Tom Nardi
Dan Maloney 3:00 PM
Hey all, welcome to the Hack Chat. I'm Dan, I'll be muddling through the modding today with a big-old bandage on my finger, so apologies for the typos. Dusan is out there too, I think, maybe he can do better. Anyway, we've got a treat today -- our art director Joe Kim is joining us to talk about how he makes the excellent art you see on our original content stories and elsewhere!
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Dusan Petrovic 3:00 PM
Hi Dan!
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Dusan Petrovic 3:00 PM
Welcome evryone!
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Dan Maloney 3:01 PM
Joe, thanks so much for joining us today. What's the back story on your road to Hackaday?
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Joe Kim 3:01 PM
Hi Dan! Hi Dusan! Hello everyone!
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Nicolas Tremblay 3:01 PM
First, Congrats @Joe Kim, Hackaday always had the best art
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hyperific 3:01 PM
Hey all! Thanks Dan for setting this up and thanks Joe for chatting with us!
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Joe Kim 3:02 PM
Thanks everyone for having me today
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Joe Kim 3:03 PM
Awhile back a friend of mine at Supplyframe asked if I was available to create some art work for shirts and they felt like my style fit pretty well with where Hackaday was. So they asked if I could do some art work for the articles and after a year of doing some freelance with Hackaday they asked me to come on board full time. And I'm still here churning out the art!
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Joe Kim 3:05 PM
Over the years I've gotten alot of kind words left on the articles, so I just wanted to say thanks for all the comments! I really feel lucky to be a part of this community.
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Will Kalman 3:05 PM
How long has it been?
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Joe Kim 3:05 PM
I've been the art director now for about 8 years
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Dan Maloney 3:06 PM
Was art something you went to school for or did you just sort of dabble in drawing and build on it?
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Joe Kim 3:07 PM
I went to art school focusing on illustration. I was doing some video game and packaging art work before I joined Hackaday.
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Will Kalman 3:07 PM
Any notable games/packaging or ones we might recognize?
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Joe Kim 3:09 PM
Eh the video game stuff was mainly mobile games that have come and gone. There was some Disney toys that kind of fell by the wayside too, so in other words no one has probably seen them haha.
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hyperific 3:09 PM
What's your process like? How long does it typically take you to come up with a finished illustration?
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Joe Kim 3:12 PM
So the timeline for the articles is pretty short. We have a calendar where requests for art work are posted. They'll give me a short version of the article and kind of break it down for me since a lot of times the information goes beyond my understanding. From there I'll either do a short sketch on paper or go straight to the computer and paint it up on Photoshop. They'll usually be done within a day or two.
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hyperific 3:12 PM
Wow that's quick!
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Nicolas Tremblay 3:12 PM
how many a day do you do on average?
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Tom Nardi 3:12 PM
When I first started writing for Hackaday, I figured it would take Joe like a week to turn around a piece of original art once we put in the request. I'm continually amazed how fast the process really is.
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Joe Kim 3:12 PM
As far as things for contests or event posters I'll have about a week and try to come up with something clever based on the theme.
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hyperific 3:13 PM
What are some of your favorite pieces?
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Joe Kim 3:14 PM
The amount I do on a day vary based on the number of requests or if there something else I need to work on I can stretch them out throughout the week.
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Joe Kim 3:14 PM
But its usually only one or two.
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Tom Nardi 3:15 PM
I also want to say that from the writer's perspective, Joe always nails the intent. Even with the limited information we are able to give him (the articles generally aren't written yet when we make the request), the finished piece is always right on target. It's really an incredible talent (if that wasn't already obvious)
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Joe Kim 3:15 PM
Favorite pieces...I've done so many now I can't really keep them all in my head...
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Joe Kim 3:16 PM
Tesla v Edison, Churchill's MD-1, there was a Hackaday Omnibus cover that had this Mad Max type thing I thought was fun...
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Joe Kim 3:17 PM
There are some I really like the drawing and some I liked more for the idea
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hyperific 3:17 PM
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Joe Kim 3:17 PM
Yep thats the one!
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Dan Maloney 3:19 PM
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Dan Maloney 3:20 PM
Loved this one enough to have it printed up poster size for my office wall
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Joe Kim 3:20 PM
Anytime I can throw Star Wars in the mix its always fun
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Dan Maloney 3:20 PM
https://hackaday.com/2018/11/08/the-dual-in-line-package-and-how-it-got-that-way/
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Tom Nardi 3:21 PM
That one is currently my desktop background
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hyperific 3:21 PM
Is there a hackaday art gallery somewhere? I want posters too!
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Joe Kim 3:22 PM
https://hackaday.com/2016/02/19/variable-instruction-computing-what-is-old-is-new-again/
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Joe Kim 3:22 PM
I always liked this one because I hid the Hackday logo in the door way
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Joe Kim 3:24 PM
https://hackaday.com/2016/06/22/a-hackers-guide-to-getting-old/
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Joe Kim 3:24 PM
I always thought this one was fun because I got to play with this style
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Dan Maloney 3:24 PM
When you do art for biographical articles and you render a photograph of the person, how's that done? Do you import the photograph and sort of trace from it?
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Dan Maloney 3:24 PM
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hyperific 3:24 PM
Looks like a frame from a 50's era industrial education film.
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Dan Maloney 3:25 PM
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Dan Maloney 3:26 PM
But now that I look at them side by side, it seems more like you worked by eye, not somehow transformed the photograph into the artwork. IOW, I see your style in the art, if that makes sense
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Joe Kim 3:27 PM
So for the bios since time is tight I'll trace a photo on Photoshop so I get the likeness down then paint the rest according to what I designed for the rest of the illustration. So even though I drew it right on top of the photograph, since the rendering is done on my own thought it'll be different than the actual photo.
