1. Who are you and what do you do?
I'm Trystan Mitchell and I'm a freelance illustrator working as The Bigfoot Studio, based in Cornwall in the UK. I show work (including free paper toy downloads!) on thebigfootstudio.com and blog works in progress over at bigfootstudio.blogspot.co.uk and as @inkfunnel over on Twitter.
I attended Falmouth Art College as a foundation student, before it was a University, back in the1980s. They were pretty snooty about commercial art and illustration in general in those days, and I let myself get pretty discouraged for a good while with the notion of art as a living; I've only come to a full time career in illustration over the last ten years. Prior to that I muddled through as a painter & decorator, signwriter, agricultural labourer and regular site crew at various UK music festivals like Glastonbury, Reading, Womad and the like. I got involved later with education and charities working with vulnerable kids and disaffected youth and their families down in Cornwall, and as a local county Learning Mentor for Travellers (Irish and Romany families) after living on the road & outdoors myself for twelve years.
The bulk of my commercial work of late has been educational text books and abridged classics for schools etc, in Europe and the USA (Penguin, Heinemann, Oxford University Press, Ballon, McGraw Hill etc) and promotional work for various businesses, mainly in the UK. Still trying to crack the kids' story book market though, hopefully with the help of a new agent after dispensing with my previous representation earlier this year.
I grew up loving the works of Arthur Rackham & Heath Robinson etc, the classic Victorian UK illustrators, but surrounded by the UK comics of the 1970s which were my staple visual diet for years. As such, my real love is illustrating comics and I've contributed to a number of small press and independent publications, collaborating with several brilliant writers & illustrators. Professionally in comics I'm currently illustrating the fourth issue of Dana Larsen's adaptation of his cannabis pastiche novel "Hairy Pothead & The Marijuana Stone".
My pet project of the moment though (being all me own work!) is my newly launched and slowly evolving webcomic The Call of Cthrnwall at . Combining my love of weird fiction from the likes of Algernon Blackwood & HP Lovecraft, with a childhood & imagination spent growing up on the edges of Bodmin Moor and various other bits of Cornwall.
2. What’s your hardware setup?
The career arc as an illustrator can be a little hand to mouth, so the hardware set up is fairly basic. Not being a real tech' head it keeps me happy and lets me get the job done, while not being horrendously expensive to replace when it goes rogue on me. I work with a basic PC (supplied by Scan Computers in Bolton) with 2.7GHz dual core Pentium chip and 4 GB of RAM (couldn't tell you what kind of graphics card it runs but I know there's one in there somewhere), a 52cm Flatron W2246 screen, an ageing Epson Perfection V300 A4 scanner...and a trusty Wacom Bamboo drawing tablet and stylus. Like I say, basic stuff, entry level really but it gives me results I'm happy with, with the occasional work around.
3. What’s your workspace look like?
Workspace? Compact and bijou in the jargon of the day! I've recently found a new home in a converted 1800's piggery attached to a farm back on my beloved Bodmin Moor here in Cornwall. My new studio space is about 7.5' x 6' and fits my drawing desk and computer station beautifully, with room left over for tools and reference shelving. It's also a real doddle to keep warm with the woodburner below decks! Having horses and peacocks calling in the neighbours' yards makes for an atmospheric soundscape when I need a bit of tranquility to get my thoughts together...
4. What tools do you use to make your cartoons?
Tools wise, I'm still draughting all my original artwork by hand on genuine real world paper and boards; I see a lot of artists insisting on Bristol board and high quality papers, but after much trial and error I've found that a good surfaced laser copier card is just as adequate and has stood me in good stead for years now.
I prefer clutch/mechanical pencils, working mainly with a 0.5 and a 0.7 nib, HB, 2B and blue architects leads. I have a couple of straight edge rules to hand and a collection of good old fashioned french curves and a set of compasses for when exact arcs are critical.
My drawing board is a beauty...an old animators board with rotating perspex sheet so it can double as a light box. A friend rode their motorcycle 270 miles from London with it strapped to their back in the middle of one winter and presented it to me when their animation studio was shifting premises; I've always been massively grateful for it. I've just had a new surface made up for it, slightly wider to clip sketchbooks and my Galaxy tablet to for reference, but it still feels like the same old faithful board to me!
Once the pencils are done everything gets scanned to PC to be inked and coloured using Manga Studio Ex 4. Just acquired version Ex 5 but not yet had the time to get to to grips with the improved functionality and tools. My first love with colour was always gouache, but with the speed of commercial deadlines and turn arounds nowadays no-one will allow time to let the paint dry; Manga Studio has given me the ability to regain all of the expressiveness of working with paint and brush that I struggled for an age to get in to my earlier digital work.