Interview with Gary Ronaldson | By Hutch
An extended sit down with one of metal’s foremost harbingers of art!
Have you always been drawing? What were the first subjects you drew?
Since I was 7 years old, I wanted to draw cartoons. I remember at my local primary school in Ireland, one of the teachers used to do an afterschool drawing club and I loved it. I distinctly remember drawing a huge, green pea with a face on. Such a random memory, but one that has stuck.
I also used to draw Heathcliff the cat and draw a football kit on him. This spread to my school where I made pennies doing commissions of whatever favorite football kit the other kids wanted.
My dad used to supply my sisters and me with reams and reams of paper to draw on. If I wasn’t drawing battles involving WWII German tanks and planes, it was Star Wars battles with X-wings and TIE Fighters. You know the drawings that have a really low ground? You fill the page with the action, drawing explosions as they happen and people dying. Maybe it was just me!
I fell in love with Disney films like Jungle Book and Pinocchio. I wanted to find out how they were made. It was then I decided I wanted to become an animator. I knew it was the only career I wanted to do.
Any comic books in your youth? Now?
I’ve never been really into comic books. I’m sure that sounds odd, but I wasn’t drawn to them. Like I mentioned, I was obsessed with animation from an early age. Despite the fact that traditional hand drawn animation wasn’t exactly a lucrative career choice, I stuck by my guns. I remember being told by my art teachers that it wasn’t a good career. There was no work in it. I didn’t listen to them. I knew it was what I wanted to do. I found a college that taught traditional animation and managed to get a place on the course. This was a hard slog, and after six years—a four year course that I repeated two of the years—I graduated. During my graduation show, I was offered a job animating for Core Design in the U.K.—the original “Tomb Raider” developers.
Fast forward 17 years, and I’ve managed to forge a full-time career as an animator in computer games. Seventeen years now and I still haven’t been found out.
Whilst working towards this goal, I discovered Iron Maiden, and within two years or so, I graduated to listening to Morbid Angel, Obituary, and every death metal band I could literally get my hands on. Instead of studying for school, I was upstairs headbanging and drawing Autopsy, Dismember, and Entombed logos on my copybooks. I still have my biker jacket with Gorefest logo painted on.
Just recently, I’ve started getting into comic books; at first it was only for the artwork and the inner art too. I’ve not got a lot: The Walking Dead, Kick-Ass, Batman: The Court of Owls, Turf, and various other smaller names. I think I need to expand on my collection, though, as they are extremely helpful for music art, especially compositionally, which is a department where I really need to step up, among others.
How did you start drawing for bands?
I played in a band for years. Despite loving the writing/recording of music and the gigging, I was always far too lazy to try and make a serious go of it. When it came to the artwork side of it, I was always far, far more interested and focused. From t-shirt designs to demo covers, I was in charge of it all. It wasn’t till after college, though, that I started to do it with a bit more passion and determination. After moving to the U.K., I used to go to a lot of the underground shows in Nottingham where I live, and through word of mouth, I would get work with various local bands around the area.
Which was your first paid illustration? How did that feel?
The first one I remember was with a bunch of no hopers from Nottingham called Martyr Defiled. I designed a leviathan shirt for them. I had no idea about print setup or sizes; I just drew the image and left the rest to the band. When I saw the printed shirts, I thought, “Wow, the image is tiny…” Never realizing that was down to me. I also worked on their first EP and, looking at it today, I am still proud of it. It involved a lot more photo editing than drawing. But, that was a lot of fun. I did the artwork and all of the layout as well.
After that, I started to get regular work with local bands. I seemed to be reasonably cheap and got work with music venues across the city designing flyers for gigs and club nights and on to t-shirt designs.
I always harbored a longing to work for international bands, as, more often than not, I would see a band touring and not being impressed by their merch designs, or think, “I wish I could do that as a job,” or “I could do that better myself.” I never had any idea how to get in touch with them or how it was possible. I carried on with my nine to five job and would continue to work on band artwork in my spare time.
It’s not really been since the presence of social media that I have managed to get the work I am currently doing. Bands that, to me, were previously untouchable are now, to the most part, pretty easy to get in touch with.
Like Napalm Death?
