Illustration / Interview

Piccolo Print Project: Interview with Michael C. Hsiung

February 2, 2013
Written by

Lisa Per­rin and I con­duct­ed anoth­er inter­view with an illus­tra­tor of our Píc­colo Print Project, a cam­paign we are also run­ning on Kick­starter. This inter­view first appeared on our Tum­blr.

Through the Print Project, Píc­co­lo has had the oppor­tu­ni­ty to work with 4 tal­ent­ed illus­tra­tors. But, who are the peo­ple behind the images? We inter­viewed them in our series, Píc­co­lo Por­traits!

If you love Michael’s work, be sure to sup­port our Kick­starter and pur­chase one of his prints!

Píc­co­lo: Can you tell us a lit­tle bit about your background?

Michael C. Hsi­ung: My name is Michael C. Hsi­ung and I was born in Chi­na­town, Los Ange­les.  I wasn’t always mak­ing art for a liv­ing – I actu­al­ly grad­u­at­ed with an Eng­lish Degree and was work­ing in schools, muse­ums, and even at a back­ground inves­ti­ga­tion com­pa­ny before even think­ing of mak­ing art.  I’ve been real­ly lucky to have had such a nice run so far, and I attribute it to my facial hair.  

P: What was the inspi­ra­tion behind your piece for the Píc­co­lo Print Project?

MCH: My love of the cir­cus and per­form­ers (clowns/muscle men/stiltwalkers) was the inspi­ra­tion behind the Pic­co­lo piece. 

image

P: What are your favorite techniques/mediums to use when you cre­ate your work?

MCH: My favorite medi­um would prob­a­bly be ink, micron pens, and rapi­do­graphs, and my favorite tech­nique is pat­tern­ing with semi circles.

P: Do you think the field of illus­tra­tion is chang­ing? And if so, how?

MCH: I think the field of illus­tra­tion is chang­ing as far as I can tell, though not real­ly being an illus­tra­tor in the tra­di­tion­al sense, but I think that its eas­i­er for artists to get his or her stuff out there now with the var­i­ous social sites, forums, and com­mu­ni­ty groups. 

P: What are your favorite small things in life?

MCH: My favorite small things  are prob­a­bly dice, like 20 sided dice because I’m a lover of all things fan­ta­sy and Dun­geons & Drag­ons relat­ed. [Sara’s note — This made me very hap­py because I too am a D&D player.]

P: What’s on the hori­zon for you — any excit­ing projects you’re work­ing on?

MCH: I’ll be hav­ing a two-week solo show called So Far, So Good, So What! Feb­ru­ary 8th at THIS, LA gallery in High­land Park. I’m real­ly excit­ed because it’ll be my first time in a long while show­ing works, and I plan to have lots of draw­ings, a print, and a reprint of a zine that recent­ly sold out called Booze, Dudes, & Bears.  Also, I’m be doing a print with Poster Child Prints some­time this year which I’m very excit­ed about, as well as par­tic­i­pat­ing in a group show Out of Town­ers which opens some­time in April at the See­ing Things Gallery in San Jose. 

Thanks, Michael!