Fall can be a bittersweet season. Even as we enjoy crisp air and changing leaves, the seasonally affected among us dread the shortening days. This year, there’s a long list of other anxieties: the spectre of nuclear threats from Putin, the impacts of climate change, and the way that extreme right-wing politicians endanger the U.S. electoral process, to name just a few. In his new cover, Adrian Tomine illustrates a worry that has never really gone away during the past few years, and that threatens to surge again as colder weather pushes us back indoors. I talked to the artist about how he focusses on subtle emotions to generate lasting images.
Is the cycle of the seasons in New York a pleasure for you, or do you miss your native California, with its temperate weather year-round?
Since I’m answering this question for The New Yorker, I’ll just say that I’ve come to really love the aesthetics of the changing seasons. Any other thoughts on this topic will be reserved for the East Bay Express.
Are you a flâneur, getting ideas from walking around the streets, or do you just go outside to run errands?
At some point in my youth, I wired my brain to always be on the lookout for ideas, no matter where I am or what I’m doing. So, yes—I do get ideas when I’m out walking around, even if the main purpose is to run errands. One of the great things about drawing covers for The New Yorker is that it’s changed my notion of what constitutes an “idea.” I used to always be looking for stories or characters or dialogue, and now I can just zero in on a moment or even a mood, and then try to figure out how to convey that on paper.
You’ve spent the past few years working on film adaptations of your stories. How did the experience compare with being a cartoonist alone with his drawing table?
It’s a lot less lonely! I’ve basically been working from home, by myself, since I was a kid; I really had no sense of what it was like to have co-workers or collaborators. But, to my total surprise, I’m really enjoying it. It can be terrifying and maddening, but I think that, over all, it’s been good for me to step outside my comfort zone and try something different. I did a cover about the movies a few years ago, called “Fourth Wall,” and now I’m having the experience of being on the other side of that window, which is sometimes hard to wrap my head around. But I should say that it also makes me appreciate the speed, efficiency, and economy of drawing. I submitted a rough version of this image only weeks ago and now it’s on the cover of the magazine, and that’s also pretty incredible.
See below for other covers by Tomine:
“Crossroads”
“Double Feature”
“Recognition”
Find Adrian Tomine’s covers, cartoons, and more at the Condé Nast Store.
Sourse: newyorker.com
