Each week, we interview a different artist and share their art and featured answers on our official Facebook page. This week's featured artist is TerryDodson!

When did you start getting into art?

I started to get into art after I saw Star Wars. I met a kid who liked Star Wars as well and he always drew. I was probably eight or so and I had never drawn before and so he would show me how to draw. We would draw X wings and Jawas and it really started then. I was lucky to be exposed at an early age to artists like Norman Rockwell, Frank Frazetta, Mayfield Parish, so I was exposed to good stuff before I was really exposed to comics. Star Wars, and buying Star Wars merchandise like Star Wars comic books, got me into comics. And at some point, there was a crossover of when I wanted to start drawing on my own and I think that love of comics started around age 12 or 13.

You’ve worked on some amazing projects in the past (and Adventureman coming out soon)! What is a highlight for you over that time?

I’ve had the pleasure to work on numerous terrific comic projects - Harley Quinn, the Uncanny X-Men, Wonder Woman, Captain Marvel, Spider-Man with Kevin Smith and Mark Millar, and just recently X-Men/Fantastic Four with Chip Zdarsky. I really enjoy the most doing my own material, like Songes which was the book I colored, RED ONE the same, and now ADVENTUREMAN, that means a combination of all my skills as an artist and a storyteller and a creator and the ability to color and put it down what I see in my head in comics.

What pulls you to pencils over inks? What got you started with penciling? What joys do you find there?

I pencil—in general—more, because when I was breaking into the industry you really needed to be a specialist. And since I like to draw I really focused on penciling. Penciling is closest to pure drawing. I always knew my background was in PT more. My formal education was formal painting, so I knew that’s where I wanted to go eventually is to work for color, but with limitations of the industry in the 90s it was a penciling but someone else colored. But I do love trying with a pencil and in my SketchBook I always draw in colored pencils.

What makes for a good collaborator (inks/colors/etc.)? How can an artist be a good collaborator?

As far as a good inker to collaborate with, I have spent a few years working with multiple people trying to find that right inker but I really need someone who is good with a brush and knew what I wanted the work to look like. Fortunately my girlfriend at the time (my wife Rachel Dodson) just got a job as an intern for an inker in town and she had a natural talent with a brush from the beginning. So over a year or two she kept developing her skills until the point came along that we could work together. AND, we both happen to like a lot of the same art which has us aiming for similar goals in the final look of the art, NOT fighting each other! I developed coloring for myself as I know what I want my work to look like in my head and that’s impossible to explain to someone else and I just see color like I see color. My background is classical painting so my vision of color is not typical of modern comics.

Listening makes a good collaborator no matter what you’re doing or what field you’re in. It helps having similar interests from the beginning, and if not, try to find some between the things you like or you don’t like. Sometimes something greater comes out of that mix of the differences you have.

Your covers are iconic. What do you think makes for a successful comic cover?

I think the cover needs to be something that stands out for the person looking at thousands of comics. It needs to be distinctive from the others and needs to stand out on the stand; objective is to grab someone’s eye. After you have pulled a person in, then it’s about telling a story, and then, details to keep the viewer wanting to take it home.

What is the biggest thing that up-and-coming artists should focus on when pursuing art as a career?

There are three general rules for a long career in comics: 1) be really good, 2) be very nice and 3) be on time. I was told if you can be two out of these three, you can make it in comics! Personally, I strive to do my best work to be creative, to always challenge myself to be a better storyteller, and a better designer. and just a better artist overall.

See more of TerryDodson's work in his DeviantArt gallery!

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