TutsArena

Interview with Vlad Gerasimov of vladstudio.com

by TutsArena - Articles, Resources

Vlad is an extremely talented artist from Russia, whom — we are sure — a lot of our readers know by his gorgeous wallpapers, photographs and graphics. Every time we have a dull day, we check out his site for inspiration and refreshing imagery.

Thanks for doing this interview. Can you start off by telling our readers a little about yourself and your art or design background?

Thanks for interviewing me! I live in Irkutsk, Russia, near lake Baikal, the deepest in the world. I live with a beautiful wife and a black cat. Unfortunately (or fortunately, who knows?) I do not have any artistic education, I was educated as international economist, but never worked as such. Instead, I started doing graphics for interfaces. As a hobby, I created simple desktop wallpapers, which many people happened to like.

Is computer graphics and design something that you’ve always been interested in? How long have you been doing it? How did you get started?

My father and brother are programmers, and I was surrounded by computers since birth (I still remember when they used paper cards instead of diskettes!). I never thought I’d make my living doing computer graphics.

First I seriously wanted to become a musician, then I was going to become an economist (I’d be bad one!). I started my first designed around 1999, in university. My brother needed help with his software interface, and I was always drawing something in my homework, so I decided to try learning Photoshop. Well I am still learning.

Besides the CG work, we know you also do photography. Are you serious about that, too? What’s more fun, to create something beautiful or to capture beautiful things?

These are different kinds of fun. I always stop myself from buying another piece of photo equipment, or spending more time trying to make photo shoots because I know well that there are so many photographers making better photos than me! I think I have found what I am really good at (computer arts), and I try to stay focused on it.

How did you get started with your web site, VladStudio.com? Was it carefully planned or did it evolve into what it is today gradually? Is the website and graphics work mainly a hobby, or do you actually do that for a living?

The Vladstudio website is a result of slow evolution and I’m glad it is. First, I had a small portfolio of my interface works, at a subdomain of www.softshape.com (my brother’s site). Then I started publishing my wallpapers as well, so my website had 2 big sections: Portfolio and Wallpapers. Then, as it was growing, I created a domain name — “vladstudio.com”. Over time, I was adding various features that you can find on my website now – e-cards, tutorials, etc.

A couple of years ago, I decided to make some profit from my wallpapers, and decided to sell registrations, inspired by www.digitalblasphemy.com. Of course there was almost no sales for some time, but eventually, the sales started growing slowly but steadily. Currently, I make my living selling registrations, as well as doing design jobs for clients.

If you had a chance to do it until you are old and wrinkled, would you? What are your plans for the future?

Absolutely – it is indeed my plan to do art until I am old and wrinkled! I hope I will not run out of ideas.

Do you ever get tired of all the graphics, design and computers? What do you do to get your mind off of it?

Hmm, physically tired – yes, sometimes I take on too many projects and have to work a lot. And of course not all projects I work on are equally exciting. But if I have a boring job to do, I try to do it fast and forget about it. And if I have a boring wallpaper to do, I just throw it away

Who are your greatest influences or inspiration? Both other artists, designers and classical painters, sculptors and so on.

I often browse through new works at many artistic sites such as http://www.deviantart.com . I’d say I’m more inspired by specific ideas than specific artists. My recent object of admiration is Vladislav Yerko.

If a complete newbie decides they want to learn art or design, how would you recommend they approach this uneasy task? Would you say it’s hard? Do you have to have talent or is this something that can be learned?

The answers are very different for “art” and “design”.

Design can be learned, you can learn what is good and bad in the field you select (f.e. web design, or furniture design, etc), then learn “tricks”, then practice and finally become a good designer.
Art is different – you set your own rules, and you are your own client.

I think the approach could be – turn off the computer and draw with pencil and paper. Until you are happy with what you see on paper, you are likely to fail in Photoshop, too.

After that, keep improving your skills using the tool you select (such as Photoshop) as much as possible – this is a long process! Every artwork you like — try to “disassemble” and re-create it. Learning through copying is fine as long as you don’t publish copied work as your own. That’s why I publish such detailed tutorials – I know it is good way to learn.

We appreciate your time and that you are doing this interview. Any other words of advice for our readers?

Always make people happy with what you do! Bring some magic in everything you are responsible for.