Mark Matcho - markmatcho.net

1.) How do you manage stress? (do you do other things than illustrate (for fun))? Um, play guitar, play Angry Birds, nap, masturbate furiously

2.) What's your favorite website/magazine/book/publications for inspiration?

website: Probably flickr, at this point- I used to have a whole bunch of sites I visited, but I lost all my bookmarks when my hard drive died a few weeks ago. Plus, there's an insane amount of variety in terms of reference, and it's updated constantly I don't really read much (as in, nothing at all) in the way of art-related magazines, but I use The Photo-Journal Guide To Comic Books (Volumes l and ll) alot for basic inspiration/type/layout/color/characted reference and a bunch of Taschen and Chronicle books to kickstart me

3.) What was your favorite professional assignment that you ever did?

I got an assignment years ago for Stevie Wonder, which involved flying out to LA with a bunch of other illustrators to sit in a room with him and listen to him play songs from his new album, live. Nothing ever came of it, but it was a great job and a great experience

4.) What do you do when you can't come up with ideas? How do you overcome 'block'?

take a break, take a shower and think about the job, or preferably, get some sleep, which seems to solve 99% of my idea-related issues

5.) What's the best advice would you give an aspiring illustrator/student?

Have good ideas, and know how to draw. Actually, the idea part is probably more important than the drawing part, although good drawing is a plus

6.) How do you advertise yourself/get work? What works for you?

I'm not a very good self-promoter- I don't like looking at my own stuff enough to wanna cull through thousands of images to find stuff to put online. My portfolios are always really out of date, I don't submit stuff to annuals, and I'm generally surprised that I get work at all. I advertise in Workbook, but that's just out of habit, and I'm not really sure how effective it is-

7.) Who is your favorite Beatle? Why?

Probably gotta go with John, for writing Happiness Is A Warm Gun and I Am The Walrus