Jeff Szuc

Jeff Szuc, illustrator, Toronto, Canada. www.jeffszuc.com www.thefivebysevenproject.com Welcome to my studio, before I give the tour though, I'd like to be totally honest: I did clean things up a little bit before I took the photos. I wish I could claim 'organized mess' or something similar but, in truth, it was just a desk load of dirty coffee cups and the dumpings of the miscellaneous things that end up accumulating in my pocket throughout the day. Anyway, enough introduction, into the studio. This is my space, I'm fortunate enough to have allot of window. Although I mostly work at night, I still like too be able too see my work in natural light in order too see what it really looks like. I Also feel I'm more able too sit for extended hours in a room with a window no matter that it's closed and the blinds are completely drawn (Feng Shui?). Here we have my desk. I try to keep it bland; colourless and devoid of artwork on the wall (both my own as well as other peoples). I think it's better for the creative process that way -less external influence allowing you too focus on balancing the colours in the piece at hand. I once the painting I was most pleased with on the wall above my desk but found I was forever referencing it and trying to redo aspects I'd thought succesfull. Anyhow, the piece tacked up to the wall is a sketch of the last piece I was working on. I don't like to work things out too tightly ahead of time so that I leave a little room for improvisation in the actual painting. Don't get me wrong there's lots of artwork in my room; it's piled thick with it. It's just all on the wall behind me when I'm working. Most of these are the five by sevens I've been working on as well as a couple larger illustrations and the full sized paintings on the ground. I keep it all on rotation through out the rest of the house. Lastly, in the opposite corner, we have my computer desk with my mac g4 (I'm staving off the daily overwhelming urge to upgrade since it's still more than adequate for everything I do.) Also of note on this desk we have just a few of the requisite toys and novelties, the sushi desktop picture I found on the Internet, and just a few of the odds and ends that when you clean up you never quite know what to do with. And that, I think, about wraps it up for anything I can think of worth showing or telling about my space. -jeff