Kaspar is a concept artist behind the iconic look of Disco Elysium video game and the illustrator of Tiks’ wonderful party posters — and now he is featured in our illustrator series!
Your first drawing/memory of drawing as a kid?
My very first memory of me drawing is probably from the first digits of the nineties. It was sunny out. I was indoors though. I remember messing around with crayons on the floor before my grandfather’s lego-eating couch-bed when an adult family friend came over and drew a big blue crow on my sheet of paper. The crow was very cool, but I remember getting very upset when they named it after my father and wrote his name next to the bird's drawing.
First drawing of my own that I vaguely remember, is either a teenaged mutant ninja turtle or a massive pirate ship shooting rainbows.
Is illustration a tool or an art form and why?
It’s what you make of it. Can be either. I appreciate, when it is allowed to be both.
What do you think about when you draw?
It’s really a full-body experience. Less like thought and more like a feeling. Intuition. At this point I “think” in lines, lights and darks, checks and balances. That particular feeling of lead on paper traces the firing of synapses. When I lean back to take a breath perhaps a “Oh, nice” thrown into the mix or a “Shit, this sucks” and back into it I lean. My process is to start before thinking and then keep fixing it up until I run out of time.
How did you find your style?
Style is the victim of circumstances. For me it assembled cumulatively at a hundred different 4am-s with deadlines in the headlights (or maddeningly diminishing in the rear-view).
Color or line?
Line for me. I wish I could do color.
Character or situation?
One without the other is just lines on paper.
Your favourite artists?
Mmmmmm… Masha Shishova, Sangram Majumdar, Paula Rego, James Hague, Morteza Khakshoor, Matt Bollinger, Anand Radhakrishnan, Kenichi Hoshine, Anton Vill, Pierre Bonnard, Jose David Morales, Joana Galego, Simon Roy, Celeste Rapone, Paul Pope, Tesfaye Urgessa, Andrew Cranston, Linda Kits-Mägi, Molly Mendoza, Vive Tolli, Mr Aryz, Hongmin Lee, Anne Harris, Artem Rogowoi, Emilio Villalba, Sergey Kolesov, Ruprecht Von Kaufman, Jamie Hewlett, Hiroshige, Ingmar Järve, Käthe Kollwitz, Ashley Wood, Sergio Toppi, Jean Giraud/Moebius, Jillian Tamaki, Andrea Serio, Craig Thompson, Artyem Trakhanov, Kristjan Raud, Francis Bacon, Valentin Serov, Zinaida Serebryakova, Sasha Gordon, Jerome Witkin, Kent Williams, Jameson Green, Kouta Sasai, Johannes Grützke, Peter Ferguson, Alberto Mielgo, Matias Bergara, Alexis Deacon, Elliot Lang, Veronica Ruffato, Alonso Lassombra, Gerard Dubois, Rael Lyra, Matt Rota, Blutch, This Is Getting Stupid I’ll Stop.
I enjoy the works of a wide range of visual artists and particular names come and go with seasons. The list of those that I keep coming back to only grows!
Your favourite movies? Name at least 3.
Just yesterday someone told me that they don’t know anyone who hate-watches as much as I do. From that category I’d say… Avengers: Endgame, Pacific Rim, Deadpool & Wolverine all in one night while working. It’s tough to get them all as they keep churning them out faster than I can make time to watch them.
Your favourite places in Estonia and the world?
I’ve come to enjoy being behind the wheel on a highway. Tartu holds a lot of special memories for me as an adult. I love it that there I could walk in any direction and could reach woods or fields in just twenty minutes. Viljandi is another one. Summers in Haapsalu in my 20s. The particular St. Petersburg silvery greys from my years as a student. Bittersweet. Magical months in Ukraine Crimea years before it was annexed. An idle and introspective year in Copenhagen with my girlfriend. Brighton, where I became a father amidst burning bridges. Endlessly looking for parking in Brooklyn, New York. Places where I’ve loved or hurt or made lasting friends.
Advice for beginners?
Stay hungry. Join a pack. Draw. Stick with it.
What do you need to have a productive work day?
A deadline from the day before. Approximately 6.5 hours of sleep.
Do you think of drawing as of work or as of fun?
Drawing for me is therapy, it's ameditation, it is work and it is entertainment. It is also exercise. It is never fun though.
Have you ever been stuck creatively and how have you dealt with it?
I’m always stuck creatively. I’m stuck right now! And I don’t really deal with it. I make a thing and then I make another thing and then another.
How do you combine different skills and professions of yours? Is it helpful or sometimes they become competitive within your brain?
I tend have many jobs at the same time. They all compete for my time and my attention. Through my work I get to meet lots of interesting people and I get to solve very different problems. That’s all super inspiring. Some collaborations work out and some do not. As a side effect I learn new things and obtain new skills. Skill combinations vary between anything I’m focused on at the time until I get distracted. All in all I have too many interests even within art making. I also have ADHD, two kids, my wife and a mortgage. If burnout was a video game I’d be on New Game + 99 by now. I wouldn’t change a thing. A vacation would be nice though.
Please make a drawing of Trickster as a fantasy character!