Hello and welcome to the opening of the Ideology of Madness Artist Showcase!

We love comics here at IoM.  We especially love comic artists.  Within the gallery of the IoM Artist Showcase we will feature a different artist each week, showcasing artist’s self-selected pieces in a week-long series.  Our effort here is to introduce you to both the artist’s work as well as the artist himself.  Our illustrator for this week is a talent I was initially exposed to on social media.

Click for hi-res imageScott Blair is a brilliant pinup artist, designing amazing 40’s style masterpieces.  He’s always drawing and always sharing.  Follow this guy on Instagram and you’ll enjoy daily updates of original art both in modern Big 2 comic-style as well as many works in the tradition of the pulps.

Ideology of Madness: Scott Blair, welcome to the Showcase… You’re a graduate from Middle Tennessee University’s graphic’s design program. How well do you feel your university experience prepared you for a career in art?

Scott Blair: Yep, I graduated from MTSU with a Bachelor’s Degree in Graphic Design. I learned that there weren’t many fun graphic design jobs available in Nashville, if you were lucky you could get an internship designing country music cds. So I moved back home and spent the next two years paying off my student loans and kept developing my illustration skills. If I had to do it over again, I would have saved the money spent and maybe taken some specialized art classes instead of spending all that time in classes teaching things I’ve never used to this day.

IoM: I gather you’re a full time freelancer. Have you been freelancing since school? What was your first gig after graduation? Related to that, how has your schedule as a freelancer changed since over the years?

Scott: It took me a while to become a full time freelancer. I worked full time with my family’s business, CAPTAIN BIJOU, selling movies, comic books and vintage movie memorabilia. At night, I would draw and paint art to sell on ebay or for custom clients. It took me about 5 years until I was making enough to go full time creating art. A typical day for me now, is waking up at 7, drawing custom sketches until noon. I’ll take a lunch break, then go back to drawing until 6. Stop for dinner, then work for a couple more hours – around 10pm I run out of gas.

… Come back tomorrow through Friday for more of our conversation with Scott Blair and his artwork.

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