Interview: Richard Roberts

While the sun is doing her work we had the opportunity to have an interview with the extremely talented digital artist, Richard Robert also know as The Other Stream. He caught our attention with his stunning photo manipulation in combination with his digital drawing skills and his incredible eye for details. We simply can’t use enough superlatives to describe his work. I guess this time a wallpaper with an interview says hell of lot more than thousand words. Enjoy this exclusive artwork on your desktop. And if the sun is shining like it is here, get out there and enjoy summer!

Visit Richard Roberts Portfolio.

. Let’s start as usual. Welcome to Wallpaper Art and please introduce yourself. Could you tell us where you’re from and how you got started in the Digital Illustration scene?
My name is Richard Roberts I am a 19 year old freelance illustrator I was born in the Wales and moved to the States when I was about 5 and have moved around quite a bit. I am currently living in Wisconsin, USA but also lived in Massachusetts, New York and Indiana. I would say my favorite out of the four are Massachusetts and New York, I love the east coast. I love all forms of art, but really enjoy surrealism. I have been illustrating digitally for about five or six years. I use my Wacom Cintiq 12 wx tablet for everything, my works are a mix of digital painting and also manipulation. Apart from art I enjoy movies, music, nature, soccer and food.

. Who and/or what made you want to become a Digital Illustrator?
I think the drive to create something that doesn’t exist and have people enjoy viewing it was a major reason for perusing illustration. I have such a huge passion for it and love trying new things and improving myself on all fronts. Ever since I was very young, I was very creative, loved to draw and illustrate. I have always been a very visual person and stumbled into computer graphics when I was about thirteen. I was fascinated and wanted to create digital art also, so I picked up as a hobby at first and it grew to much more over time.

.How did you learn everything you know? What do you advice beginning designers who want to try this method?
Everything I know and have learned is self taught. I learned much of what I know from trial and error and time. There really is no magic tricks or one thing you can know that makes you a better artist. I believe it’s all experience and the effort and time you put in. If you want to learn how to digitally paint check www.deviantart.com there are some great tutorials on there. Working on your drawing and illustration skills will also benefit you here greatly. Start with some traditional methods such as pencil and paper. The best advice I could ever give to someone is really push yourself and have some self discipline and be very patient with your work. As a good friend of mine said once “sleep on it bro, take a look at it tomorrow when you have some fresh eyes.” That’s probably the best advice I have ever received. Try not to push your artwork, rather let it come to you over a few days/weeks, the end result is always better! Make each artwork better than the last.
Bram: Can’t agree more with your friend.

.We noticed you’ve been featured in several big magazine as Computer Arts and Advanced Photoshop. How did all those features affect your career?
Getting features and publications in magazines has been amazing. It really is a great feeling and helps with your exposure as a artist. It has lead to contacts and great friends and has benefited me greatly.

.You might have heard of the website “clientsfromhell.net“. Do you have such story about a true “client of hell” you’d like to share with our readers?
When I was starting out a few years ago, I was approached by a client to design a t shirt design. I spent a few weeks on it and did a few revisions. After finishing the design the client loved the work and went to the print shop to get estimates on printing the design. Turned out their local print shop couldn’t print my design do to some technical issues on their side. After that the client ran and stopped speaking with me and I was never paid. Although it was a bad experience, I learned from it. I now always have a strict policy of half upfront and half when finished.

. To date what would you say is your favorite artwork that you have created, and why?
Wow that is a very very tough question, I don’t think I could pick just one. My top three favorites would be ” Ella” my collab with Jeff Haung “Cage Keeper” and the third piece of the four page illustration storyboard for the talented Rhian Beson.

. In terms of your designing career where would you like to be in 5 years?
In five years, I will be 24 years old, by then I hope to have a much bigger client list. I see myself building TheOtherStream and working with some other illustrators and eventually turning it into a strong agency. That is my plan and I am going to do everything I can to get there.

Download Air Castle Wallpaper:

Available sizes: 1024×768 / 1200×800 / 1200×960 / 1400×900 / 1600×1200 / 1680×1050 / 1920×1200

. You’ve made this beautiful wallpaper “Air Castle” for our readers, can you tell us something more about it.

Advance photoshop magazine approached me and asked me to illustrate an abstract piece for a tutorial for issue 71. I was very excited about the project as I had touched abstract illustrations for a few months. So with it, I tried new things I had learned, digitally painting the whole piece compared to previous works which was more vector style type abstract working with the pen tool. I plan to do some more works along this style and add another twist to it, so keep a look out!
Bram: We will definitely do that!

. We would like to thank you for your time and your crazy “Air Castle” wallpaper! Is there anything you would like to share with our readers?
Well it was a real pleasure being interviewed, thank you so much. For who ever uses the wallpaper I hope you enjoy it and like the illustration! If your interested in seeing more of my work be sure to check my site www.theotherstream.com You also can follow my facebook for updates. Thanks so much!