Jon Stich is an illustrator that works out of Oakland, CA. I first saw his work over a year ago at a cafe in Berkeley [CA] and almost bought his portrait of Wesley Willis. I kept thinking about how much of a mistake it was that I never purchased the piece nor wrote down the artist’s name. If it weren’t for a random search on the website ETSY for illustrations of Weird Al, I might have never known that Jon Stich was the mastermind behind the painting I had wished to buy all those years ago. I was able get in contact with him and we spoke on the phone about his commission f0r Adult Swim, how he does everything analog, and the Voldemort of the East Bay [he who shall not be named]…
Daniel Rolnik: Which piece did Adult Swim [Cartoon Network] commission you to make?
Jon Stich: It was actually 6 pieces for the Squidbillies DVD, on my site you can see one of my paintings of the main character holding a shotgun. That was a great gig, I don’t have the originals anymore though because they bought them off of me
DR: How did they find you?
JS: From this website illustrationmundo, which is funny because it’s actually this site that doesn’t look like it’s all that much. But it has actually helped me get a lot of work. It’s Awesome!
DR: How long ago did you make your ETSY store?
JS: Probably like 3 years ago.
DR: Were you mainly selling originals or prints?
JS: I was mainly selling prints, but didn’t pay that much attention to my store until a year and a half ago.
DR: Was it a certain piece that started selling that made you notice it more?
JS: Yeah the dinosaur pieces sell the best and the Mr. T-Rex sells more than anything. I also noticed that when i raised the price of my work everything sold better, so go figure.
DR: So you changed the prices and they sold?
JS: It wasn’t instantaneous. I think that if you price something too low people view it as cheap and think it’s going to be crap. There’s a line you have to draw to make your work seem affordable, but not cheap. I think a lot of artists also price their work way too high because they don’t want to part with it without getting an absurd amount of money. And then, the main issue is that artists are just bad with money.
DR: That Mr. T-Rex piece is so cool…
JS: I did that one like 6 years ago for a Threadless t-shirt, but they didn’t pick it up which was kind of a blessing in disguise because I’ve done way more with it.
DR: Did you color it in digitally?
JS: Those are pretty much the only things that I’ve done digitally because my original intent was to get it set for perimeters for Threadless’ printing. But i don’t really ever work digitally, even for commissioned jobs.
DR: Do you make the prints of your work yourself?
JS: I digitally print the 8”x11” myself using archival paper and ink, but if they’re 11”x17” i go someplace else to get them done.
DR: Are you active with the social media aspect of your site?
JS: For the ETSY site I link to it from my website. Other than that I’ll buy an ad on ETSY every once in a while. If someone wants to buy a painting from me that they can’t afford they can always message me and I’ll usually lower the price for them.
DR: What’s the most recent commission you’ve done?
JS: I did a storyboarding job about 3 weeks ago, but the biggest project I did this year was a journal for Chronicle Books, which was part of a series called Listography. It’s 70 illustrations and a cover and that was really time consuming.
DR: 70 illustrations!!!
JS: It’s like a journal and lots of portraits of film moments and actors and stuff like that.
DR: That’s intense!
JS: Yeah, it was a lot of fun though. I draw that kind of stuff in my free time anyways, so it was kind of a dream come true.
DR: How long does it take you to do a Mr. T portrait?
JS: The actual amount of time it takes to draw them is not that long. But the actual research is like 4 hours.
DR: What do you mean research?
JS: Finding the right photo of the subject and that kind of stuff
DR: What kind of pen do you use?
JS: I usually use Micronpens – I go through those things all the time.
DR: You also have a bunch of portraits of politicians, are you political?
JS: I definitely used to be way more heavy handed politically and I really wanted to drive a message home, but over time I found out that I’m not a very angry person. I try to take any political agenda I have and put it into my paintings in a satirical way. Like the painting of a couple on a beach and the fact they are in front of sewage and really happy even though there’s a factory in the background that they’re ignoring. That’s kind of my take on how people push their problems aside.
DR: Do you think it’s harder to be a full-time artist in a place like Oakland as opposed to LA or NY?
JS: I don’t know. The Internet has changed a lot of things – illustration wise at least. I live in Oakland but I’ve done work in magazines that are based out of New York. I’ve also done work for magazines that are in San Francisco and I’ve never seen my employers face to face. I kind of feel like I could live anywhere and Oakland has a pretty big art movement bubbling up, but it’ll take a while.
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Answers by: Jon Stich
Questions by: Daniel Rolnik
To purchase a print by Jon Stich, visit his ETSY page here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/jonstich
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2 Responses to Interview with Jon Stich
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Sammy Sundae's COMIC 
Yo, what up, ma’ names Viper, and as far as i’m concerned this “Jon Stich” character seems like a total noob. If i ever saw him on the streets i wouldn’t hesitate to cold cock him with a left jab to the kidneys and then enforce the pain train with a solid upper cut that would derail his face. Don’t get me wrong, I think he’s an exceptional artist, but as far as mixed martial arts and combative street knowledge goes, well……..he wouldn’t stand a chance against me if we were going toe to toe in the octagon for 3 rounds….Period, end, DEAD!
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