{"id":2503,"date":"2017-05-16T11:35:00","date_gmt":"2017-05-16T11:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.doodlersanonymous.com\/?p=11596"},"modified":"2022-12-08T10:06:36","modified_gmt":"2022-12-08T15:06:36","slug":"birdcap-a-closer-look-at-the-creative-process-of-a-traveling-muralist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.doodlersanonymous.com\/birdcap-a-closer-look-at-the-creative-process-of-a-traveling-muralist\/","title":{"rendered":"Birdcap: A Closer Look At The Creative Process Of A Traveling Muralist"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Michael Roy, aka Birdcap<\/a>, is a contemporary muralist and illustrator from Mississippi that we discovered through a good friend of DA, Frenemy<\/a>. I liked his work so much, I wanted to ask him a couple of one-on-one questions to find out more about his process. Turns out, he’s an extremely cool dude and offered some great insight for anyone trying to make it as an artist. Read on for the full interview, and definitely check out his website<\/a> or follow him on the gram<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tell us a little about yourself, your background, and how you first realized that you love making art! <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m from a really really small town in the south.  I started drawing as an escape from being lonely I guess, but it eventually led to me making a lot of friends down the road.  I think I love making art because it creates a lifestyle to be happy and creative  when you\u2019re alone, but also facilitates community with cool people anywhere you go. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How long have you been creating murals?<\/strong>

I\u2019ve been painting murals seriously for about five years now.<\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"<\/p>\n\n\n

As an artist whose “living out of his suitcase, painting murals from city to city”, How do you go about securing a wall? Any tips on how you maintain a steady flow of work? <\/strong>

Haha, I wish.  It\u2019s sort of a feast or famine lifestyle to be honest.  Some months I\u2019m getting jobs back to back and other months I\u2019m painting for free in an abandoned warehouse.  I think the best tip I know so far is just to keep putting your work out there, and be available for opportunities when they show up.  It\u2019s obvious maybe, but the internet is an incredible tool and even thirty minutes a day of contacting building owners and applying to Request for Proposals can go a long way.<\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"<\/p>\n\n\n

When you’re creating something so massive, it’s obviously a lot different than doodling in a sketchbook. Can you explain your creative process from start to finish? Do you freehand? Sketch it out on a grid?<\/strong>

It really just depends on the wall.  I like to freehand when I can but after a wall gets over twenty feet high it can be tricky.  Also depending on the project, I might not have as free of range about changing the image as I go and so I\u2019ll want to use a grid or a projector to mark off the composition.  All my murals start as sketchbook drawing and I usually have the sketchbook leaned against the wall while I\u2019m drawing it out for reference.  I think it\u2019s important to try and keep the life that the sketch has because when you paint big it lose a little life in just constructing such a big project.<\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"<\/p>\n\n\n

I think any professional creative can understand the frustration of working with a client that’s difficult, too picky, etc. Do you run into that problem as a muralist, or do you typically have total creative freedom?<\/strong>

Definitely!  I\u2019ve been lucky to work with a lot of really cool clients who\u2019ve allowed me a lot of freedom, but I\u2019ve pulled out of a number of jobs because of a client and I not being on the same page.  There\u2019s a million artists out there, so if they need work that doesn\u2019t look like mine, they really should go find the artist whose work fits the project. They\u2019ll do it a lot better than I will, and everyone will be happier for it.<\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"<\/p>\n\n\n

Where are you off to next? Do you have any exciting projects or collaborations coming up in the next couple of months?<\/strong>

I\u2019m headed to Key West to do a little mural in June and might be heading back to Denver for a mural festival after that, but things are still up in the air.  I\u2019m currently doing an artist in residency at Crosstown Arts in Memphis TN, so I\u2019ve just been working on studio paintings this week.  It\u2019s crazy having a huge space to doodle and build in after so many years of having just the sketchbook.  I\u2019m really grateful to them for the opportunity to experiment and make some new stuff.<\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"<\/p>\n\n\n

Any tips, tricks, advice, final words for all of the awesome, creative people on DA looking to make it as an artist?<\/strong> 
Make work that makes you happy and excited to work on it!  There\u2019s a million jobs out there that are more lucrative than being an artist.  If you\u2019re an artist but you\u2019re making work you don\u2019t like to do, I really think you\u2019re getting a raw deal.  The compensation for being an artist is that your life is really fulfilling, even If you\u2019re wearing awful clothes and eating more ramen than a Korean high school student.  If you want money, there\u2019s a lot of fulfilling ways to do that too and it doesn\u2019t have to compromise your art.  Art is a weird career, haha, but it can be a really happy one if you know what your priorities are. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michael Roy, aka Birdcap, is a contemporary muralist and illustrator from Mississippi that we discovered through a good friend of DA, Frenemy. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":11595,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3952],"tags":[1826,3241,2033,2342,1807,1843,2065,3539,2581,2852,1834,3240],"views":218,"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/www.doodlersanonymous.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/2503_birdcap-a-closer-look-at-the-creative-process-of-a-traveling-muralist_2760.jpg",1024,600,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.doodlersanonymous.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/2503_birdcap-a-closer-look-at-the-creative-process-of-a-traveling-muralist_2760-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.doodlersanonymous.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/2503_birdcap-a-closer-look-at-the-creative-process-of-a-traveling-muralist_2760-300x176.jpg",300,176,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.doodlersanonymous.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/2503_birdcap-a-closer-look-at-the-creative-process-of-a-traveling-muralist_2760-768x450.jpg",768,450,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.doodlersanonymous.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/2503_birdcap-a-closer-look-at-the-creative-process-of-a-traveling-muralist_2760.jpg",800,469,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.doodlersanonymous.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/2503_birdcap-a-closer-look-at-the-creative-process-of-a-traveling-muralist_2760.jpg",1024,600,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.doodlersanonymous.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/2503_birdcap-a-closer-look-at-the-creative-process-of-a-traveling-muralist_2760.jpg",1024,600,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"OKAT","author_link":"https:\/\/www.doodlersanonymous.com\/author\/okat\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Michael Roy, aka Birdcap, is a contemporary muralist and illustrator from Mississippi that we discovered through a good friend of DA, Frenemy.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.doodlersanonymous.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2503"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.doodlersanonymous.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.doodlersanonymous.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.doodlersanonymous.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.doodlersanonymous.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2503"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.doodlersanonymous.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2503\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15964,"href":"https:\/\/www.doodlersanonymous.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2503\/revisions\/15964"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.doodlersanonymous.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.doodlersanonymous.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.doodlersanonymous.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.doodlersanonymous.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}