Exclusivo: Hablamos con Adam McCauley
> 1) How did you make Monster Stamps?
These are not actual stamps, just designed to look like actual stamps – vintage stamps, to be precise. I used an original block of twelve Portuguese stamps from 1940 for the background perforations and design flavor, and replaced the imagery with my own via the wonders of the digital age.
(©Adam McCauley)
> 2) How to decide which would define the character of each city?
These stamps are actually for the endpapers of an upcoming book, “The Monsterologist: A Memoir in Rhyme,” which will be published in September with Sterling Publishers (Barnes & Noble). In the book, the stamps repeat as a large sheet on the endpapers. The original idea was to make them actual stamps that could be torn out and used, but it proved too costly for the production. The monsters were chosen from some of the poems in the book, plus I chose a few that weren’t in the book just to give it a dimension so the reader could imagine a bit more. The locations were all based on the traditional stories of each beast. The book is going to be really great, I wholeheartedly encourage your readers to buy it! My wife Cynthia did the design for it, and we recently received a Gold Medal from the Society of Illustrators for it, so we’re very excited.
(©Adam McCauley)
> 3) Which technique is used for the final completion of each character?
These were simply painted in black India ink, scanned in and colored in Photoshop. The typography was done in Illustrator.
> 4) What artists influence you acknowledge in your style?
Hmm. I suppose I’m influenced by everything I see. I try not to look at too much contemporary illustration, but I’m sure when I see something I like it enters my heart and eye somehow. Some of my favorite contemporary illustrators can be seen on picturemechanics.com. Growing up I was very influenced by Herge, R. Crumb, Peter Max and Frank Frazetta. Both my parents were fine artists as well so they showed me so many great artists. Bosch, Gustave Moreau, Redon, James Ensor, Calder. A more current artist that I saw and fell in love with is Mexican artist Manuel Marin, though I’ve had a hard time finding information on him. My mom was also an art historian with a bent towards primitive art, so I think I was influenced by her fascination with early mankind’s creative works.
(©Adam McCauley)
> 5) We have seen that your portfolio is a concern about the comic characters. I could tell Rarely Seen your Disneyland Characters?
The comic work on my website bloomed out of some assignments I did for Los Angeles Magazine, so many of them have an “L.A.” theme. It’s always fun to twist around popular iconography, there can be a lot of humor in there if it’s juxtaposed correctly.
(©Adam McCauley)
