The first thing that strikes me when I look at the portfolio of Robert Ball is the colour. It’s an assault on the senses in the best possible way - bold, bright and balanced. Then it’s the compositions - with all those alliterated superlatives applied again, and more. They are clever, graphic, super-stylish pieces from a master of the trade. You may know him from his covers for the Fighting Fantasy series, or more recently his amazing Game of Thrones work for HBO. He is also, as you’ll discover from his answers (and, indeed, his twitter), a lightning-fast wit and generally wise and very sound guy. I’m delighted he agreed to be the third participant in the Dreaming For A Living series…
So, without further ado:
In a parallel universe, what's your alternative, non-creative, career?
I don't believe in non-creative careers, creativity is a word used by people who can't describe what they do to justify their invoices. Everything is creative, it's the human condition. Sorry, that sounds like I'm telling you off, it's just a pet hate of mine.
Pangs of regret and jealousy have receded as I've got older. I used to tell myself I would have liked to have made films, but this is an illusory career where I'm a wild success, rather than making corporate videos for P&O ferries. For example. I don't have anything against P&O ferries or their videos which I'm sure are masterclasses in pacing and tension.
Now I think it's all the same thing whether you make images, films, music or whatever - there's a basic urge to communicate, or basic need to try and control and make sense of the world that underlies it all. I have a theory that Illustrators are inverted extroverts, I was a very shy kid, so my way of showing off isn't in performance but making a proxy performer, an image, instead. We're all cowards!
Money is no object for a year - what do you create?
Honestly? Nothing. I need the constant fear factor of an impending deadline to compel me to action. If you were able to organise some thumbscrews or rustle up a hot poker as 'motivation' I would like to create a pictorial Encyclopedia of English folk tales. English sounds a bit Brexitty doesn't it? British. Is that better or worse? British and Irish. Let's go with that. Ireland has all the best folk tales anyway.
Other projects are a series of graphic stories (sorry I'll take the plum out of my mouth) I mean short comics, from the perspective of mythological beasts. Medusa was minding her own business when old Perseus hoiks up with his polished mirror given to him by the gods and, stopping only to kill her two-headed dog, chops her head clean off because he's got the horn for Andromeda. The most interesting person in this story is the one with the hair made out of snakes, patently so a story about her. And the Minotaur. And each one of the Hydra's heads. That would take forever.
Another thing I'd like to do is make a How To Draw book, I'm addicted to them, because like everyone I'm looking for the 'magic' pen. I have a problem with the Isn't-Drawing-Fun! tone of them, however, as the artist tells you that a horse is just a couple of spheres balanced on four drinking straws (or whatever) before rendering it in beautiful detail - showing off basically - and crushing your dreams as your horse turns out like a big dog like always. I would compile a book of failures and rubbish drawings, and most importantly document how the artists got through the failures, because that's what it's like in reality. It would be a How-Not-To-Draw book.
You get to collaborate with any artist in any medium - who is it?
When I was a kid I saw an Arena documentary about Gerald Scarfe. I think it might have been a formative influence as it raised the possibility that an artistic career was out there. Anyway, it went through his life as a hospitalised child, commercial artist making adverts for detergent, through taking the piss out of President Nixon to working with Pink Floyd on 'The Wall'. Later he got into creating sets for the opera, which I thought was a complete waste of his talents when I was a kid. Now I just think how magic would it be to create sets for an opera? There's something so extreme and visceral about the format you couldn't be fucking about, you would really have to go for it. So, that. Opera sets. Why not. And I might be able to afford a ticket with the discount.
You feel in a rut with your work - what do you do?
I think work is mostly rut, so the first step of dealing with it is realising that it's the natural state of things. In my experience it's fleeting and you can go from rut to elation in the course of a day and back again, sometimes in the course of a few seconds. I'm a combination of a praise monkey and my own worst critic (technically my own best critic) so sending a rough and having it accepted by a client is a stomach churning experience that never really gets any easier - I often open client feedback with an expression like I'm cutting wires on a timed explosive device, a proper Hurt Locker face. In reality bad feedback is never that bad, the worst situations I get myself into are when I ignore problems instead of nipping them in the bud which can lead a creeping sense of dread and a sickly feeling like trying to sleep in a boat.
How do you cope with the ups & downs of a freelance creative life?
The difficulty is you can only see the ups and downs in your rear view mirror. If I'm having a 'quiet' few weeks I fret at my desk and don't get anything done, whereas if I knew in advance I could get myself organised to work on some personal bits and pieces. And still not get anything done, obviously, but I'd have a nice colour coded calendar on the go and proper sharpened pencils - sharpened with a scalpel like a proper artist.
How do you balance the tearaway artist side of you with the practical business side?
I'm not very tearaway. If I feel like experiencing life on the edge little I'll buy some full-fat milk.
If I didn't have an agent I'd probably be homeless, it's a marvel I can get my trousers on the right way round. Sometimes. My agents handle all the money side of things, and negotiate up - I would definitely haggle to a point where I'm paying to work. They are also there if things get really hectic and will push back/be the bad cops.
© Robert Ball 2020
Our social feeds are filled with the creative work of others - inspiring or occasionally soul-sapping?
Sometimes soul-sapping, when it feels like someone got to where you thought you were going before you - but that's an illusion. Mostly inspiring, I love seeing what people are up to - I've got to know a few artists, and sometimes my heroes - through social media and what's fascinating is how broad those artists' influences and interests are. I always thought that the way people draw represents what they like to see but that isn't true at all.
Is drawing still fun for you?
Yeah it's the best and the worst.
Time to skill-up - new tech or traditional?
It's all the same to me, I can't bear dogmatism on either side. I can't walk out of an art shop, or a cake shop for that matter without buying something. Art shops are my favourite places in the world - full of whispering, shiny, future disappointments.
© Robert Ball 2020
What is/are the project(s) your young-self would love to see you doing?
I think I would be agog that I ended up being an illustrator at all and it's been a very long road (I started when I was 39). There's been a few things along the way - I did a Penguin cover, which felt surreal, as did making images for the Fighting Fantasy series of books which I grew up reading. My younger self's mind would be blown, both by the way my life has turned out and also trying to compute how to exploit the fiscal possibilities of communicating through time.
One bit of professional advice for you ten years ago:
Ten years isn't long enough! Give me twenty years and I would tell myself the same thing I have to tell myself now: don't be too hard on yourself.
One bit of professional advice for you in ten years:
Get your hair cut.
Thank you so much Robert for taking the time and providing such amazing answers!
You can follow Robert’s work on Twitter & Instagram
Be sure to check out the previous DFAL instalments with Peter Diamond & Jeffrey Alan Love