"It’s like almost playing with Legos", Jude tells me over the phone. He's describing how he does pixel art and to my surprise without a wacom board. He uses a mouse to draw out his video game master pieces of memorable content. It might be a HUD display in Office Space or Mario getting nasty with Princess Peach. It might be nature bottled in pixel form or Presidents riding dinosaurs with laser attached to them.
Questions
Jonathan: Now Jude, how I remember you last was as an enthusiastic artist
at the utterly fun and entertaining Superiam8bit show out here in LA. I believe
I was trying to get the best audio with a speaker near and a huge beat trying
to overcome your voice for a video interview. You were sweaty, because of all
the people showing up, it wasn't due to you having a new piece. You didn't
seem nervous, but so enthusiastic as you saw others checking out your piece based on
Zelda animal evolution. I heard people compliment it or stare in awe of it or
get lost in it. Amongst all of that what were your thoughts then and there?
Jude Buffum: You know, there was so much crazy stuff going on at that
show I didn't get to spend as much time as I would have liked to talking to
people looking at my piece. I did get a chance to meet the buyer of the framed
one and that was really cool. But between the Koopa Rhoombas scurrying all over
the place, the giant video game set up and all the amazing art work there I was
kinda just taking it all in, enjoying the spectacle of it all. The iam8bit guys
never disappoint with their events; they really are the masters of throwing
huge geeky awesome parties.
Jude met Jon Gibson, creator of IAM8BIT, through MySpace and eventually grew to be friends and helped lead Jude into the art galleries around town. They've worked on multiple projects together including Ich Bin 8bit and a sticky note
What are you trying to show off with
you art? Are you trying to tell others games are art too or are you finding humor
in capturing certain moments from pop culture and transforming them into 16-bit
style?
I think video games, as an art form, have introduced a lot
of conceptual elements to culture that have in turn influenced other art forms,
with graphic novels like Scott Pilgrim or films like Run Lola Run and Groundhog
Day. As an artist I try to draw on these elements in my own work, especially
with the idea of the HUD (heads up display). I also really enjoy working with
pixels because of the graphic limitation; even my other illustration styles
trend toward the graphically simplified because of the universal access that
allows.
You took the plunge on your own that many artist fear. You left the company Headcase Design that you worked at a few years back. You became a master of your own fate
as a freelance artist. This can be a painful new step, it's so dangerous to go
alone. What was your plan? What prepared you for you new role? Was part of it
being a teacher?
Well the main thing was to build up a decent body of work
and get it up on a nice looking website. Once I had that in place, I subscribed
to Adbase (an online database of contact info for art directors in North
America) and sent out a few thousand postcards. From there, I started getting
editorial (magazine) illustration projects and once I had a little money saved
up, decided it was time to go full-time freelance. I was teaching part-time, so
it did add an extra layer of security to the endeavor.
You've been a freelancer for some time now what
difference has it made to your life?
Oh it's so great, I feel so fortunate that I get to wake up
everyday (at whatever hour I want too!) and do what I love and actually get
paid pretty good money to do it. It's nice to have the freedom to work from
anywhere too, it gives me the freedom to travel whenever the mood strikes me.
However, on more than one occasion I've ended up spending half of a vacation
glued to my laptop, so it's taken some time to learn how to say "No"
to projects. But I'm pretty good now at judging either the creative or
financial merits of a project and not overbooking myself (too much). But I do
turn down a lot, there are unfortunately a lot of people out there that don't
value artists or what we do, and just want you to do all this work for them for
almost no money. "It'll be great exposure!" is probably the most
toxic bullshit phrase you could ever say to an artist.
Doctor Octoroc is your real life brother, a chiptune
musician and much of you work is bit based. Did one brother lure the other into
the video game inspired art direction? You've done cover art for your brother,
but have you thought of working on a more connected project together
I'm three years older, so I've been doing this a little bit
longer. I think seeing what I was doing probably had some influence over it,
but he's definitely doing his own thing and I love that he sends me all the
little bits and pieces of his College Humor shorts while he's working on them
for feedback (he'll often get assigned a show that I've watched and ask for
feedback on the character sprites). As someone with almost no animation skills,
it's fascinating for me to watch. In many ways we're trying to achieve the same
ends, using different mediums, but inspired by the same medium (video games).
I think it would be great if we could collaborate on
something else at some point, but we're both pretty solitary artists. I think
ideally what I'd like to do at some point is write a pilot for an 8-bit style
show (like Code Monkeys, but maybe something more serious) and see where that
takes us.
Jude's childhood of course was filled with video games, but not until he begged his Mom for a console. She was adamant not to get one, but after Jude kept asking she eventually broke down and got one. One of his best memories was catching her playing it late at nite.
Who has inspired you as an artist and a gamer?
My favorite artist of all time is Charley Harper. My
non-pixel style that I employed for the Magna Arbor Vitae Deku piece at
SUPERiam8bit is strongly influenced by his work. I think my love of all things
simplified stems from his ability to take wildlife and reduce it to it's
simplest forms that captures more of it's life-force than any photograph could.
He once said "I never count the feathers in the wings; I just count the
wings."
Have you seen young artists inspired by you?
The pixel style seems to be getting pretty popular, I don't
honestly know who inspired who, I think it might be more of a zeitgeist than
anything else. I do hope that the students I've taught over the years have been
inspired by me, not to imitate my style but to discover their own voices as
artists. But in the end all I can do is steer them in the right direction and
ignite their passion for illustration and all things creative.
Are you an active artist? You don't seem like a person
who likes to sit around. You've told me of your love of hiking and bird
watching. This reminded me of how Shigeru Miyamoto use to go into the forest as
a young boy and it inspired the Zelda and Mario series. You also have pieces
based on nature. Does nature come naturally to you and your work?
I do go running a few days a week to keep my stress levels
low, and when I can get out of the city (Philadelphia), I try and go hiking in
the woods. I do have a passion for nature, especially birds, and enjoy learning
as much as I can. A lot of my more recent work, such as the terrariums and the
Zelda biology piece were a natural expression of this interest. One of the
things I collect is old nature guides, I just love the densely illustrated
nature of them, the combination of infographic elements with lavishly painted
artwork that I could never do.
Has social media played any part in your work and if so
does it continue to?
It's definitely been a huge boon to me as an artist, in
getting my work out there. I mentioned when I started out that I was sending
postcards out to people I wanted to work for. Now I think a lot of my jobs come
from people who have just found my work on the Internet, and I'm sure I owe a
lot of that to the people on Twitter that follow and repost my work. It can be
hard to get noticed since there are so many other artists showing their work
online, but I think if you create work that resonates with people, they will
respond by generously sharing your work with others, and that in turn leads to
great things!
What video game would you like to create given total
freedom, I mean a studio behind you and unlimited budget?
The Jurassic President series I created I think would make a
really fun game, and I've been working on an extensive background story for it,
so I think if there's any developers out there that want to partner up on it,
they should definitely hit me up!
