1.Could you introduce yourself to the readers of www.infictus.com?

Hey there everyone! My name is Walter O’Neal and I’m a freelance painter/sculptor. I grew up in The San Fernando Valley in California and had a pretty typical 80’s childhood filled with videogames, comics, movies and way too much time hanging out at the mall. Eventually I went to college to study art but through a series of odd events I ended up being an accountant that did payroll for TV shows. The money was great but the work was tedious and I couldn’t see myself doing that forever.

So a few months after my 30th Birthday and my last TV show job ended, I decided that I was going to take a stab at having a freelance art career and just trying to get the ball rolling in that direction.  I took about a year off and made an entirely new portfolio of comic themed art. I started posting my new work to deviantArt, The Shiflett Brothers’ sculpting forum and other online galleries and started meeting some professional working artists and then stuff just started to evolve from there.  Currently I’m working for DC Direct doing concept-art helping to design collectible statues.

2.These highly detailed illustrations seem to take a lot of time. What’s the longest time you have spent on an illustration?

I think the longest I’ve ever spent was about 2.5 months back in my younger post college days. Some of that was due to constantly reworking portions of the painting over and over because I wasn’t exactly happy with them but that really doesn’t happen too much anymore.  Nowadays three weeks is pretty much the golden rule of how long it’s going to take me to finish a painting from the time I make the first brush stroke to the time I’m done applying the protective varnish.

3.What inspires you the most?

The thing that inspires me most is probably just the desire to get better. I’m a perfectionist by nature and I’m always trying to make each new piece the best piece I’ve ever done. So I’m constantly trying new techniques and new ways of working that I haven’t experimented with before just so I can keep learning and keep pushing myself to improve. Sometimes it works out flawlessly and other times it blows up in my face, but that’s part of the excitement of trying new things. Hell, if you always knew you were going to win there’d be no point in playing, right?

4.Do you use any image-editing software to enhance or to clean your traditional artwork?

I use Photoshop 7 (I know I’m old school) from time to time to tweak things here and there but I’m starting to use it less and less. For a while I was experimenting with making paintings that were about 75% traditional and 25% digital and I was pretty happy with the results. Eventually people would contact me and want to buy the originals of the paintings and I’d have to explain to them that what they would be buying would not be what they saw in my online gallery and there would be a sense of disappointment there.

At that point I was just using the computer to do some of the effects work on the paintings but I was still doing most of the rendering and heavy-lifting traditionally by hand in acrylic. So I just decided that I would do everything traditionally if I could from then on, in the hopes that it would open up a secondary market of revenue for in selling the originals of all the art I make.

So these days all I’m really using the computer for is to scan and color correct my paintings or to add some quick color to some pencil drawings, nothing too fancy. Plus I really don’t enjoy working at the computer and spending 12-15 hours a day staring at a screen. I would much rather spend that time hunched over the desk painting traditionally. It’s just how my brain is wired and fighting it is too much trouble.

5.What do you like most? Sculpting, drawing or painting?

I’d have to say sculpting, if for no other reason than once you’re done you have a tangible physical product that exists in the real world that you actually get to interact with. Drawings and paintings are cool, but once they’re done they are just static 2D images that can only be seen one way. How you see a piece of sculpture can change dramatically depending on the viewing angle and how the piece is being lit. So I can spend hours toying around with a sculpt experimenting with the lighting, but I get bored after staring at the same painting for 10 minutes because it never changes.

Sculpture is also considerably more challenging in that you can’t cheat. You can’t hide any of the shortcomings in the piece or cut any corners because people will see every inch of the final product. You can’t have half of a guy’s face descend into shadow on a sculpture like you could in a painting. You have to sculpt the whole head.  There’s a lot of problem solving that you can get away with not doing in a 2D piece and that’s just not an option in 3D. The thing has to exist in the real world so all of the puzzle pieces have to fit together. So in the overall scheme of things I think a sculpture is just further down the road of trying to bring a concept to life, so it’s that much more rewarding to finish one that you’re happy with.

