it had to be who I really was, and that every piece was going to be a clear stream of what I really wanted to say and I think that’s what makes it stand out.

I have a determination to capture exactly what I see, It is something that tests me, its my life on a canvas, the good and the bad, everything. With my work there are no filters, and I create things you don’t see everyday.

What motivates you?
What motivates me as an artist is life itself. Every piece is almost a chronological snapshot of my existence and what’s currently happening in my life. What motivates me is sadness, joy, pain, love – every single broad range of human emotion we experience is something to be used in a piece. There are things I learn about myself through my work, things I purge, confess and sometimes confront.

What motivates me most is knowing that this is what I’m supposed to be doing, God gave me this for a reason and its my responsibility to use it to its fullest. There is enough motivation in the love & joy I have for creating art alone.

How does working professionally differ from being an amateur in your opinion?
In my opinion the difference is working professionally you are told what to make, and you are expected to make it a certain way. An amateur is free from having to make something for someone else but will ultimately struggle to make a living off their work if they have chosen to be an artist for their career. In this you can see that most commonly the artist that makes money is making artwork for popular demand, and the amateur is making work from their own perspective free from having to depend on it for their livelihood, and this can completely alter the output.

There is the core inside an artist that thrives off something, it can be the intention of money, popularity, faith, expression, pain, acceptance, rebellion etc – and it will reflect in the work produced from this intention. That’s why its so important to know exactly why it is you create art. I’m the type of artist that would rather spend my life creating work the way I wanted for nothing instead of creating work for someone else for everything. If I can make some money off my work, great – but its not the intention.

If you could meet w/ any artist (one) past or present, whom would it be?
This isn’t something I think about often, and unfortunately I am empty handed with an answer.

Who (or what) is your biggest influence?
Jesus Christ is my only influence.

What is your life moto?
Life is short, and we are running out of time.

Tell us several good online resources for digital artist you recommend visiting?
Well, I don’t have a lot but I occasionally run into different sites. Color Scheme Designer is a pretty good site that I just found recently. You can pick your color scheme and download an .aco color palette for Photoshop. http://colorschemedesigner.com/. And of course Deviantart is a great place for textures, stock photos and brushes. http://www.deviantart.com/

Do you have a style that you relate to the most?
Surreal has been a category that my work has fallen into, but its never something I’ll define my art by. I yearn to create a looser, sketchier feel with my paintings but as I work on them they become very crisp and defined, its hard for me to keep them messy. I admire a lot of the speedpainters and the impressionists techniques they apply to creating big atmospheres in smaller amounts of time. So there’s a contrast in admiring something I don’t normally do, while the true relation lies within my personal vision that drives and forms my work into what it is.

Can you offer any advice on how to build-up a portfolio / ‘getting your foot in the door’ for our readers wishing to start a career in this line of digital artist ?
Spend every possible moment you have creating art, and when you are not creating art – think about creating art. Days, months, years are to be devoted to creating your gallery/portfolio. The work I did just 4 years ago isn’t in my current gallery, and the work I’m doing now won’t be in my gallery 4 years from now. The more you do, the better you get, that’s just a fact.

What’s also important is what you stand for and what your work represents, that choice alone will determine a lot of things, but more-so it helps what audience you can direct your work to. The biggest key is don’t make work for your portfolio, make work for your life.

Name 3 of your favorite (art) books/ magazines.
I don’t have any to list. I don’t read any art magazines or books.

Do you have anyone/company you would like to collaborate/work together?
No, none in mind. I plan on collaborating with my wife in a few books we have planned in the near future. The way she writes unlocks a vast world that I am excited to help create visually, I haven’t read anything else like it.

What are the digital artist equipment(s) do you currently own?
All my work is created with the Wacom 9×12 Intuos3, I eventually want to get the Intuos4.

Name 3 softwares that you use the most, and tell us the function of each them.
I use Photoshop for mostly everything, all my digital painting is created in Photoshop along with all my other digital work with photography, scans of traditional work and web design. I have also used Painter in the past for some of my rougher sketches.

If you have online portfolio, what is the URL?
Personal website Ascending Storm: http://www.ascendingstorm.com
Deviantart: http://veinsofmercury.deviantart.com/
Shadowness: http://shadowness.com/ascendingstorm

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