Von Glitschka: The Making of an Illustrative Designer

- [Announcer] This is an audio course. No need to watch, just listen. Welcome to the latest edition to LinkedIn Learning Podcasts. We've curated some of the best creative podcasts and made them even easier to listen to. Each episode is split into sections. Use the links in the contents area to skip to whichever section you like. We're always looking for new ways to help you learn and we'd appreciate your feedback. Thanks for listening. (inspiring music) - [Interviewer] Take me back, do you remember the first time you realized that you really liked drawing or like did you have something that you drew a lot of? - [Man] Growing up, I remember sittin'. When the Star Wars came out, you know, I was still in about I think I was sixth grade at that point but I would listen to the Star Wars Talking Record, which is just the dialogue for the whole movie and just draw pictures. You know, me and my friend, sittin' on our floor drawin' pictures, listenin' to that. - [Interviewer] What were the sorts of things you drew 'cause I love drawing the Millennium Falcon. What did you draw? - [Man] It'd be Darth Vader. Yeah, so like in sixth grade, like halfway through sixth grade, I was known for drawing Darth Vader in seven seconds. - [Interviewer] Really? - [Man] Yeah, and then there's this friend of mine, Brett. He had seen the Star Wars movie like, mind you, no video at that time or anything online, and he went and saw the movie like 40-some times. So yeah, and he drew all the time too but he was one of those kids that pushed way too hard with the pencil. So it was like super, like it almost embosses the drawing on the paper. But he could draw TIE fighters really good. But yeah, it was Darth Vader I always drew. Before that it was always Japanese TV when I was really young was just starting to push their cartoons on the American audience. So Speed Racer was one I really liked and Marine Boy, which is another somewhat obscure one. When I was in middle school, it was Star Blazers. And so I always drew those because I liked 'em. But growing up, I remember a neighborhood kid. His dad subscribed to MAD Magazine and then he would give his old ones to his son. - [Interviewer] Classics. - [Man] And then his son shared one with me and I was just enthralled by it. I mean, it had art all in it. And I'd read it and the humor cracked me up but it was all subversive and my parents hated it. And so I'd tell my mom, "Hey, can you get me MAD Magazine?" "No, I'm not buying that. "You don't need to be reading that stuff, it's trash." And so I would use my allowance and go down and buy MAD Magazine and just hide it so my parents wouldn't see it. - [Interviewer] Fantastic. - [Man] Yeah, that had a huge influence on me. Sergio Aragones is one of artists. - [Interviewer] Was he the Spy vs. Spy artist too? - [Man] No, he's the one that would draw in the margins all the little battle scenes going on and stuff. I just loved his artwork. So that was a big influence on me, just to show me that, wow, there's people out there who are making money doing artwork. But the first time I kind of locked in and kind of comprehended that there's art can be used for a commercial purpose was my dad had just bought a new product to polish his car or whatever. It was Armor All. And it was right when it came out and it had that cool little Viking dude on it. (steam train stopping) So when I went outside, I was just watching my dad. I picked up the bottle and I'm looking at it. I go, "That's a cool Viking guy." And then I was kind of thinkin', "Okay, so somebody's "doing some kind of artwork and I wonder about that." That's when I first ever really thought about it from that kind of context. And then I just knew I didn't want to go to college and do college-level math. So when the art college visited our high school that was very attractive to me. So that's how I ended up going to it was the Burnley School of Art when I went to it. And then they got bought out by the Art Institute and kind of morphed over the two years I was there.