6.Who do you look up to?

Well I’m 5’11”, so I guess anyone 6’ or taller.
Seriously though there are a lot of incredible sculptors and artists out there that I curse daily because they are infinitely more talented than I am and I doubt that I’ll ever be able to give them a run for their money.

Just off the top of my head in no particular order and I’m sure I’m missing quite a few; Andy Bergholtz, Mark Newman, Ray Villafane, Brandon & Jarrod Shiflett, Jon Foster, Tim Bruckner, Travis Charest, Adi Granov, Alex Maleev, Randy Bowen , Tony Cipriano, William Paquet, Esad Ribic, Steve McNiven, Gary Meyer, Alex Ross, Ethan Van Sciver, Jim Shoop, Jean St. Jean, Jack Matthews, Michael Whelan, Rick Force, Erick Sosa, Sebastian Kruger, etc.

All these people make truly gorgeous work and keep setting the bar that guys like me have to jump over to get noticed.

7.Do you prefer working on something original or do you prefer working on something that’s already been established, an iconic character like Superman for example?

I like doing my own thing as much as the next guy but sometimes it can be a bit daunting being able to do anything you want with no guidelines. Coming up with completely original ideas is rather difficult because there’s so much stimulus around us that your thoughts can’t help but be colored by it all. I’ve got a few characters and story concepts in the works but right now they are totally on the back burner if for no other reason than right now working on my own stuff doesn’t pay the bills. Maybe one day but not right now.

However the whole idea of actually getting to work in an official capacity on established properties is still a total trip to me. It’s one thing to make a drawing of  Superman at home in your basement, but it’s another to have the folks at DC Comics sign off on that drawing and have it become part of the official collected history/mythology for the character. It’s an honor to know that people believe in you and your ability enough to want you to be a part of these iconic characters. I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to that and I don’t think it will ever get old.

So in the end I think I’ve kinda found a happy medium in working on established characters but trying to come up with my own thoughts and visions for them. I really hope to be able to do more of that in the future.

8.You are 33-years old; do you feel that you are at the point where you want to be right now?

I feel very lucky to be at this spot considering that I was coding time cards just 3 years ago. Just in the last year I’ve made some pretty significant strides career-wise so I’d have to be insane not be thrilled with where my career is going right now. I’m incredibly optimistic about what the future holds and I’m super eager to keep pushing myself and see where I am year from now.

9.Personal and career wise, what is your ultimate goal you would want to achieve?

I think my ultimate career goal is just to come up with an idea or character that can stand the test of time. A property that not only I can enjoy working on but something that gets others excited enough that they want pick it up and run with it also so that it just keeps going and going and going.  My only personal goals are just to make sure that my wife and I and our families our happy.

10.What is your opinion on digital versus traditional art?

I think each has its uses and at the end of the day neither one is better than the other. Whatever tools you feel comfortable using to get the work out of you are the ones you should use. I’ve always leaned more towards the traditional side myself but that’s just how my brain is wired and what I enjoy using to make my own art. The only real downside I can see to digital art is the fact that there’s no original and I really enjoy looking at original paintings.

11.What is your message to aspiring new artists?

Be serious and realistic about your goals and what it’s going to take to achieve them. Intend to work very long hours and understand that you never get to clock out at the end of the day. Your work isn’t done until the project is delivered and if that means you don’t get to sleep for 3-4 days in a row then so be it. Understand that not all criticism is equal and it should not all be weighted equally. It all depends on where it’s coming from. I’d rather take advice about how to fix my car from a certified mechanic, than some guy waiting at the bus stop.

In the end try to have a good time and enjoy what you do but still keep in the back of your mind that this is a job, a rather fun job, but still a job that needs to be taken seriously. There are only so many good gigs to go around and there are always new talented people popping up to compete with you for those spots. Keep pushing to get better and not only will better jobs come your way but the competition that can seriously handle those jobs will become fewer and far between. Hope that helps!

Walter, thank you!