To close out Mark Englert’s highly successful Director Series: Kubrick exhibition, 411posters got a chance to interview Mark Englert about his experience thus far in the poster scene as well as premiere his latest print to conclude his show at Gallery1988. “the korova milk bar” is a 12″ x 36″ 5-color Screenprint w/ 2 metallics, printed on black paper, signed/numbered of 200, and will cost $50. On sale Saturday, August 24th at a random time HERE.

Meet The Artist: Mark Englert

The first time you heard the name Mark Englert might have been while he was camping out next to you in line at the Olly Moss or Lost G1988 exhibition. Or maybe it was through a random encounter on an art forum that he frequents, expressobeans.com. Or maybe you watched him hatch and develop his very first print on the same aforementioned forum, thus springboarding him into nearly a household name in this poster-world that we live in. And if you still haven’t heard of him from that, then maybe after 15+ print releases in the past year culminating in his recent Stanley Kubrick themed solo show at G1988, introduced you into the incredible art of Mark Englert.

Englert’s now signature style of landscaped artwork often depicting memorable scenes of a movie or tv show long engrained in our minds through multiple viewing, resonate deep when seen in print & ink format. His use of Glow-In-The-Dark inks often as a reveal to an entirely new image that complements the daylight image is done with wit and a touch of humor. 411posters is proud to present a Q & A session with Mark Englert.

411posters: Where are you from and what is your art education background?
Mark Englert (Englert): I grew up in Southern California. The vast majority of my art training is self-taught, drawing at school during subjects other than art. I started getting work in comic books before I finished a bachelors degree in art. So, I went ahead and pursued actual work, rather than completing my degree.

411posters: Before you got into creating poster art, what were you doing?
Englert: I’ve been working in the comic book field since 1999 and more recently on a lot of toy packaging, design as well as storyboarding for animation.

411posters: What mediums do you use to create your art?
Englert: I draw mainly using a pencil and brush with Sumi ink. I like doing ink washes quite a bit. For digital work, I stick to Photoshop. I used to use Manga Studio to draw quite a bit, but I do the majority of my drawing by hand these days.

411posters: What/who inspires you to create?
Englert: It’s just something I do. I’ve never really had a problem with “writer’s block” since drawing is just something I’d do no matter what else I have going on in my life.

411posters: Take us through the process of your art from concept —> process —> final piece.
Englert: I’d say concept is the biggest struggle to me. I don’t write any ideas down, bad ideas fall away pretty quickly and if something is good enough to stick in my head for a while, then I will go with that.

Producing art at high quality and on a crazy deadline has been my life for over a decade. So, the production part is fairly by the numbers, it is also the most exciting for me because it is when the piece has the highest amount of potential and once I am done with a project, the process of breaking down what I could of done better and my excitement for the next things starts to take hold.

I have tried a few different processes for actually making a poster. These days, I like to do a small sketch of it first, then I’ll draw on paper whatever figures or pieces I feel like, scan those into photoshop and finish the poster there. I’ve done a lot of coloring comics in my time and I find those skills translate over to print making really well. Once I have a finished image, it’s time to break things down into separate colors to be screen printed. If I planned ahead well enough, this process goes quickly… if I didn’t, it can take quite a while to make things work how I want and I may have to bite the bullet and add a color. It’s a fun puzzle to try and achieve as much depth as I can with as few colors as possible.

After I’m done separating the colors, I send the file to a printer. I don’t have the space in my house or the expertise to print my own stuff.

411posters: What inspired you to take that first leap and develop the “Det er en Slags Ting” print and what ultimately prompted you to approach your creation to the people over at expressobeans.com?
Englert: I had been collecting prints for about 2 years(still am) and was always saying to my wife, “someone should make a print like…” and she would just tell me to do one on my own. Being really busy coloring and helping out with the comeback of some toy from the 90’s, I was just too busy for another project. Eventually, I found myself more or less caught up with things and, well, you can read the rest here: http://forum.expressobeans.com/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=81852

Needless to say, the wife was right.

411posters: What was it like to see such a huge positive response to your very first print, “Det er en Slags Ting”?
Englert: I’ve always been an “expect the worst, hope for the best” kind of person. All I really wanted was to make enough money to cover the cost of producing the print, what I wound up with was an open door into the world of making prints and I was lucky enough to have just enough experience at making art for a living that I could step through.

411posters: What aspects of using GID inks in your art do you find liberating? Constraining?
Englert: Well, the big shock at first is that glow in the dark ink isn’t some magical, invisible ink that glows brightly in the dark no matter what. There are quite a few rules to follow in order to make it work how it ought to. Once you grasp the rules, it’s not a big challenge to make them work for you and plan around them.

I put a lot of time and effort into my glow in the dark work, so I only use it when it makes absolute sense and adds something to the story of the print.

411posters: Who are some of your art influences?
Englert: My biggest remain Jack Kirby, Maxfield Parrish and Edward Hopper…but I have a LOT more, that’s just my “core” group.

411posters: Which print of yours is your personal favorite?
Englert: I usually like whatever I finished last, the most… So, right now it would be, “we’ll meet again”

411posters: Which print / subject matter would you like to work on in the future?
Englert: I’d like to take on a genre that is very important to me in my life… video games.

411posters: Take us through the process of how the concept of a ‘Director Series’ theme led to your first exhibition based on Stanley Kubrick?
Englert: Being someone who “expects the worst and hopes for the best”, I treated my first show as if it was going to be my last. If I only ever did one solo show in my director series, it HAS to be Kubrick.

411posters: What other directors works do you admire?
Englert: Ha, nice try.
(note to readers – I tried! :))

411posters: Art, like life, is an ongoing progression of evolution and change. Where do you see your art headed in the next year(s)?
Englert: I just always want to be improving and I’m not entirely sure what that means. I don’t necessarily see evolving as an artist as uprooting everything and starting from scratch, nor do I see it as doing something trivial like changing up the size of the posters I prefer to make. As long as I’m happy while I’m working on something, I feel like I’m headed in the right direction.

411posters: Did you ever in your wildest dreams imagine you would get from the point you were at before the “Det er en Slags Ting” print, to the point last week where you held your first solo exhibition at G1988?
Englert: Never. Along with tons of poster nuts, I’ve spent countless hours refreshing the Mondo store page on Friday mornings. I slept overnight for the LOST exhibition at Gallery 1988 and I waited something like 14 hours in line for the Olly Moss papercuts show…

It is beyond surreal to be INSIDE the gallery.