Q&A with Andrew Pommier

My name is Andrew Pommier. I am a doodler, painter and illustrator currently based in Vancouver, BC.

Software / hardware

I use a big quiver of tools. Almost everything starts in my sketchbook where I use felt tipped pens, pencils, colour pencils, brush pens, gauche…

Watercolour and oil paint are some of my favourite mediums to use.

A major piece of equipment I use is a 13” Mac Book Pro attached to a 21” Apple Cinema Screen with a Canoscan LIDE 210 scanner. Late last year I finally purchased a medium Wacom Intuos 5 pro tablet. It’s been a refreshing move and opened new creative options. As for programs I mostly use Illustrator. There is a little bit of Photoshop and InDesign.

© Andrew Pommier Illustration

Ideal work environment

I’m pretty flexible. A flat table and/or a flat wall are pretty much all I need. Decent light, good music and easy access to coffee.

Work inspiration

Inspiration comes from a lot of places. It runs the gamut from boredom and frustration to seeing a good art show, reading a good book or a good conversation to a nice stroll. When I get stuck or hit a creative block the easiest way to get to get sparked creatively is a walk around the neighbourhood that my studio is located in, which happens to be the poorest postal code in Canada. With that there is open drug use plus there is so much humanity and hijinks happening in and around that neighbourhood it’s almost impossible not to get inspired to draw something. That said I’ve never found inspiration in one source. You just have to keep your eyes open to possibility and your brain will fill in the rest.

Artists you admire most

Always a tough question to answer but I’ll give you some of the ones I’m looking at these days. I’ve been a fan of Tom Sachs for a long time. Wes Lang is tops at the moment. Barry McGee and Chris Johanson. Phillip Guston is popping around in my brain a lot these days. Lately I’ve been looking at artists that are able to execute pieces in a very direct and intuitive way.