There was a competition held by the band on their Facebook page about four years ago. It was sent to me by two friends at the same time. The brief was to come up with something you thought was appropriate for the band. I initially did two designs that I was pretty confident they would go for. It was a few days later I got an email from [bassist] Shane [Embury], who said, although the band loved the graphic style, they already had a design of similar content. He asked me if I would be interested in doing a shirt based on the song “The Wolf I Feed” off Utilitarian.
I’ve not really looked back art-wise since that. Once that design got into the public domain and obviously seen by a bigger audience, more and more international bands got in touch with me. I also used the Napalm Death name as collateral as I contacted bands I loved and wanted to work with. Some responded favorably, some didn’t respond at all.
I’ve literally just today finished my fourth and fifth designs for Napalm for their upcoming U.S. tour. They keep coming back for more punishment.
How did your work with Kreator come about? Did they have ideas or guidelines, or was it all up to you?
Kreator was one of those bands that I reached out to, [vocalist and guitarist] Mille [Petrozza] in particular, and I suppose it came down to luck and timing that he was looking for artwork for upcoming tours.
All the ideas I presented—four in all—were my own ideas. I would submit the work at a very early stage and at a very scribbly and sketched stage. Two of the sketches were pretty much knocked on the head at an early stage. For whatever reason, they didn’t float his boat. Thankfully, my sketches are done so quickly and loosely that not too much time is lost when these get rejected or thrown to the side.
He loved the two other sketches I did. I worked them up to an almost final stage. I like to send “work in progress” work to my clients. So, if there is a stage I have gone too far or if there is something they can add at any stage of the process, it leaves the door open for this.
The first design I did was of the “Demon” standing over some festival goers, signifying the band laying waste to the European festivals. I used a lot of orc and Uruk-hai [from “Lord of the Rings”] reference for this, as it’s perfect for the creature’s look.
The second design was the color design. I’ve always wanted to do a design incorporating the heads of the band in question. Using the “Demon” again, but with his look slightly differing, I sat him on a throne atop a pile of skulls—very original—placed the band’s severed heads on spikes, and put Mille’s head in the Demon’s hands, signifying that he is the one who is in control of the group. It was a lot of fun, as the creature is iconic and up there with [Iron Maiden’s] Eddie The Head, etc.
Definitely another bucket-list band I’ve wanted to work with.
For your work with Misery Index, you got to expand on the theme and do varied parts of the layout. Is it more fulfilling to flesh out a complete concept?
I did a shirt design for [bassist and vocalist] Jason [Netherton] and the guys in late ’12, I think. I was approached early the following year and asked if I would consider doing the artwork for [2014 full-length] The Killing Gods. I jumped at the chance and said of course. I would be responsible for the artwork and the layout of all the different options.
We spoke at length about the concept behind the record. The first half of the album is about the story of Faust and his deal with the devil. Jason had the idea to make a cover in the style of an old fashioned woodcarving. The first thing that stuck out in my head was the deal with the devil and the idea of tarot and playing cards. I did a quick, quick sketch of the severed hand holding—four cards, I think it was, and sent it to the band. They loved it; they loved its simplicity.
We then spoke about doing an alternative cover for possible limited edition versions and/or just vinyl release. We both agreed that this needed to be a much more detailed piece. I started work on the idea and, based off the band’s suggestion of what they would like to see, I started to sketch and try and first lock down a cool composition for the cover. They wanted a reaper-like figure sat upon a throne surveying all below him. I first went for the central figure with a pretty mirrored composition, but after finding several albums that contained exactly that, we agreed on a slightly off center image and tried to find a balance with the details. I looked at the work of amazing artists such as [Albrecht] Dürer and wanted to keep the sepia woodcut feel.
After some to-ing and fro-ing on the background for the piece—the original was based indoors in a kind of old fashioned throne room, [but] the guys wanted it to be situated outside, so I added some broken pillars and some more depth to the piece. Some sky and landscape and the standard lightning forks. When it came to the inlay, because we agreed early on, on the main cover with the severed hand, the color scheme and font almost chose itself. The main battle hereafter was trying to fit all the lyrics and information into the product. I’ve got to admit being wet behind the ears when it comes to print setup, etc., but I soon learnt the ropes! Baptism of fire.
