Real Name: Brian Morris
Age: 32
Location: Shitcago
Website: www.ooo000ooo.com

BIB: How did you get started in illustration?
ooo000ooo: Probably the same way as most… liked to draw and someone needed a picture.

BIB: You work a full-time job and freelance projects. How hard is it to manage both and what does a typical day look like?
ooo000ooo: It’s always an ebb and flow. Some weeks are 75 hours at the job and I won’t draw for a month. Other times, shit is smooth and I can get an hour of sketching during lunch and 5-7 hours of drawing at home. I love my advertising daygig, the paycheck enables me to do whatever with my freelance work. I can pick and choose who and what I do freelance for. I’m not looking to make money with it, I’m looking to make cool shit.

This was today:
Up at 7am, shit, shower, twitter/personal emails. Drive to the office. Coffee. Responded to overnight work emails. Morning team meeting. Coffee. Creative meeting. twitter/facebook. Some project meeting. Coffee. Coffee. Review creative. Grab a ‘Slim 5’ from Jimmy Johns and responded to personal/freelance emails, listened to Lich King, talk Eric into rolling me a cigarette. More meetings. Account planning phone calls. Emails. Water. Cheetos. Process discussions with Justin & Kelly. Drive home. Wife is working, so it’s Greek Chicken & Rice from BBQ Patio on Archer. Head into my studio to finish inking the thing I started two nights ago. Refine the sketch I did at the office. Open wine. Draw. Switch from Sabbath to Blood Ceremony then to Pelican. Draw. Draw. Grab another bottle of wine. Make a mistake in the inking. Go back upstairs. twitter/facebook/email. Few minutes of TV (Ax Men) While I answer this question. I’ll make some tea. Head to bed, Read. Sleep. Wakeup. Sleep. Wakeup. Sleep.

BIB: Is the Sharpie your primary art tool?
ooo000ooo: Sharpies used to be my primary tool… But over the last couple months I’ve begun to use Faber-Castell Pitt pens a lot more. The Faber-Castells allow for a much finer level of detail at the scale I work in. Sharpies are rad, there will always be at least two in my pocket at all times. They make you work fast, clean and deliberate. They are unforgiving, which I love, When they bury me, there will be a Sharpie in the pocket of my jeans.

BIB: What are some of your favorite projects you’ve worked on?
ooo000ooo: The latest project is always my favorite project. Once something is done, it’s done. I like the process of making something, regardless of what it is. I really like the Baroness gigposter, the new vinyl toy that will drop this year, a piece for myself called “moon phases” and of course the piece for BiB2.

BIB: If different, what piece are you most proud of?
ooo000ooo: I’m proud of the thing I’m about to draw next – it looks awesome, but I’ll fuck it up for sure.

BIB: I recently picked up your Sqwert vinyl toy. How did the Sqwert toy design come about and were you/are you a toy collector?
ooo000ooo: When Jamungo released the first series of Sqwerts, they also released plain blanks of the shape. I picked up a couple of the blanks and one night I rocked out a custom. Ferg (Jamungo) saw it on the gigposters.com forums and two weeks later I was working on the production art based on that custom. Kinda surreal. If anyone out there wants to get into designing vinyl toys, the best way to do it is to start customizing toys and getting them out there in the world.

I’m an avid toy collector. My vinyl toy collection is might be around a couple hundred pieces. But the lion’s share of my collection are hotwheels and other diecast cars. I haven’t counted in awhile, but I’d estimate the number of cars at around 3,000. I spent my first $1 allowance on a Dukes of Hazzard General Lee diecast by Ertl… yesterday I bought a couple cars at Walgreens… It’s a lifelong habit. Most of the cars are hotrods or customs, with a focus on 1960’s Cadillacs and 1949-50 Mercurys.

BIB: What is your most prized possession in your collection?
ooo000ooo: That’s easy. It’s my big toy. The 1962 Cadillac Coupe De Ville.

BIB: Are you a Star Wars fan and how excited were you to be part of the Vader Project?
ooo000ooo: I’m not a Star Wars fan, I’m indifferent at best. I’ll flip right past it if it’s on TV. But, I immediately saw the Vader Project as something huge… epic huge. The opportunity to be involved was an honor in itself. To have a creative take on a intergalactic icon on an international stage is something that nobody would refuse. I will likely not have the chance to show with a list of artists like that, to an audience as large as that. It’s been exhibited around the world, and is currently at the Warhol museum. I’m overwhelmed to be 1 of the 100 artists.

BIB: You are also involved with IWantYourSkull series. Tell me a little about the art series and how you got involved.
ooo000ooo: IWYS rules. Nuff said.

BIB: I heard you are an avid wine drinker. What is your favorite wine?
ooo000ooo: If by ‘avid wine drinker’ you mean ‘wino’, then yeah. After years of whiskey and beer every night, I finally got to the point where I could not hang. The evenings had too many gaps, mornings were getting too harse. Around this time my girlfriend (now wife) began working in fine dining. Over time she began to learn more and more about fine wine. She’s progressed a great deal and is currently pursuing her Sommelier certification. Through this process she’s exposed me to the wonderful world of wine. Over the years I’ve learned a thing or two, even taken a few classes. I’m not afraid to order from the wine list, and every once in a while tell you where the wine was made based on taste and make up. But in the end, I’m just drowning the day’s aches. I’ve been drinking mostly Oregon Pinot Noir from the Willamette Valley this year. Though, I’m currently working through a second case of a Corsican Pinot Noir this month. Mostly Pinot’s at home, I’ll drink whatever when out for dinner.

With wine I can draw and drink until midnight and still wake up without much trouble. When meetings begin at 9am it makes life much easier.

Check out Brian Morris’ Back In Black T-Shirt here.