How I turned a boring office into an inspiring art studio

My studio is in an office building full of realtors and physical therapy offices. No one really knows there’s an art studio on the first floor.

I roll into the studio around 5am most days. There’s a front office where a lot of my books are and where my assistant works, and a lot of hanging art. The pieces on the wall are original paintings for comic book covers and gallery works. After you pass through the office you’re in the main studio that’s been designed to be as completely comfortable – almost homey – as possible.

In the shot below, we see my digital drawing space, where I do 90 per cent of my illustration work (see our guides to the best drawing tablets and the best laptops for drawing - ed). Up close is a collaboration painting I did with fellow artist Jim Mahfood.

Bookshelves and sitting areas abound. I have ADHD, so any given day I could need to work differently than the day before. Because of that I have multiple sitting and standing options, and three or four different work stations.

The goal is to not let my ADHD give me an excuse not to work, but rather to roll with it. I have options. Both digital and traditional art gets made here: from ink and watercolour to oil to digital.

I have a table for traditional art. I love working in mixed media, so at any given time I’m gonna need something different. I try and keep as much as I can near me.

I have more books than I can count. There’s everyone from Cy Twombly to Syd Mead. Just looking at art inspires me enough to want to make it. On the walls there are multiple pieces by artists I admire – Barron Storey, Phil Hale, Will Eisner and others – along with gig posters and album covers and movie posters that I’ve done.

I created Empty Zone (left) over 20 years ago and it’s been my passion to bring it back and explore that world again. Right: My first movie poster for Vandal. Since then I’ve gone on to do storyboard and concept design work for the writer/director Eddie Alcazar’s next three projects.

In my gig poster section (above), there are artworks that I’ve done for Tool and Pearl Jam.

One of my favourite attributes of the studio is that it lacks any windows. I can work and work and not see that the day is getting late. Or at 9am, I can turn off most of the lights and it feels like I’m making comics back in my bedroom at 3am, 25 years ago. Being able to control the environment to a degree, in my workspace, is essential and has worked for me for the past five years or so.

For more recent entries in our Artist in Residence series see the studios of Forrest Imel and Greg Staples.

This article originally appeared in ImagineFX. Subscribe to ImagineFX to never miss an issue. Print and digital subscriptions available.