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JAMIE MURRAY
Artist
Links to Jamie’s artwork online:
Marina's Beauty and the Beast Site
Songs of the Bluebird: the Painted Tunnels
Beauty and the Beast, A Classic (archived)
Tell us a little bit about yourself and your interests in general.
Hmmm... gonna keep this simple, eh? I could write a book on this one
question alone – but I’m not a writer, that’s why I got into photography and painting!
Okay,
born in ‘51 in
Your art, your
friendship and your “alter-ego” Myhr are the reasons that you are famous in the
B&B world.
“Famous”???
Let’s talk a little of your art first. How
long have you been drawing/painting? If you started when you were a
child/teenager, do you still have some of your work from that time? Did you
share it with your friends then?
I’ve
been drawing since I was a little kid but didn’t start illustrating with an
airbrush until I was 41. I have a few sketches I did throughout the years and
my mom saved a bunch from when I was a kid. But art, for me, was a just
diversion, not a passion, so I never put a lot of importance on it –- enough
importance to save schtuff.
Who most
influenced and/or encouraged your talent? What training have you had for
techniques in art, and where, if it was formal training - or are you
self-taught, working from instinct?
Most
everything I’ve done has been self-taught, which can be very frustrating for
someone with ADD {attention deficit}... but I never had patience with teachers
and structured education. I’ve learned best by hanging around talented people
and “absorbing” their knowledge and techniques. Keith Birdsong, who did most of
the STAR TREK book covers taught me the most about painting and Greg Punchatz taught me the most about sculpting and makeup
effects {coincidentally, Greg learned his craft while working with Rick Baker,
and his first job was on “Beauty & the Beast!}
Although you made
a lot of beautiful B&B art, you are not a fan.
Well,
I enjoyed the show when it aired, but I didn’t get into the details as a fan
would. I work in television, so to me it was just a well-done program.
How did you meet
the Beauty and the Beast fandom, and why did you feel the need to create
B&B art?
If
you’ve ever been to a general scifi convention, you know there’s a lot of
fandom crossover – STAR TREK fans like STAR WARS, BatB fans like X-FILES, etc.
In
‘93 I was a guest at an international STAR TREK con and there were some BatB
fans there. They came up to me and said that my “beast” character would fit in
nicely in the BatB world, and, “by the way, there’s going to be a BatB con
nearby in the next few weeks, you should go...” I had a free weekend and, at
the time was trying to do as many con artshows as possible, so I went to the
‘93 con in
Care to expound a
little about the technique you used for your B&B art? What is it, and what
problems have you encountered using it?
Since
I grew up with a pencil in hand, I stayed away from traditional painting. Then,
in ‘92 I was a guest at a Star Trek con and the artist GOH was Keith Birdsong.
I was fascinated by what he was doing {photorealistic portraits}, so I learned
as much as I could. A few weeks later I bought an airbrush and paint!
Since
Keith was cranking out sooooooo many STAR TREK book covers each month, he had
to come up with a quick and simple technique – since it suited my short
attention span, I picked it up quickly! Handling an airbrush is similar to
handling a pencil; it’s just laying down color instead of graphite.
Basically,
you find suitable photo references {and being a photographer, I was able to
shoot my own}, sketch your layout, transfer it to paper, and then color in the
lines with the airbrush. Simple!
How long does it
take for an idea to become a finished painting?
Like
writing a book or composing music, some days the ideas would flow and some days
they would get blocked up!
In
general, I would spend one evening sketching the layout, an evening laying down
color, and another evening detailing – and if there were multiple figures in
the painting, add another evening for each figure or a detailed background {now
remember, I was working full-time in television and working part-time in a
video store, so painting time was limited to a few hours each evening and
weekends}. For example, a simple portrait of just Vincent, with a simple
background, would take about 8 hours.
How did you choose
the B&B subjects in your art?
The
same way I would pick a subject for any piece I did, be it BatB, science
fiction, or a personal portrait of a model I had photographed – I would flip
through reference photos quickly, just glancing, not looking, and suddenly I’d
look at one and I’d “see” a finished painting.
Rarely
would I come up with an idea first and try to make a reference fit it {except
for “the B-Files”. I always felt a beast character living with people
underground fit into the X-Files world and I knew I had to do a crossover
piece!}.
Your portraits of
the main characters of B&B are stunning. Do you use photographs or TV
screen shots to help you or do you do them all from your imagination?
Nah,
I’m a copy hack, always using reference photos... if you’re doing portraits of
recognizable figures, you HAVE to use reference. Unfortunately, it’s only been
the last few years that high quality screen grabs could be done with enough
detail to use as reference, so I had to scour magazines and such for pics to use.
Did you have one
or several favorite subjects or moments in the characters' lives or feelings
you found inspiring?
Nope,
I was just creating images, placed in situations dictated by the reference
materials at hand.
Does personal
experience ever provide inspiration for a piece of art? Have the images in your
art ever been a reflection of yourself or someone you know? If
so, to what extent?
Everything
you do in life is influenced by who you are, what
you’ve experienced in your lifetime. But I never felt the need to tell “my”
story, like a songwriter or poet... if something personal wound up in a
painting, it was just a happy accident!
Is there any
particular drawing, etc. that you had an unusual amount of trouble getting the
way you wanted it and how did you resolve that problem? Or, on the contrary,
were any especially easy and satisfactory?
