Artist Spotlight: Sean Martin

Artist Name:
Sean Martin
 
Artist Gallery:
http://www.renderotica.com/artists/sean-martin/Gallery
 
1) what brought you into 3D?
I used to draw by hand, but a rodeo accident completely wrecked one wrist and shattered the other. Now, even though both hands "work", holding a pencil is a bit of a challenge..... :-)
 
2) How did you choose your nickname?
Well, it's not really a nickname. It;s just my own. I never really understood the reason to hide behind a handle — at least not for myself — so I'm just sorta... well, out there. I've actually had a few possible illustration clients find some of my stuff on places like deviantart and respond with... "You ever thought about using a pen name for some of this stuff?" :-) Well, no, because it's all me.
 
3) How long have you been creating your artwork?
In 3D, about a decade and a bit. But I started drawing when I was perhaps five or six. I always wanted to be an artist or an illustrator, but growing up on a working cattle ranch, that's not exactly something you get with family approval. :-) So I really came to this late in life, but I"m making up for lost time.
 
4) Where do you draw your inspirations from?
For my cartoon strip, either my friend's adventures or just by reading the news. Let's face it: lots of wackiness going on out there in the political world, and plenty of cartoon fodder, especially when you distill it through Canadian eyes. Not that we dont have our own political drama, you understand: we just keep it within our own borders as much as possible. For my MMA/boxing/wrestling work here, lots of personal experience (yes, I do indeed engage in this kind of stuff) as well as the fantasies of some of my fetish-buddies.
 
5) what are the specs of your render machine?
I use a MacBook Pro, running 10.6, hooked up to a 32" monitor. Beyond that, I have no idea. I turn it on and it works, and that's pretty much all I ask of it. (For someone so into computer-based illustration, I can be such a Luddite sometimes.)
 
6) Poser or Daz Studio and why?
Poser. Just easier for me to use, I guess, since I've been with it since vers. 4. I've tried working with DS, but I just cant get the hang of it.
 
7) What renderer do you use?
Poser Firefly, for the most part. I havent really felt the need just yet to experiement beyond that, although Reality is looking really tempting.
 
8) what is your favorite work you’ve created?
Currently, the Doc and Raider image attached. For a long time, the CG versions of the guys were cute and somewhat bland, which is a bit ironic since the handdrawn versions were much more "masculine", more "leathery", and a bit more bearish. The new design, rolled out last year with this promo, is returning them to those roots, and this particular image sums them up beautifully. They're a lot harder to work with. but the final results make it worthwhile. For those interested, the guys are a heavily modified Kyle1.5 from RDNA, and I could not do without Wardrobe Wizard.


 
9) Is there any image you’ve made that you wish you didn’t? why?
Not really. There are some that I look at and think, "Good lord, Sean, what drugs were you on that night?" Bad composition, poor lighting, even worse posing... but I dont wish I hadnt done it. The bad ones are good for learning and improving... and sometimes for a self-directed laugh online: "Hey, look what I did when I was stoned out of my mind at 2AM! ISNT THIS HOT???"
 
10) How did you decide to start a 3D comic strip?
My mid-40s. The hand drawn version started about a decade prior.
 
11) You recently hit your 3,000 comic, tell us about the highs and lows of the first 3,000 strips.
Oh man... the highs come when you put something out there that really catches fire: the humour is right, the presentation is right, everything works, and people respond like crazy to it. The lows? When the opposite seems true, when you've worked on something and it just falls flat. I've found my work tends to be pretty densely done sometimes: dense layouts, dense writing, dense concepts, and the internet generation doesnt want to wade through all that. So I use that approach somewhat sparingly, like the Grand Climax (so to speak) of a particular storyline. And arguably the biggest high came when the National Archives of Canada and the Pride Archives at the University of Western Ontario both asked to house my work upon my passing. For someone who's an immigrant to the Great White North, that just fills me with all kinds of warm fuzzies...
 
12) Out of all the various art mediums why 3D?
Only one I can utilize at the moment. I wish I could draw by hand or paint or sculpt, but it's just not physically possible. But then the upside is that I can create images — hell, entire worlds — that are jam-packed with detail not possible in hand-created work, not witout spending a few months in the process.
 
13) What are your plans for the future?
Animation for one thing. Possibly making the boys available for mainstream commercial use, since the timing seems right for that. Beyond that, just keep doing what I do best. In terms of the erotic work I do here, I want to eventually collect my fight/wrestling images into a printed book; I've been asked for that, but I dont quite have enough content for it yet.
 
14) who are your favorite artists other than yourself?
Humon at Deviant Art. What that woman can do with the simplest of lines is downright amazing. Oglaf, for the way they (I understand it's a team) utilize colour and expression. My favourite artist/vendor would be 1971s, from whom I've purchased almost everything he/she has done, although I have yet to really figure out how to use such stylized and whimsical stuff. It's a very unique vision, and because of its uniqueness, an inspiring one.
 
15) If someone reading this wants to start creating their own artwork what words of advice would you give them?
Practice. A lot. Create a lot of stuff, even if it's mostly shit and you never show it to anyone. I decided a long time ago that creating art is like going to the gym. You have to do it on a regular basis if you ever want to make any gains, and if you stop because of crippling self-doubt, you lose whatever gains you may have made. Just push and push and push a bit more.
 
And go out into the world and look around. STEP AWAY FROM THE COMPUTER. The internet, as wonderful as it is, limits your vision. The real world explodes it.
 
16) Do you have a job outside of 3D or do you consider this your full time occupation?
I design high-end trade show displays: people wasting a lot of money on something that's only up for a few days. There's a lesson there, if one looks closely enough. (And note: just because the client is spending a lot of cash on something doesnt mean I'm making a lot of cash. Were that it true, but I'm pretty middle-class. LOL)
 
17) Speech time! any final words you have for your, fans and fellow 3D community?
There are so many things I find ironic and almost borderline hypocritical within our overall Poser/Studio community that it's made me a bit of an outcast in most places. Rotica is, truth be told, one of the very few where I have felt comfortable presenting not only my artwork, as uniquely fetish as it might be, but also my take on things in general on the discussion boards, with no fear of being slammed for any of them, and I cannot tell you how much that means to me as an artist as well as a human being.
 
Never, ever think you're too old for anything. I'm grazing up against sixty, and I can still bench press 340 and wring a submission out of you in 47 seconds. Yes, I know my mortality is looming, but I plan on going out with a to-do list four pages long.
 
I also want to thank Mamma and God and my agent and — (hook appears from offstage and drags speaker screaming into the wings..........)