Benjamin Wachenje Interview...

This is the Interview, I conducted with A personal Inspiration of mine, The established Illustrator, Benjamin Wachenje on 21st January 2013, I found him such an approachable and friendly person, who answered all of my questions in a full and honest way, It was quite an honour for me to get this opportunity, so I hope you enjoy reading it and find it as helpful as I did!

ME: Hi Ben, 

Instead of sending a block of questions, I figured I'd send them one at a time,

it seems less formal and leaves room for to chop and change the questions if your answers allow.

Hope thats ok?

O.k, my first question.... As a dad to 3 young kids myself, I was wondering how you find a balance between your work (as its obviously a time consuming

working method) and your duties as a dad.

Do you think you have achieved a perfect balance or is it something you are still working at?

BW: No balance whatsoever. Sometimes I work so hard that I sleep on the sofa in the studio. Other times I will be having so much fun with my family that I will end up pushed to the limit to meet a deadline.  For the last two years I have worked from home 90% of the time. As a family I think we are much stronger now, but finically we are weaker than when I would spend 90% of the time in the studio.

ME: You wouldn't believe how much relief that answer has given me,

As I struggle to manage the time between the my art and family so to know such an established Illustrator as yourself also has not got a balance,

I can stop letting it be such a major issue and just crack on as I have been, thanks!

I struggle to compromise on my Creative Ideologies when working in a team so end up quite defensive and stubborn

Do you collaborate with other Artists and Illustrators often? and if so how do you find working in a team?

BW: I do lots of collaborations. Sometimes, humbly, I disagree with the direction and will try persuasive arguments. When these don't work I take a step back to see if I might be missing something. Usually you collaborate with somebody because you respect their artistry so I look into their suggestion to see if I have overlooked what they are driving at. I learned from painting the importance of viewing your work from a distance and from different angles. Even when I am not collaborating I consult the opinions of my wife, children and others in the studio to get their take sometimes I don't like what they say, but I still listen and continue to ask their opinion. That said, I think its equally important to cultivate solitude and create spontaneous work, even if nobody else likes it. 

ME: Maybe I just need to be a little less protective and actually learn to compromise more,

I understand what you mean though, my Brother is my fiercest critic but also one of my biggest supporter, it was him that actually pushed me to finally going to uni at the age of 28.

I First came across your work when i saw the Billboards for GTA San Andreas, and its influenced and inspired my art since.

Did Rockstar enlist you for the new game and where do you find inspiration for such a fictional and dark subject as found in 

games?

BW: But also at uni you don't always get to chose who you collaborate with so it is a little different and sometimes more problematic.

Good for you. My wife is studying again at 38. I would like to go back and develop my animation skills maybe when my wife is a qualified teacher I will be able to do a part time course. Where are you studying? what course?

With the GTA billboards I was only ever commissioned to paint the backgrounds from already existing screen grabs. All of the subject matter and character development is done at Rockstar and then the paintings are commissioned. The characters are developed by Steven Bliss who is the Art Director. In the 90's and early 00's I couldn't get any agents to represent me. Steven Bliss was already established and being offered so much work that he was turning it down. The Central Illustration Agency offered to represent me knowing that I could pick up the contracts that Steven was turning down. I was surprised when they called me because I had taken my book to them 6 months earlier and was told that I wasn't the right fit for their agency. I have been with them for nearly 10 years now. I have worked with Rockstar games on 2 GTA titles and also Red Dead Redemption. But the long and short of it is that I do donkey work for GTA, the creative genius belongs to my stable mate mr. Bliss. 

ME: Im doing a BA Hons in Illustration at Stockport, I agree with you, not being able to choose who I worked with Immediately put a dampener on my creativity,

I did learn to grin and bare it but refused to compromise on my Ideas,

But in the end it just caused conflict and the final outcomes suffered, so I suppose I learned the lesson the hard way.

I'll be having a look at Mr. Bliss' work a bit later as well!

Donkey work or not, its Inspired a whole artistic chapter in my life so thank you!

while we are on the uni subject i'll show you my reproductions, the card player, is probably one of my favourite pieces of your work, thats why I chose that to copy,

and after realising how pain staking it was, (i quit on the pinstripes before my hair went grey) and the woman with the guitar was paint on canvas as im much comfier using that media! digital is fairly new to me so i resorted back to what i know, but my question is do you have a particularly piece that you are especially proud of?

BW: Wow these are great. The card player is dope. I hate pinstripes.

I don't really have any work that I am proud of. Nearly all of my work is commercial or commissioned. I think I will be proud when I have created some of the conceptional work that has been buzzing around in my head.

I have just finished working with TY (UK based Rapper) the 3 pieces on Magenta are parts of the new EP art. Please be desecrate with these as the artwork is still under wraps. I like these because it is a return to my first days as an illustrator. In 1997 I was commissioned by Vox magazine to do an illustration of Jarvis Cocker. I cut bits of coloured paper out and stuck them down on a sheet of black leaving parts of the black to show through and divide the colours. I worked like this for several years before getting my first mac in 1999 at which point I recreated the style digitally. Its nice to go back and cut out card again. All of the typography is paper engineering. I also enjoyed the 2010 project with TY because I got to sculpt him out of wood. The GAGA illustration was fun because I subtly characterised her. I like the picture of my son with the AK47 because of its political connotations, I had just turned down a job with the US army worth over $100,000. Since I had decided not to help them create recruitment posters I thought I had better make some pro-peace images. It really helped take my mind off the $100,000 I had kissed good bye to and made me consider how powerful art can be. I like the Jameelia Jamil portrait for purely superficial reasons. Bruce Lee because it is solid colours no tones, but it still works. The painting of Logic because it was quick and fun to do. The woman on the sofa because it was so technical, my wife and I also got to stay in that hotel and it was lavish. Oh and one of my favourite clients is Jonzi-D and Breakin' Convention. Its a B-Boy festival that is celebrating its 10th year in 2013. I have worked on it since the start.

 

           

                                                                                                                             

                                                                                                                                      

          

The images above, were included in Ben's final E-mail, an example of just how helpful he was throughout the Interview, I have also, kept in touch since and still find Ben to be friendly and accommodating considering how busy he is, left me a very grateful chap indeed! so once again,

Thanks Ben!!