Every
artist will have moments where things aren’t going right. That’s when you put
down the brush, walk away, and clear your head. But any real problems I had
were technical... the character problems are worked out in the layout phase.
Linda
Hamilton has a stunning, unique face, and it’s very hard to get it right.
Patrick Stewart of STAR TREK also has a unique bone structure that’s hard to
get right. But you work all that out in sketches before you start work on
laying color.
Some
paintings might not “click” in my brain 100%, so things move at a slow pace, or
develop completely different than how it was originally envisioned... then
there are other pieces that just have that “spark” and everything falls into
place magically – “Twins at Birth?” was
like that. No matter where I went as Myhr, there were people who thought I was
trying to do Vincent. I couldn’t explain the differences as well as I could
paint the differences, so I did a portrait of the two together. It was such a
fun concept, that I was chuckling as I painted it. It flowed out onto the
paper... it was the quickest painting I’d ever done – all together, it probably
took 8 hours {a normal paint time would be double that}.
If you could
change one thing about your work habits, style, etc, what would it be?
I’m
a huge procrastinator. :(
As for style, I don’t paint anymore, so
it’s a moot point. But I always wanted to simplify my style. I’m a big fan of
Drew Struzan {he does movie posters –
You, as well as
the other guest authors we are interviewing, have allowed your work to be
posted online for the enjoyment of all B&B fans. Why did you decide to do
it?
There
were people posting my schtuff online without permission, and lots of times it
looked bad, so I figured if it was going to be online, I might as well have
some control of the quality.
How did you/do you choose the sites to have your art
posted?
Again,
it boiled down to quality presentation. If my work looked bad online, viewers
who hadn’t seen the work before might think that it was painted poorly.
What do you like
to hear about your art?
Good constructive criticism. That’s how an
artist improves. Well, that, and “practice, practice, practice”!
What do you
consider the greatest compliment you've received?
When
I heard that the portrait I did of Roy Dotrice {“Father”} was his wife’s
favorite, and she had it hanging with other priceless works of art!
Did you ever get a
review that really touched you?
Not yet.
Which of your
B&B works do you like best, and why?
That’s
like asking which child of yours is your favorite. I like all for different
reasons.
If you were forced
to pick one of your art works as a favorite, what would it be?
Probably
“Incessant Longing” … it came at a special time in my life, the person in it is
very special, and ten years later, it’s one of the few I did where I can step
back and say “damn, I did that?” It even made it’s why into the first book
cover I did {“His Father’s Son”, by Nigel Bennet
& P.N. Elrod, BAEN BOOKS}
Who are some other
B&B artists whose work you particularly enjoy? Is there a piece of B&B
art you especially remember and like?
Oh no you don’t... you tryin’ to get me mugged?? I pick one and all the others will gang up on
me! There are a lot of talented people out there... :)
Is there any advice
you would give to beginners?
Don’t
get bummed out if someone doesn’t like your work. That’s just one opinion, and
you won’t be able to please everyone. Take the criticism and use it
constructively.
Do you presently
produce work for any other fandoms besides B&B? Are you or have you been
involved with any other fandoms in the same way?
Presently, no. I’ve been out of fandom since 2001. But for
the dozen years that I WAS involved, I did all kinds of cons – Star Trek,
general scifi/fantasy, Xena... but I never got as close to the fans as I did
with the BatB family.
You have been a friend of the fandom for a long time, often attending the conventions. How did
you enjoy being there, and seeing your art being displayed and auctioned and cherished by the fans?
It was always a thrill to see people get excited about something I’d done... but it was also a lot of work {remember, this was something I squeezed into my normal workaday life when I could}, and there were some bad times along with the good. Eventually, it got to the point where the bad was outweighing the good, and I felt it was time to move on.
So, although this is an interview about your art, we cannot forget your alter ego and special friend of the fandom, Myhr. Care to briefly explain how Myhr was born and got his name, and how he entered the B&B fandom, for the few new fans who are still unaware?
I
started playing with makeup effects back in the mid-80s and created a lion man
character for Halloween {based on the old “
Since I work in television, we used the
character to host STAR TREK marathons on our station. One of the
producer/directors had come up with the name, a derivation of my last name,
Local
Star Trek fans invited me to appear at local Trek cons and it took off from
there. BatB fans were at a big Trek con and told me I HAD to go to the next
BatB con... since I had the weekend free, I went to the ‘93 con in Austin, a 3
hour drive away. Myhr fit in and immediately got adopted by the BatB fans, and
was asked to appear at the annual BatB cons.
Would you tell us
something about the books written on him, and give us titles and sources for
ordering?
I
guested at a lot of scifi/fantasy cons with a vampire
novelist named P.N. Elrod. Over the years we got to be friends, and she always
“threatened” to write a novel about Myhr.
To test the waters, she wrote a short story that appeared in an
anthology {“ASSASSIN FANTASTIC”, Daw Books}, got
great response, so expanded the short story into a novel {“The Adventures of
Myhr”, BAEN BOOKS}. Within 9 months of release, it was out of print {I believe
it can still be ordered directly from http://www.baen.com/but no one else has copies.} Elrod is
currently working on a second Myhr novel.
Do you still have
either your first B&B creation or your first published B&B work?
“Soul Mates” is the first piece I did
for BatB fandom.
Winterfest Online, January 2005