Today we’d like to introduce you to Nick Pyle.
Nick, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
I was born in northern Illinois in the early 1980s. When I was 12 years old a comic book shop opened around the corner from our apartment, turning a mild interest in convenience store comics into a full-blown obsession with the comic book form and the popular publications of the day. I drew constantly and copied my favorite artists. After some frustration about my ability to build any technical ability, I stopped reading comics and drawing entirely after starting a DEEPLY unpleasant punk band that required zero skill to perform. I played music in Chicago for 15 years after that and began to do posters for my groups and slowly tried drawing regularly. It wasn’t until a friend of mine, a great artist named Corinne Halbert, showed me a new brand of inexpensive pocket brush pen that I became hyper-focused on the technical side of drawing again. The new pen was GREAT for achieving those dynamic black lines of the 80s and 90s comic books of my youth. I started an Instagram account and used it as a daily sketchbook, posting cartoons, concept art and character designs in a wide variety of styles. Currently I’ve been doing a series of characters clad in futuristic armored suits – trying to occupy some spot between comic book legend Jack Kirby and sci-fi Illustrator Hajime Sorayama. I’m also working on a Peanuts-styled daily comic strip about a grim reaper-esque character named Beenderman, and his interactions with the recently deceased.
We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
I use a variety of Japanese brush pens, American and European art pens, and the almighty Copic Marker on various types of paper and illustration board with some minor digital coloring if I can’t nail it in the real world. I don’t really read a lot of comics anymore – I’m allergic to bad writing, but i think that when an illustrator draws a character that is really interacting with their physical environment can be an amazing thing. Especially now, newer comics use very dramatic, cinematic lighting and angles and I’m really drawn to that. I like to think that I’m drawing the best splash-pages from a comic that does not exist. I try to show as much as a I can about the characters in one image and flesh out their design as much as possible. I guess you would call it concept art? I think I would just say that my main focus is pure dynamics. I hope people feel the same way!
Have things improved for artists? What should cities do to empower artists?
I think that truly the only good thing about most social media is that you can pump your art out into the world at a crazy rate and, depending on where and how, and how devoted you are, you can get a lot of people to look at it. It’s still hard to get a mass audience – but that requires just as much luck as it does hustle. Chicago could do more art fairs focusing on affordable illustration and small art. Cake (Chicago Alternative Comics Expo) is great! it would be great if there were more of those types of things. Small art fairs selling smaller affordable pieces (I like to keep my prices low) rather than all of the ten thousand craft fairs where you just see so much of the same stuff booth after booth. I like to see more weird drawings!
Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
Follow me on Instagram, I usually post 2-3 drawings or comics a day as a rule and sometimes much more that that –
IG: @yayitsnickpyle
Twitter: @Nick_Pyle
buy original drawings at www.etsy.com/shop/artofnickpyle
Contact Info:
- Website: www.artofnickpyle.com
- Email: nickpylehere@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yayitsnickpyle/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/Nick_Pyle
- Other: www.etsy.com/shop/artofnickpyle
Image Credit:
The photo of me was taken by Mr. King – and he has given permission for you to use it.
Getting in touch: VoyageChicago is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