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Joe Kim 3:29 PM
I'm usually using a wider brush when doing those portraits so it simplifies everything which pushes it further than the original photo as well.
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Dan Maloney 3:29 PM
Yeah, I can def see the differences
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Will Kalman 3:30 PM
What is your personally favorite art subjects? Landscapes, still life, people, animals? And are there other mediums you enjoy or prefer other than digital?
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Dan Maloney 3:30 PM
And the coaxial able cross-section as a background on that one was brilliant. So subtle I didn't notice it at first
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Joe Kim 3:34 PM
So I'm a big movie guy, and something I've been working on lately is creating alternative movie posters of films that I love or inspire me. I like painting people, I like creating stories in a frame. Now days mostly everything I do is digital, I do miss traditional medium but the clean up and set up takes so much time. With AI showing up in art I have had a strong motivation to start going back to acrylic paints once again since (for now) its something that can't be done by the computer which I think is reigniting people's want for tangible art.
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Joe Kim 3:34 PM
You can find some examples of non Hackaday art on my website
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Joe Kim 3:34 PM
joekimart.com
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Joe Kim 3:35 PM
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Joe Kim 3:36 PM
I think this is the first thing I did for Hackaday
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Joe Kim 3:36 PM
First time I drew the Hackaday robot guy, probably about 9 years ago!
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Will Kalman 3:37 PM
Thats got GameFan "Monitaur Man" vibes! (I used to work for GameFan's publisher)
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Joe Kim 3:38 PM
Nice!
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Dan Maloney 3:39 PM
Hacker Bot reminds me: In voice acting, it's not just about making a funny voice but developing a character. It almost seems like you take the same approach with your illustrations by creating certain characters that appear over and over. Am I right about that?
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Joe Kim 3:40 PM
There are some characters that do reappear, I feel like honorary members of the Hackaday community.
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Joe Kim 3:41 PM
Definitely the Hackaday robot I took on as a mascot
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Dan Maloney 3:45 PM
Loved your use of Marvin the Martian for some of the Ingenuity and Perseverance pieces too
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Joe Kim 3:46 PM
Anytime theres a Mars article, I always get the urge to put him in there since I grew up in the 80s and 90s
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Joe Kim 3:46 PM
I have to refrain myself at times
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Dan Maloney 3:47 PM
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john dewitt 3:48 PM
Thanks Joe for illustrating science stuff a lot!
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Joe Kim 3:48 PM
I think I've only been told one time that the work I created might not fit for the article...I'm trying to look for it but the archive is sometimes too hard to go through
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Joe Kim 3:48 PM
Thanks John!
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Joe Kim 3:49 PM
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Joe Kim 3:49 PM
Haha Found it!
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Joe Kim 3:50 PM
I think I got a little too weird, but they repurposed it for something else.
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Dan Maloney 3:52 PM
In almost nine years of doing this, I can count on one hand the number of times I've seen art and didn't say, "Yep, he nailed it again."
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Joe Kim 3:53 PM
Thanks Dan, I think all the organizing that Mike Szczys and now Elliot put towards the articles really helps in that.
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Tom Nardi 3:53 PM
Forgive my art ignorance, but is there a specific term that you would say describes your work? Like sometimes it's almost photo realistic, and then others is obviously much more whimsical.
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Dan Maloney 3:54 PM
What's your hardware setup like? I meant to drop by your desk back in 2019 during Supercon to see what I imagined to be a huge monitor or two and some kind of digitizing tablet. Anything else that makes your work easier/possible?
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Joe Kim 3:56 PM
As far as style, I'm not sure what to call it. Some sort of hodge podge of comic or graphic art. One of the things I really enjoy is the freedom I'm allowed to explore how I express the articles visually. Change it to what I feel is appropriate. It's a freedom I'm really lucky to have here as a creative.
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Joe Kim 3:57 PM
My workset up is an iMac and a 22" Cintiq. A Cintiq is a screen you draw straight on unlike having a tablet thats laying flat in front of a separate screen.
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Joe Kim 3:59 PM
I'm the only one in the office that has that unique set up so everyones pretty curious about it when they walk by.
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Dan Maloney 3:59 PM
So it's like a canvas on an easel? Neat!
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Joe Kim 3:59 PM
Yep!
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Dan Maloney 4:00 PM
Woah -- pricey
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Dan Maloney 4:00 PM
https://estore.wacom.com/en-us/wacom-cintiq-22-dtk2260k0a.html?country_code=US
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john dewitt 4:00 PM
may i ask, have you ever tried "tilt brush" or other vr drawing stuff?
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Joe Kim 4:02 PM
I have tried it once, someone brought in their set up into the office. I was pretty terrible at it! I'm sure if I had a little more time to adjust my 2D brain into 3D I might fair better, but it was pretty interesting
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john dewitt 4:03 PM
thanks, yeah having a 2d surface to constrain motion seems quite fundamental to drawing
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Joe Kim 4:03 PM
Yeah the Cintiq's aren't cheap! But traditional paints aren't cheap either after you start burning through them
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Dan Maloney 4:04 PM
Briefly remembers the smell of paint and linseed oil from my mom's oil painting days...
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Joe Kim 4:05 PM
Yes the fumes...seared in my brain as well from my art school days
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Dan Maloney 4:07 PM
Joe, this has been fantastic, I really appreciate your time but I want to be respectful and let you get back to work. Thanks so much for the insight into your process and the glimpse behind the scenes. And thanks to everyone for the great questions!
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Joe Kim 4:07 PM
It's been fun, thanks for all the questions and compliments everyone!
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Will Kalman 4:07 PM
Thanks Hackaday and Joe!
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Dan Maloney 4:08 PM
Thanks all! Transcript coming up, but it might take a while with all the images. Totally worth it, though ;-)
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