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Ben the Illustrator |
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Ben the Illustrator (aka Ben O'Brien) has an ethereal use of colour which he applies to dreamy landscapes from cities to beaches to waterfalls, across the hills and far away! Ben has worked commercially for clients including The Guardian, Smart Cars and Computer Arts, while also constantly creating a variety of work using his character Speakerdog. Check out Ben the Illustrator's websites... Main Site | Speakerdog | Shop | |
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The Team Colours Q&A! |
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1. What is your creative weapon of choice? Always start off with pencil on paper, get it all drawn properly (it's a HB pencil with an eraser on the top if possible, plain white A4 sheets) then Adobe Illustrator, which I love using, the colours and the cleanliness are all top dollar. Plus my Wacom tablet, priceless tools. 2. What is your favourite sweater and why? A good woolly V-neck, warming and almost smart. 3. What do you prefer, Summer or Winter colours? Summer! Pure and fresh and exciting, like fizzy pop packaging but all over the place. 4. Who are your top 5 creative influences? Brian Cook (an old British bookcover illustrator, painted landscapes using wildly fresh colours), Takeshi Murakami (for doing so much), Keith Haring (for using such simplicity to create such freshness), Matt Sewell (my top illustrator this century) and Harvey Ball (who is thought to have designed the original smiley face in 1963, thanks Harvey).
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5. Tea or coffee? Tea, every time, with a biscuit. 6. When you were 13 what was your absolute favourite thing? My cassette of De La Soul's "3 Feet High And Rising", I love that album so much, right from the day I got it, I've had to re-buy it on vinyl and CD since, but I still have the tape and when I was 13 I knew nothing as colourful, nothing that made me feel so good and nothing that could inspire me so much while drawing. 7. C, M, Y or K? Today, I'm going to say cyan, although it could vary if you asked me yesterday, or tomorrow.
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8. What is the most colourful place you have ever been? Perhaps it's an odd answer, but I think it would be Hiroshima, Japan. In the Peace Park, just across the river from the exact spot where the A-bomb exploded there is the Children's Peace Monument where there are thousands of paper cranes sent by children around the globe, all different colours, all in together and every one of them a symbol of peace in Hiroshima and the rest of the world. It's worth reading about Sadako Sasaki, the Japanese girl who inspired it. It's an incredible place with a dark history yet a colourful, peaceful soul. 9. Top 5 musical influences... Anything by The Polyphonic Spree and The Beatles, early De La Soul, the song 'Make Your Own Kind Of Music' by Mama Cass and perhaps the soundtrack to The Muppet Movie, I love that tune 'Moving Right Along' and Fozzie's Studebaker is a wonderful thing. 10. Favourite mode of transport and why? I have two, my feet. I like to walk everywhere, it's refreshing and you see more stuff, I also like that you can get from A to B all on your own. |
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