Alex Nabaum is a phenomenal illustrator. He began his full-time freelance career in 2004 and his body of high-quality work is astonishing. Do a Google Image search for ‘Alex Nabaum’ and you will find dozens and dozens of erudite works of art. His clients include The New York Times, ESPN, Wired, the Economist, and The Wall Street Journal. He graduated from Utah State University and lives in Utah.
You are incredibly creative with your concepts. How do you maintain that level of innovation? Persistance I guess. Some people have the patience to create intricate levels of detail. Something I wish I had. For now though, I seem to have the patience to create large piles of rejected ideas, while hunting for a good one.
What tools do you use? HB pencils, copy paper, lightbox, gouache, crescent cold press illustration board, frisket film, brayers, brush, scanner, and Photoshop. But if I’m doing bas relief I change to metal sheets, embossing tools, enamel paint, Nikon camera, lighting, and Photoshop.
You do a lot of media work. How tight are your deadlines? Depends on the publication. For monthly magazines 1-2 weeks. For weekly publications 2-3 days. For daily newspapers 1 day to a few hours. My tightest deadline was a piece on the future of Korea, for The New York Times, at 45 minutes.
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