Artists Talking: Illustrator and Newest TTPer Alan Flinn

Alan Flinn, Hamburger

Newest TTPer Alan Flinn is an American illustrator with over 25 years of illustration experience. He’s an artist who works day in and day out, without glitz, to express that thing in all his subjects. You probably recognize his work from a number of publications, but to Alan it’s just part of the job. His work is the steady hand of an illustrator who considers his subjects with utmost consideration and broad imagination. As a result, his entire body of work is not just a series of illustrations of subjects, but illustrations of social interactions, politics, technology, and society at large.

As advocates of artists of all ilk from across the world, we at TTP are thrilled to work with Alan, who also graciously took the time to go back and forth with us on a number of topics, from his process to his professionalism to the buildings and hanging or suspension motifs that seem to appear in all his work, to how the illustrator landscape has changed since he started out. These are his words.

• I’m from Colorado, where I have been feeding squirrels and working as a self employed freelance illustrator my entire adult life. I’m very reclusive, and have had a very unconventional career with lots of ups and downs.

• I still like sketching on paper to start with. I think most people do.

• Professionally, I am completely self-taught. I work in several styles and receive assignments from all kinds of markets. After many years in the illustration business I’m not particularly well known, but somehow I continue to get work. At this point, I’ve done just about everything in the world of illustration at one time or another. 14 hour days, seven days a week for years on end has had a profound effect on my life.

• I am not a city guy. I’ve never had a job where I worked in a building.

• I don’t know where all the hanging and suspension in my work comes from and I really wish I did. It’s something I’ve done for years. My fear of heights might have something to do with it.

• If I’m working on an assignment the point is built into the illustration. Otherwise I like to create images that pop into my head without warning. These illustrations are open to interpretation because I sure don’t know what they mean.

• It’s a whole new world today.

• Everything has changed since I started out. They way art is created and delivered, the we market ourselves. The internet changed everything, obviously. Social networking is something I am still struggling with. Having a personal website to showcase our work is an incredible thing. I even have a second website under a fictional persona to display work that is so different from my main site it might confuse people. That’s another story.

• I was always drawing as a kid to escape reality.

• I think sites like Thumbtack Press are the best thing that could have happened for both artist and those interested in buying art.

• After years of working conventionally with an airbrush, I do all my work on a computer these days (something I resisted for years, but now there’s no going back).

• And now, I am very grateful to be part of Thumbtack Press.

Alan Flinn, Big City 

See Alan’s entire TTP collection – with prints starting at $19.99 – here.