Craig Robson Aka ‘Daggers For Teeth’ is well known amongst Illustrators and artists alike. His bold distinctive style has adorned everything from bands tees to spirit summoning Ouija boards. Craig recently worked on a design for our forthcoming artists series and were stoked on what we received.
Here’s a sneak peek at his awesome boar design, which will be available from our 3rdRail Store early next month. To keep your appetite wet in the meantime, here’s a Q&A with the man himself.
HOW DID YOU GET INTO ILLUSTRATION & DESIGN?
I was always drawing at school, even when I shouldn’t have been. this kind of lead me down the academic art route, doing the usual A levels-foundation course-university trek and was fortunate to have a bunch of great teachers along the way. So I guess I jumped through the hoops to make sure I could do this as a career and was surprised to find people like what I did enough to pay my rent with it.
TALK US THROUGH AN AVERAGE DAY IN YOUR LIFE?
During the week its usual affair of: Get up, Check emails, make breakfast and draw, I try to vary what I’m doing so it doesn’t feel too much like grinding away at the same thing day in and day out but sometimes a nose to the grindstone approach is what makes the difference on a tight deadline. I’m not one of those artists who has a lot of different things going on, paintings, drawings, club nights etc but I try to make sure I’m juggling at least a few ideas per week to keep things exciting.
DO YOU HAVE A PREFERRED TOOL OR MEDUIM?
I’ve always been a pen and ink kinda guy, I work in pencils primarily and then go from there into inking whatever it is with pens and brushes of various kinds, I’ve whittled my toolbox down to maybe four or five essentials these days but there’s nothing quite like finding a new pen that does the trick.
WHERE DO YOU DRAW YOUR INSPIRATION?
Like everyone will say I try to be influenced by everything, but I guess I take a lot of heavy influence from traditional tattooing and neo-traditional approaches to subject matter. I also love anything where the amount of black in the subject has been pushed, like the work of Charles Burns or Dan Hipp.
HOW HAS YOUR ART EVOLVED OVER TIME AND DO YOU THINK DESIGNING FOR PRINT HAS HAD AN IMPACT ON THAT?
I think anyone’s work will evolve over time, as a result of maturing influences and references and a better grasp of techniques, so I think my stuff has taken a similar route. Specifically designing for print affects how you think of work from the very moment you have to sketch an idea, I’m already thinking of color separations and layers. I guess that’s the main change, thinking in layers and having to mentally plan ahead for the process. Its fun though and learning about print process's is really interesting when it dictates the outcome.
WHAT ARE YOU CURRENTLY WORKING ON, ANYTHING EXCITING?
A few exciting projects lined up! I seem to have taken on a few freelance jobs for patterns recently, which I am really excited about exploring and seeing them made.
I’m also working on a clothing line project with a friend, its early stages but we have some really fun ideas and a clear plan of how we want it to work.
Other than that its a lot of t-shirt designs and the like, getting to work on great designs for great people is a blessing so I try to think of everything as exciting!
ANY TIPS FOR NEW ARTISTS LOOKING TO GET INTO ILLUSTRATION AND MERCH DESIGN?
I guess the only thing to say is to make stuff you like, make it for yourself and make it for other people and show the world. That’s not to say you need to show everybody EVERYTHING you make, but be passionate and proud of your work and people will seek you out for it.
GOOD ADVICE YOU WISH YOU’D BEEN TOLD EARLIER?
Don’t worry about trends too much. I mean, as someone who works with clothing designers its difficult not to find yourself drawing things that are "on trend" or going out of style. That’s just the nature of the game. With personal work or work you are pitching it should be something YOU want to do.
