Tilteed

Welcome back, April! This is your second print with us. Been up to anything awesome since last we saw you?
 
I’m happy to have a second print here! I’m still working on shirt designs, but for various reasons, I’ve directed my focus towards quality more than quantity. The non-art part of my life has kept me busy. I’ve moved and my day job responsibilities have shifted.

This is almost totally different from your last print with us. Tell us a bit about it.

Slushie was a very laid back and simple design. This one is deeper and not really meant to be taken literally. The idea behind it is renewal. If this design was somehow animated, you’d see the flesh of the three creatures being built back on the skeletons. They are coming back to life. C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe inspired this. There is a part when Aslan, the lion, breathes on statues, causing them to return to their former flesh and bone, giving them life. But renewal doesn’t have to be so literal and physical. This can also be about starting over, taking a new direction, renewal of spirit, etc. I chose the moon because it itself renews every month. So does the ocean’s tide, which is also included here.

Some of my favorite work of yours has been one-color work. Do you approach such design differently than you would a full-color piece?

One would think that one-color designs would be easier to execute, but in my experience, they are even more challenging and actually more time-consuming. For this one, I sketched in pencil, then scanned it and inked the outline with black lines on a white background, opposite of what is now. But what makes one-color designs challenging to me, is that they can’t really be outline-dependent. I couldn’t just switch the line art and background colors and be finished. The white edge of the solid shapes had to be the outline. So more fine tuning had to be done. Another challenge is shading and highlighting. For example, I wanted to create depth in the waves, so I basically made my own halftones, which can be very time-consuming. I enjoyed it though. Even if harder, it is very rewarding.

The power of music appears in a few of your pieces, as the moon here is unleashing creation through it. Just how powerful is music?

For me, music has a way of releasing emotions or realizations that would otherwise be trapped. It evokes things that you might not even realize are there. It can be healing as well. There have been times where hearing an instrument felt like I was being watered, like a parched wilted plant being finally rained on. I used a french horn here because, one, I love the sound and the look of a french horn, and two, it emphasizes breath since it takes breath to play it.

Clearly an artist like you must daunt others with awesomeness. Tell us something fun or nerdy about you that shows that you’re just like the rest of us.

Last night I had an hour long deep conversation with my brother about the last season of the anime, Inuyasha. I also cried like a baby through most of that season. For my birthday this year I’m going to Hogwarts. (Well, actually Harry Potter World at Universal Studios in Orlando, but still.)

Any new projects or other personal links you’d like to show us all?

Nothing really new right now. My blog, http://theinfinityloop.blogspot.com/ and my flick portfolio http://www.flickr.com/photos/theinfinityloop/ are still the best places to go for info.

Finally, as ever, any last words?

Embrace weirdness and give in to silliness. Both are fun. And thank you, Tilteed for choosing this and for existing. I really think you guys stand out among the other shirt sites for consistently supporting true creativity.