Stanley Chow Interview
been popular , but the most important thing is being able to capture the person ’ s likeness .
How does your process work ?
© Stanley Chow could just tick along , really . Then I started doing a few Brazilian footballers , and that ’ s when it all changed . That ’ s when The New Yorker noticed me . Wyatt Mitchell , who used to be the art director , is a massive soccer fan . He saw my [ Brazilian footballer ] Socrates illustration and said I want him in my magazine , and that ’ s how I ’ m in The New Yorker now . As a student , we ’ re told that being in The New Yorker is the Holy Grail , and when you ’ re in there it feels like it because they treat you so well … financially . ( Laughs ) Once you ’ re in there , you do your best to stay there . I ’ m lucky , because after five or six years , I ’ m still there .
Why do you think people are attracted to your style ?
I think it ’ s slightly different from the norm . Over the last sixty or seventy years of illustration , in terms of portraits and caricatures of people , there ’ s a set kind of drawing style . I feel people are maybe just a little bit bored of that . You can see a caricature of someone and not know where it came from . It could have been created by any one of 1,000 different illustrators . I ’ ve managed to get a style that ’ s different from the norm . Vector is relatively modern , especially compared to pencils and pens . I ’ ve developed a style that ’ s modern and I think that ’ s why it ’ s
I usually need to see the person in motion and sometimes it ’ s literally capturing something else , like a raised eyebrow or a squint of the eye . I ’ ll bring up YouTube videos and watch them talk and also put loads of Google images on the same page and pick out the bits that I feel are the most important and turn it into one illustration . A lot of people just assume I copy a photograph and I don ’ t . That ’ s not the skill . You gotta create these shapes and move them left and right and up and down until you feel like you ’ ve captured that person ’ s essence . People ask me how I do it and it ’ s patience , really . Every time I nail a likeness , it ’ s like scoring a touchdown .
What ’ s up with your new website ?
The whole idea is for football fans to get in touch with me and suggest their favorite players . It will be an ongoing project , and hopefully in eighteen months there will be enough illustrations to make a book . The website is www . stanleychowfc . com .
© Stanley Chow
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