Illustration We Love: Mason Dickerson
Mason Dickerson is an illustrator and comic book artist from North Carolina, USA. We discovered his work on instagram (where else?) and were immediately drawn to his bouncy bubbly characters and the fun world they inhabit.
1. You’re extremely mysterious, all we can ascertain from google is you’re from North Carolina. Can you tell us a little more about yourself?
I have been drawing since I was a kid. I was really into characters on food packaging, art from video games, graphic t-shirts, cartoons, etc. A lot of my taste comes from that stuff. I stopped drawing somewhere in my teenage years and played music, but came back to visual art in the last 5 or 6 years. I am 26 now.
2. What’s your typical day look like?
My work days consist of coffee, freelance or commission jobs, collaborative projects next, trips to the post office, petting dogs, petting cats, cooking rice, and afternoon shifts at day jobs. If I’m caught up on all that I will work on personal projects.
3. Can you give us a guided tour around your city/town? What’s fun to do there?
I live outside of a city called Charlotte. It’s a little square, but nice because you’re not too far from the beach and not too far from the mountains. There are plenty of parks, museums, grubby music venues, and sports teams in the city.
4. What’s your illustration process? Do you work digitally or do you prefer pen and paper?
My illustration process starts with pencil and paper. Usually I’ve had a conversation or seen something in a film or documentary that I want to explore. For me it’s best to start with a shape or character and build around it. Try to find points of interaction between forms and react to new additions. There is a lot of erasing in this stage. As the image comes together I start thinking about color palette and textures. I’ll typically ink the finished sketch, scan it, and color digitally. I work quickly because I hate to leave things unfinished. This often works against me!
5. What do you listen to while you’re working? Any recommendations?
I love to color to music. Ella Fitzgerald, Fela Kuti, Takeshi Terauchi, Naked Gods, Built to Spill, Parquet Courts, and The Drifters to name a few. Lately I’ve been into soundtracks like music from Lupin III and Cuphead.
6. Whose work are you admiring at the moment? Anyone/thing you want to big up?
I just bought my new favorite shirt from Alabaster Pizzo, who makes really funny and breezy drawings. Delfina Perez Adan is really great and has so much style. I am jealous of Willy Ohm‘s character design and Jeremy Sorese‘s writing (…and drawings too).
Thanks to Mason for answering our questions and for sharing a couple of sketchbook pages with us. You can find Mason Dickerson on instagram @_masondickerson and check out his shop for some comics and cool tees.