Paul Alabaster
How long have you been drawing/painting?
“How long is a ball of string?” lol I’m sure the horror fans know what I am referring to. First let me say Paul that I appreciate you taking an interest in my work and having me on your website.
I guess you can say I was a late bloomer. I didn’t take an interest in drawing until I was in the Army which was 33 years ago, and finally after all that time I learn to stay in the lines with my crayons. Lmao. Just kidding. I drew for a lot of years but I really didn’t start taking it serious until the turn of 2000. Although I had a few things published before then in the 80’s, including a piece in Dragon Magazine, issue #203. I remember that like it was yesterday, I was so excited and they paid me pretty well too. But then I started doing commercial work around 1990, and put the fantasy work behind me. But it was at that point, out of frustration, that I noticed my work was taking a dark turn.
In “95 I quit painting altogether, because the age of the computer was coming in, and I didn’t know how to compete with that. Instead of embracing it and seeing it for the wonderful thing It was, I got a bad attitude about it and through most of my art stuff away. Then I started to drink myself to death for 5 years.
In 2000 I was married and had a step son. We had gotten him a computer and he started showing all the cool things about the internet, and I got interested once I saw all the publishers I could contact. In the past you could not contact them unless you mailed them art or went to NYC and saw them in person. So I learned to build a website, and I haven’t looked back.
What or who inspired you to get involved in this art forum?
If I understand the question right Paul, the answer would be life and all the monsters of the world. Just watch the news and you will see Monsters everyday. Humans are the only real horrors in this world. Not all of course, just a select handful, but they are more than enough to create total chaos for descent people.
Art is how I express how I feel about the world and what I see everyday. From a very young age I have been exposed to “Monsters” and it just seem natural to me that I am fascinated by them. I can’t watch enough horror movies. It’s almost like I have become immune to them and very rarely does one scare me. It’s usually the ones that have things jump out all of a sudden, or a sudden noise when it is very quite that will scare me.
Q. Whose work do you admire the most?
They’re are a lot of artist work that I like, but the one artist that got me interested in painting and doing fantasy / horror work would have to be Frazetta. I found his first book when I was about 20 and was just blown away by his work. What blows my mind even more, is that he doesn’t use any reference material. Everything he does is straight from his imagination. I don’t know another single artist alive that can do that on a professional level. He is by far the most gifted artist of our time.
Why do you think you are drawn to capturing scenes of fantasy/horror in your work?
I honestly don’t have an answer for that one. It is just who I am. I don’t do much fantasy these days, it’s mostly horror. Through the years I have evolved from one thing to another. The first thing I liked was doing comics, then seeing Frazetta’s work and watching movies like “Star Wars” and “Alien” made me want to start doing Fantasy and Science Fiction, and as I got older, I started dealing with personal issues from my childhood in my mind, and my work started taking a slow turn toward the dark. I can tell you this, I am just getting warmed up for doing horror, I have some very dark imagines in my mind that I haven’t even considered tackling just yet, but I will.
Do you like/admire comic/graphic novel art? If so, whose work?
Oh of course I do. The bad thing is I haven’t kept up with that gender in quite some time, but in the day when I was a passionate collector, I loved Barry Smith, Frank Miller, Berni Wrighterson, and Neal Adams. They where a lot of others, but these where my favorites.
Have you ever thought about doing this type of art – creating a story with your art?
Yes I have. I have tons of idea’s for stories in my head but the issue is time. Doing a graphic story is very time consuming, but I think at some point I am going to start one, and just work on It here and there as I can. I much prefer to paint a painting. Madison is always encouraging me to do one though, so time will tell.
Q. What do you think of Clive Barker as an artist?
To be honest, someone just recently pointed out his work to me. I didn’t know he was an artist as well as a writer. I was very impressed with the pieces I saw. I find it fascinating to see how a writer perceives his work in his own Illustrations. Sometimes when you read a book, it is hard to imagine the images the way the writers see them. Being an Illustrator I know how difficult that can be at times, but that is my job. But when the writer can produce an illo for the story, then it gives me more insight into writers imagination and I can nail the Illustration the way they see it.
Q. What do you think of Clive Barker as a writer?
He’s awesome. It would be a dream come true to have the chance to work with him on one of his projects. I love the Hellraiser series, and I am really looking forward to the directors cut of Nightbreed. I just got Dread last month, and I loved it. One of his best to date I think.
Q. Have you ever exhibited your work?
Not in a few years. The last time I exhibited my work was Dragoncon 06. In 07 I traveled to a lot of show’s with my model group back then, the “Dark Angels” but I didn’t really display art at those shows, just prints to sell. It will probably be 2012 or 13 before I decide to hit the circuit again. My model group, “The Deadly Dolz” my travel and do shows before then, and they would have plenty of my art with them if they do. But the DD’z is still in it’s infancy stages, so we’ll just see where the road leads us. I’ve included 2 pieces of Deadly Dolz art with this interview. The blonde is Movie star Suzi Lorraine and the Red head is TV personality Jane “Spooky” Bredeson. The 3rd Dolz is yet to be announced. We’re having a contest to find the 3rd Dolz, the details are on my blog http://nickroseart.blogspot.com/
Do you enjoy photography? If so, what type?
I couldn’t take a good picture for the life of me. Lol I took a class in it many moons ago, but just never really took an interest in it. When I have model shoots, I have to take tons of pictures because half of them will come out blurry.
Q. What is your favorite horror novel?
The Bible.
Q. What is your favorite horror film?
Now that’s a tough one, considering I am a huge horror movie fan. Last time I counted I had over 2000 dvd’, and about 65% of those are horror movies.
The only movie that I can honestly say makes me jump every time I see it is “Darkness Falls” I always watch it in the dark, and sleep with the blanket over my head that night. Lol.
Q. What piece took the longest to complete?
Well, that would have been some of the pieces I did back in the 80’s, when I was very unsure of my painting skills. I can remember spending as much as 8 months on one piece. But I didn’t make my living doing art back then.
These days, 2 weeks is a long time. Most paintings I do in 3 to 6 days.
Q. Pre-90’s film posters predominantly used artist’s drawings/paintings – which horror film poster do you like and why?
“The Creature from the Black Lagoon” that movie scared the heck out of me when I was a kid. I remember staring at a poster I had of it that I think I got from “The Famous Monsters of Filmland” From the age of 9 I never missed an issue of that magazine up until I was about 16. I had all their pull out posters all over my bedroom walls, and the original model kits of the universal monsters. I had a nightmare one night, and my as*wipe of a step father tore down all my posters and destroyed all my models. Talk about “Monsters”.
Q. Similar, is there a dust jacket for a novel you really like?
Well, I like the ones by that Nick Rose fellow, and I see some out there I like, but I could not tell you did them. But if your looking for what had the most influence for me as an artist, I would have to say the “Creepy” and “Erie” covers put out by Warren in the 60’s and the 70’s. I loved those, and of course anything with Frazetta art on it.
What are you currently working on?
Well, as soon as I send you this interview my friend, I am going to do a “Zombie Cat” painting. The Deadly Dolz project is a full-time project, along with my “Book of Rose” project I will be starting later this year. Other Than that, who knows. There is not a week that goes by that someone wants to hire for a job. Most of them I do, but sometime they are just to far off the beaten path for me, and I know I would hate doing them. I turn down most fantasy work, unless there is a very dark edge to it. One day I would love to paint Moorcocks “Eric” character with Stormbringer. I loved those books. I want to thank you again for taking an interest in my work, and if people want to see more they can go to http://wickedkittystudio.com and if you want to write to me, please do at wickedkittystudio@gmail.com “ May the Darkness comfort you.”
