1 – To Start, tellus a bit about yourself where you were born and where you live…
I grew up in Ottawa, Canada, but moved to Toronto after university to work as a graphic designer. I currently live and work in Toronto with my girlfriend, artist Jessica Fortner.

2 – How did you get started in the arts?
I did editorial illustrations for the school paper at university. That’s probably the first time I did drawings for money. Otherwise, I started just over two years ago. I decided I wanted to have a go at illustration and did a few sample pieces, put up a website and sent out some postcards.

3-  Where do yo draw your inspiration from?
I think movies tend to jog my imagination more than anything these days.

4-  Can you describe for us what a regular day is like for you?
Most days I just go my job as a designer and spend time out and about in Toronto with my girlfriend.

5-  What is your most common approach for completing a project?
Mostly I like to approach every project as though it were my first. I really try to work out a concept that will work with the subject, but also do something a bit unexpected. Most of the real work gets done as really rough little sketches, figuring out the concept/composition. Once I’ve got that settled, the rest goes really fast and easy.

6-  Out of all your work what is your favorite piece and why?
I think my favorite is a piece called “Tailypo” which I did for Fantagraphic’s Beasts! Book2. It’s a picture of a beast from Apalachian ghost story chomping on the arm of a woodsman who cut off his tail. I just wanted to make a fun and creepy picture.

7-  Is it easy to make a living in the work that you do?
I work as a graphic designer in a creative agency here in Toronto, so illustration isn’t my main source of income. I do illustration work as much as possible outside of my design job. I view the two as complimentary. I sometimes do illustration for my studio design projects, and my design knowledge always helps in my illustration work.
It can be challenging to manage two creative careers time-wise, but it keeps me involved and refreshed creatively.

From my experiences with freelance illustration I can tell that though there’s lots of opportunity to make a living this way, it definitely takes a lot of work and tireless self-promotion and going after clients.

8-  Who is your biggest influence?
Really I get most influenced by the works of my favorite illustrators/artists working today. To name only a few: Tomer Hanuka, Yuko Shimizu, David B., Max Beckmann, Paul Pope, Tara McPherson, Teetering Bulb, Sam Weber, Moira Hahn, and Jessica Fortner.

9-  How important is technology for the work that you do? What tools could you not live with out?
I do the line drawings in pencil and colour everything in Photoshop. I could probably get by without Photoshop, but it would definitely complicate things. I really admire illustrators and artists who work completely in non-digital mediums. I’ve always wanted to get away from digital coloring, but the truth is that most illustrations I do are on such short deadlines that I rely on the flexibility that coloring digitally gives you. Also, I like to do texturing in Photoshop to add some subtle real world textures to otherwise cartoony drawings.

10- How important is color in your work and why?
I think color is so important in driving the emotional response people get from an image. I tend to work with really bright almost primary colors, probably out of some subconscious need for my illustration to hog all the attention on a page.

11- Whats your favorite color?
I really like underwater colors like coral reds and blue-grey.

12- Where can people get in contact with you?
My illustration portfolio is www.wandelmaier.com, also  I  have a collaborative blog with my girlfriend, artist Jessica Fortner, at www.suidfaceandmeddler.blogspot.com (called Squidface and the Meddler). We both post news, and work in progress there.