Michael McRae - Senior Artist
This summer we welcomed a foreign artist, Michael MacRae from Vancouver, Canada. Here his story…
-Have you always wanted to become an artist? Can you tell us more about your career before you arrived at Goodname?
When I was a kid, I used to draw a lot, but I never imagined it as a future job. I met some people who helped refine this statement, like my 6th grade teacher who pointed out that there is a lot more than I could do at that time, like other technic, tools… Around 2007 I discovered Photoshop which allowed me to create whatever I wanted. The only constraint at first was my mouse, until I found out graphic tablets exist. I finally went to Emily Carr Art University of Art and Design without a precise idea of what to do next. My friends got jobs in animation studios in Vancouver. I followed them from mid-2016 until this year when I decided to get more into concept art.
-How come you wanted to work in Europe? What are your impressions of Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital? We hope your life here matches your expectations!
I always lived in Vancouver, so staying there to work wasn’t so important to me. I would have kept on coasting, taking the easy road. So, I thought, why not try in Europe. I got some interviews in London and Berlin before meeting you. I don’t regret coming to Vilnius! The city and the team are really nice, and I get to work on a big variety of projects as I expected.
-On Artstation, you sometimes name a piece in one word, but you can also write an entire paragraph. How easy is it for you to put your artworks into words?
I like telling stories, I have “world ideas” that are developed in several paintings where all the characters I have in mind evolve in the same universe. It is like a cinematic universe! The worlds I create are sophisticated and I hope to show this through my paintings. But, putting words on these “world ideas” that I paint is another challenge. I used to write but it was hard for me to be good at it. Sometimes, I can write several sentences about a story, but I don’t sit with the objective to write something down.
-Where do you find the patience to create such detailed paintings?
I don’t know, I guess being patient is part of my personality. Knowing that the result will be amazing makes me want to work more and more. I don’t mind spending a lot of time on the same personal project. In general, if somebody cares about something, how much time you will spend on it doesn’t matter. For example, Sybil's portrait took me over a year from the first brush strokes to posting it on Artstation. It was exciting because it was the first time, I was making such a detailed character and background. I also had fun with details that you don’t notice at first sight, every element came one after another in the creative process. I consider the content is key, and you need patience to give time for ideas to come up. It is usually worth waiting for!
-Your work reveals incredible stories, where does your inspiration come from? Do you have a secret weapon you would like to talk about?
Inspiration comes from a lot of places. An atmosphere I catch watching a movie, listening to music, or reading a book can be intriguing and pushes me to create a new piece. There is a tone which makes me wonder: what does that mean? There is a feel and I want to put into that a character from my world ideas. I use an existing character with his story and adapt them to that new atmosphere. Two worlds meet and create some new ideas: why him, why there, why that detail, this other one…. I find it harder to tell a story by painting an environment without a character in it. The most important is to make the viewer wonder what is going on in every corner of the piece. The characters and details are good ways to push people to go deeper into what they are looking at.
-Do you think that creativity involves putting your heart and soul into your work? Or is it more like letting your mind flow freely to witness the surprising results of your actions?
I think about that occasionally because I look for new ways to work. Until now I let ideas come naturally, I don’t feel the need to rush the process. I sit and force myself to think mechanically only occasionally as it is hard for me to come up with new ideas this way. For one year I want to find something new ideas, but when I try and it looks like the writer’s block: a blank canvas! In my attempt to stimulate my creativity, I read Save the Cat: The Last Book on Screenwriting You’ll Ever Need by Blake Snyder. It describes the elements necessary to create a decent movie. It is well written, but I still can’t use in creative process. I guess this doesn’t work for me now, but maybe in the future it will.