Interview: Dave Savage

Good day! How are things going?

I've been busy. I just spent a week in NYC attending the Pictoplasma Conference and seeing friends. Now I'm back in LA at my job at American Greetings and working on a ton of personal projects.

How did you get your start in illustration?

I'm not sure there's an easy answer to that. I've always been compelled to draw and doodle. In high school, my art teachers either labeled me a trouble maker or just didn't like me. It was really a travesty. I was basically a good, creative kid who was into punk rock and liked art, but the art classes were horrible. So when I got to college (Truman State University in MO), I went in with an undeclared major. I ended up taking a drawing class and a design class and found out that art classes don't have to suck. And I graduated with a BFA in Visual Communication.

I spent 2 years after college as an Art Director. In essence, I was the entire art department for a small company that printed t-shirts for college fraternity and sorority parties. Seeing nothing better on the horizon, I went back to school to be an illustrator at Portfolio Center in Atlanta.

After graduating from Portfolio Center, I landed my first bona fide job as an illustrator at Funny Garbage in NYC.

What inspires your work?

Jeez...that'd be a really long list. Just about everything that I see or hear influences my work in some way...whether I respond to it positively or negatively. A short list of some of the stuff I like, in no particular order: punk rock art, bmx and skateboard magazines, street art, graffiti, comics, underground comix, cartoons, pop art, psychedelic art, vintage movie posters, candy packaging, detergent packaging and I'm sure there's a whole slew of things I'm forgetting at the moment. If you think you see a hint of some kind of art or artist in my work, it's most likely one of the things that's in the stew.

What the heck is the deal with monsters?

I'm still figuring that out. When I started Savage Monsters Industries, I was collecting a lot of vinyl kaiju toys from the Ultraman series. Villains are inherently much more interesting than the good guys. And I figured that monsters are something that I'd never get tired of drawing since they're all made up anyway. With Savage Monsters, I was (and I suppose I still am) trying to create an entertaining and engaging site that could also double as a portfolio site.

You're a flash guy. What do you think about Microsoft's Silverlight?

I may be a Flash guy, but I'm still a total Luddite. I had to look up Silverlight and I still don't know what it is. I pretty much just draw and animate in Flash. I've got VERY basic programming skills. I've learned that if I know too much about programming and technology, I'll be called upon for those skills, thus, less time doing what I love to do...create.

How would you describe your style?

I try not to describe what I do. Most people's eyes glaze over when I'm talking about my work. I get responses like "So...you're a lawyer?" (That actually DID happen) It's much easier to show someone a picture.

Boiled down, maybe my style is Basil Wolverton meets Dr. Seuss.

What's the goofiest monster you've ever drawn?

I wish I knew. I've been going through all my sketchbooks from the past 10 years (over 110 books) and I've been finding some good stuff.

What's in the future for you?

That's one of the great things. I have no idea. I never would have guessed that I've been the places and done the things that I have so far.

I'm currently working on self-publishing several books of my work, developing properties for tv and for licensing. And I've got lots of pet projects like t-shirts, stickers, trading cards, vending machine toys and other things in the works. Always too many ideas and too little time and finances to bring them all to fruition.

Thanks for chatting with us!

For more of Dave's work check out his Carbonmade portfolio: http://davesavage.carbonmade.com/