After emailing Tomer he apologized for not having enough time to answer my specific questions but sent me a list of frequently asked questions and his answers to pick and choose from. So this is not a 100% Ai exclusive as we normally do but I love Tomer’s work so much I thought I would publish it anyway. I did do an exclusive with Asaf, Tomer’s twin brother, last year which you can find here.

Tell us a little about your background?
I was born in Israel. It’s. I went to an art high school where we had drawing and painting lessons, as well as full academic curriculum. I got to do life drawing on a regular basis and was introduced to many painting mediums. There was a thorough overview of art history.

At 18 everybody gets drafted to the army. I did that for three years, didn’t achieve much progress at that period, mostly waited to get the hell out of there. But I kept a sketchbook. When that was over I came to New York to study at the School of Visual Arts. I had money to last me a year, and after that the school helped. I made many friends that I am still close to.

You and your brother have such great style. You may have heard this a thousand times but what is your main source of inspiration?
My brother Asaf (asafhanuka.com, Ai interview with Asaf) and myself had this comics fetish. we collected them way before we could read English. we have an aunt who lives in LA and every time she visited Israel she brought us some comics. it was a weird thing in Israel, back then nobody knew what these things were. we got sucked into the super hero universe.

There were a lot of trashy comics in the 70’s, with bad production values and cheesy story lines but it was the best escape. in a way some of them felt really deep and philosophical. I think that was the formal foundation for how we ended up drawing. Asaf went to a University in France. By the time we finished with the army he was already set on European Comics, which is what he is doing now mostly. This point of separation: New-York vs. France might shed some light on the differences in style, keeping in mind that we are indeed two different people.
Your illustrations seem to exhibit a fascination for war, bloodshed and other gory details. Does violence hold a deeper meaning for you?
I can’t say that. I like drama. I feel it’s the main engine of what I strive for in illustration. Sometimes it tips into horror which is for me some sort of a developed dramatic language with certain rules you can play off.

Describe a typical day at work.
I wake up around 9. Get breakfast, open the radio and work pretty much until 8 pm.

That’s sounds tough. Don’t you ever get distracted or bored? Are you by nature a disciplined person?
I am too busy about deadlines to get distracted and bored. the radio (news mostly) is a good narrative backdrop so a part of me is traveling places and stories that have nothing to do with the actual work that’s in front of me. that takes the edge off being overly consummated by a singular task. but I also find that I am bored and distracted when I DON’T work for a few days… is there anything that exciting out there?
Do you and your brother encourage each other in design or do you find yourselves competing?
When you are a twin, competition is something that is engraved in your brain so deep you can’t even see it. As kids we were always drawing together, in the same room, on the same floor. I learn from my brother constantly and his criticism is always insightful.

How similar or dissimilar to you think your work is to your brother’s?
I think it grew very different since we moved apart. As kids there were fewer distinctions since we looked at the same stuff, and lived in the same room. Once we moved, each to a different country, we obviously experienced the world much differently. People still get confused and I take it as a compliment. I think we represent two extremes in a somewhat narrow genre. But on the whole we fall under similar definitions.

Do you see yourself more as a comic artist or an illustrator?
I make my living as an illustrator. I couldn’t survive financially without it, and I do enjoy doing it most of the time. Comics is something that function as an artistic outlet, there are no editors or art directors who take part of the decisions, it’s a place where I can experiment with narrative and that is very enjoyable, and essential in regard with unsupervised self expression.

Do you work more with the computer or your hands?
It’s pretty much split in the middle. I draw in traditional tools-brush ink and paper, and color on a computer. But the line is blurring sometimes, and I am trying to find new ways to make the process a surprise.

Ever experienced mental blocks? If yes, how do you overcome them?
I try not to think of work in terms of “muse”. I work every day, sometimes it’s hard and frustrating, sometimes fun and gratifying. But as long as I am there doing something it all accumulates to “work”. I never see a reason to romanticize it. I think it would create a mental
block.

You can find out more about Tomer on his website here, and blog (that he shares with Asaf) here.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 7th, 2007 at 8:06 pm and is filed under Interviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.