I then set about seeing what other graphic elements the layout needed. Reading through the lyrics is always a huge helping hand when trying to come up with incidental art. I knew I wanted an image for behind the text and also for behind the CD, so, using the elements and feel from the imagery already created, the other images kind of worked themselves out. I tried really hard to retain a motif to it all, and if you look closely, you can see that there are certain elements and graphics used throughout the layout for the two versions, from the standard to the deluxe edition.
It was also then very easy to create merch from this, as the artwork had subconsciously created a sort of template that you couldn’t really veer away from too much. I think I ended up producing six or seven designs for the various tours. They even got a pack of cards made with the same image as is used in the severed hand on the cover. Originally, we also spoke about doing a set of five or so tarot cards to add as a limited edition—the hanging man, death, etc.—but due to time constraints, we could never make it a reality.
Looking at it now, I’m extremely proud of the album as a package, even though I trawl through it looking for mistakes as I inevitably do. I don’t think there’s any piece of art I’m 100 percent happy with, but that’s normal.
As stark and gory as some of your art can be, you do inject the occasional humor. How do you feel that out?
The humor element definitely 90 percent of the time isn’t intentional. There have been a couple of commissions where I’ve hidden stuff for my own amusement. I had a severed penis and vagina in my artwork for Autopsy and told them about it afterwards. I doubt they ever found it, though.
I would love my art to have a more serious and somber feel, though. Some artists can capture the essence of this and their work is always sinister and on point. I find the way I draw always comes back to my animation training. There is a cartoony feel to all my work. I sometimes think I should try and get more grown up with it, but at the same time, it does give me an identity and a way of standing out. Well, at least I hope it does. I’ll never be happy.
What is the process for you when working with a band?
The first thing I will do with a band is ask them for their input regarding imagery or if they have a concrete idea of what they are after. If they do, all the better, but quite often, bands will ask you to come up with something. A blank canvas.
My work process may be similar to others, so apologies if it’s dull as ditch water. I will use band lyrics or song titles. I will write down keywords or phrases that stick out to me or a collection of words that can start a basis for an image. Sometimes, I will have an idea that I will tailor with a particular band in mind and approach them to see if they are interested. More often than not, I find they are, thankfully.
In regards to the lyrics approach, I will start to sketch compositions as quickly as possible; I’m not bothered about the quality of these images. The main aim is to get the band to see my idea clearly. This can take some going backwards and forwards and is quite good for bouncing ideas. Once this process is signed off, I will try and start to work the sketch up to a version that’s far, far more legible to the client’s eye. I will gather as much reference material as I can, trawl various image search engines to get my creative juices flowing.
When I have collected this, I will then work hard on getting the image to a good final-ish standard for review once more. I’m addicted to this stage, and I’m sure I wind up the clients with constant barrages of emails and messages asking if this is okay or if they want to change this element. This stage is also the time for the happy accident, and all of a sudden, a brushstroke or a texture can transform your approach to an image.
I think it’s important to maintain transparency at all times, so if you want to steer the commission slightly askew, they won’t be surprised at any stage. Plus, it’s invaluable to get their input at all these stages too. One of the most satisfying things to me is seeing the band content with the product they’ve received. The album on a shelf. The t-shirt on a merch stand. Small things, but to me, they are very important, and I’ve always gotten a swell of pride once a piece is finished. This lasts a few days, and then, I’m back to nitpicking the whole piece.
What you got for 2016?
I’ve just completed some work for Napalm Death. Their two shirt designs should be available on the upcoming U.S. tour with the Melvins and Melt Banana. I’ve just done a shirt design for Misery Index as we come to the end of the Killing Gods tour. I’ve started the line work on a tee design for the mighty Pig Destroyer, and I am in contact with some other bands about some commissions for the middle of the year.
I’ve a couple of ideas for shirts I would like to pitch to certain bands, too, so we will see how that pans out. I’ve just got to get off my lazy backside and get them finished.
I also want to produce my own art book this year, and that will be quite an undertaking if I can get it done. I’d like to include sketches, work in progress, as well as rejected work. That’s something I really can’t wait to get my teeth into.
That said, I’m available all the time to discuss projects. So, if any bands/brands want to get in touch, then please do.
Thanks so much for the opportunity to bore you senseless with my mundane art blurb. I hope I’ve not put too many people to sleep.
To commission Bite Radius Designs for some sinister, on point cartoons of your very own, email Gary Ronaldson at gary.ronaldson@gmail.com, or add him on Facebook and Instagram.
