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Tom
Voss: Catching up with Tom Voss
Catching
up with Tom Voss
written by illustrator,
Laura Greer
Once upon a time
there was a little boy in Arizona who was in third grade. When
asked what he wanted to be when he grew up, he answered, "an
artist". Unlike most little boys, his answer never changed.
After graduating from Arizona State with a commercial art degree,
Tom Voss headed west to San Diego in 1973.
Tom soon became
quite the veteran in the San Diego community as a creative professional.
His first experience was with a graphic design firm where he
did anything and everything including typesetting, paste-up,
design and illustration. His career then took him to other agencies
as an art director for the next ten years. He took every opportunity
to visit the studios of the creatives he hired and always took
away more inspiration for his own drawing and painting. Finally,
he decided that was more the life for him and ventured full-time
into building an illustration career.
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Society of Illustrators San Diego
Society of Illustrators
San Diego
Art
Illustrators
Illustration
Commercial art
Society
Artists
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He started with local work resulting
from all of his contacts in the design community, mostly through
CAG membership events. He was asked to do just about everything
in every medium. At some point, he found pastels and he started
promoting that style nationally. Once he got to the point of
wanting to focus a little more, he kept a rolodex of fellow illustrators
and always provided a recommendation if asked to do something
that didn't fit his style.
Living in Escondido with his
wife of 11 years, Eniko and kids, Elisa (8) and Nicholas (4),
his in-home studio space is pretty ideal. He is able to talk
about his ideas with his kids who provide some valuable critiques
for their Dad's work. His schedule can vary from 20-80 hours
per week but he feels he can't really plan anymore than a week
in advance. I was fortunate to catch up with Tom in between his
busy schedule for a short question and answer session.
Q. Who were
the biggest influences in encouraging you in your art?
A. My parents when I was a kid. Professionally, I always get
inspired by other people's work. I loved visiting illustrators
studios when I was an art director. I would always come back
excited and so energized it was hard to go to sleep sometimes.
Any art world things such as gallery showings, even pencil drawings,
pick up my enthusiasm for my art.
Q. What is your process in conceptualizing your assignment?
A. I can't think my way through a concept. I have to keep doodling
and writing down key words. I think great concepts often evolve
out of good interaction with the art director. When they are
good communicators, they can sometimes complete the thinking
for you or provide that missing link to push it even further
than your initial sketches are showing.
Q. How has
being an art director previously affected your illustration work?
A. The
greatest benefit was gaining knowledge of the printing process.
Having been on press checks, I understand the limitations of
holding certain colors on press. I also know that a good art
director will know how to communicate and how to express the
feeling of what they want as well as how one descriptive workd
can be a huge thing in steering the illustrator in a certain
direction.
Q. What is your ultimate goal with art and illustration?
A. I don't really have specific goals, like a business plan
or anything, or for achieving any certain awards. The main thing
is that I enjoy what I'm doing. I feel like I draw all the time.
When I travel, I doodle the whole time so that it ends up being
made into a travel journal when I get home. Right now I am enjoying
oil painting outdoors when I have the downtime.
Q. What is the most ridiculous thing about the illustration
field?
A. Well I don't think "ridiculous" would be the
right word, but it is a funny thing when you follow all the instructions
precisely and once the client sees what they asked for on paper
they realize it's not what they wanted and make all these changes.
I think some clients just aren't as visually oriented, so unfortunately
you have to go through that process for them to see it. It's
just part of this business. I don't think it's anything to get
too upset about.
Q. What is your worst experience as an illustrator?
A. Well, one time in particular, I was working on an assignment
that was very specific and heavily art directed. When I presented
my sketches they focused on probably the one detail they didn't
specify and acted amazed that I didn't do it the way they had
envisioned, which would have required some mind reading on my
end. Doing the correction wasn't any problem but their attitude
about my decision was presented in a very condescending manner
that definitely got under my skin. The important thing was I
learned to retain a professional attitude in spite of how they
were communicating with me.
Q. Do you have any advice for those who want to build their
own illustration career?
A. For someone just starting out, developing a portfolio
by illustrating every day is the key. It may be a job or just
a self-promotion piece. Discovering your favorite medium and
developing a style may take awhile. Getting real jobs help lead
a young illustrator to do this and can be done with local or
national work. To promote oneself in a national market though,
a style should be developed and the portfolio to back it up.
Q. With all of your experience, when someone asks you what
type of work you do, how do you explain?
A. I try not to be jack-of-all-trades and I promote primarily
just my pastel work. If a new client approaches me with a job
in a different medium, I try to see if it is something I'm capable
of doing and would enjoy doing.
Q. What do you do for portfolio presentation?
A. My national portfolio is a very handsome presentation
of laminated 8 X 10 transparencies. The portfolio I use locally
is a mixture of transparencies and mounted printed samples. My
local portfolio is slightly more varied in style also.
Q. To make this official, I think I have to ask you which
awards you have won.
A. Since awards are not a driving force for me, I don't enter
my work in many shows, although I will keep giving the New York
Society of Illustrators show a shot.
Currently, Tom is expanding his creative outlets even more by
spending more time oil painting (which have already won a few
awards), learning the piano and taking computer classes... you
don't know where Tom's creativity will show up next ... wow,
I'm tired, but so inspired!
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