Artist Spotlight: Daren Thomas Magee

How did you get started with your illustration career?

I tell my story of how I got started in the first episode of my podcast.

If you don’t have time for that, here’s the 13 second version: I worked shitty (non-creative) jobs for all of my adult life. One day I decided I was going to draw something new everyday as a means of bringing a consistent, creative practice into my life. I started sharing my illustrations on instagram, people saw that I was drawing and then wanted me to draw things for them, for money.

Did you go to school for art?

I just barely graduated from high school. I was afforded an amazing opportunity in my junior and senior year to take a graphic design course where I learned the basics of photoshop and illustrator which planted an early seed that didn’t really fully blossom until over 20 years later. After high school I didn’t pursue any higher learning, I just got right into the work force, never once considering that I could create art for a living. Since then I have taught myself how to use the tools that I learned the basics of all those years ago. I now have a bachelor’s degree in YouTube University.

What tools do you work with?

I work digitally. I use a Macbook Pro with Adobe illustrator and Adobe Photoshop. I also use an iPad Pro with Apple Pencil and the Procreate app.

What does a typical day at your studio look like? How do you manage your time?

Since I work digitally, my workspace is not like a ‘real’ artists studio with lots of cool paint splatters and artist tools. Just a dude, in a room, with a laptop and a pile of roasted nuts.

Where do you find your inspiration?

Hey! Look over there! *quickly runs away to avoid the question*

Do you work with brands?

Verrrrry selectively. In the same vein as the logo question, having to create custom work for a client often makes me very uncomfortable and insecure. The idea of needing to please a person (who’s giving me their money) often get’s me way too into my head and I feel a bit paralyzed creatively. So instead of doing custom work, I much prefer licensing existing work. It’s much simpler and cleaner. We both get what we want and there’s no awkwardness.

Your work lends itself really well to being translated into tattoo designs. Do you get a lot of custom tattoo requests?

I do, and I generally don’t create custom tattoo designs, but welcome anyone to get any of my preexisting work tattooed. Here’s a link to my tattoo permit.

What’s the f*ck is a tattoo permit, you might ask? It’s become something of a common practice within the artistic community to give people the opportunity to support artists by giving them money to use their work. The tattoo permit is just that, a way of saying ‘I like your work, here’s some money so you can keep creating your work!’

• Follow Daren on Instagram @realfunwow

• See more of Daren’s work on his website www.realfunwow.com

• View Daren’s full line of greeting cards in collaboration with Red Cap Cards HERE