Omri Koresh Art: Digital and Traditional: Interview time!!

A My name is Omri Koresh, born in 1986 and currently living in a most controversial country, Israel, I’m a painter, always have painted, digitally as well as traditionally and currently working on my BFA to get that silly paper that declares that I have knowledge about art stuffed into my brain although I thought myself basically everything alone.

Q How did you find your way to becoming an artist?

A I was born one. Really. I didn’t have much choice on the matter, if I don’t paint, create my little happy miniatures, read about art to seek a new technique or ways to improve my work I just get depressed and all of my passion and love becomes a bundle of knots that I can’t do anything with unless I paint. It was always like that, I wake up in the morning (after drinking coffee of course, I’m not insane) and I think about what’s my next project and how to improve my artistic level.

Q How did you get your first art job? What is the story of that?

A My first job is my current job, I always posted my work online and a cool guy from a company named “Corbomite” asked me if I feel like working for them as a colorist so I said OK so now I’m not a poor student! I’m a working student with a touch of money.

Q How did you find your artistic style?

A As a kid I was influenced by my dad, he’s a hardball person with a though and rough personality but with a good heart and on top of that an amazing painter although he stopped painting when I was a kid. I always went into the basement to see his old work, which has surrealistic imagery, mixed with a guideline of rot, decay and melancholy I was influenced by the famous Dali and MC Escher as well. In later years I found more and more artists that I liked and got my head spinning with stunning visuals and organic concepts that helped me along the way to become myself and find my own voice.

Q Which artist had influenced you the most?

A The last artist I got inspired from is Michael Hussar who is a much better painter than me, he creates what I like best- beauty and the grotesque mixed together using vulgar and disturbing imagery, in my final exhibition at my University I know that I’ll extract some of the color themes and that dramatic energy that Hussar has in his paintings. I’ll create Oil paintings because my main focus is to be truly what I am and that is an artist not a “just” painter.

Q How long does a new image generally take you to create?

A About 20 hours traditionally and digitally

Q How do you train your skills in the usual?

A I draw in pencils all the time, sketching out new ideas or re-plan an oil painting and conversations with other artists help to exchange ideas and concepts. I work in my studio almost everyday and I don’t give up on anything, I don’t leave anything alone unless it’s how I wanted it to be, I have a natural eye for detail but I always give other people the stage to explain to me what they see so I’ll learn a new approach towards art and life on the way. I experiment with materials I never used and I constantly look for tutorials on how to improve.

Q When starting a new work, what is the first thing you think about? Can you describe your workflow and process?

A I usually know what I want and what to insert in the picture, some very simple and dry information. Though the visuals- that’s the problem it’s like I’m hearing voices but in visuals, I’m able to see inside my mind the picture I must create, to clarify, not need, not want but I have to otherwise it will drive me crazy it will pop up again and again and I won’t be able to paint anything else until I’ll finish it. My work flow and process is just as boring as anyone else- simple sketching, picking the best one and paint, in digital I sometimes use a model, for Alice I have a specific one, Brittany Elizondo, and I paint the rest, you can see my process work on my “you tube” account, user name 0mri with a zero.

Q Do you listen to music while working? What kind of music is your favorite? How does the music affect your artwork?

A I can’t work without music because it gives me a beat to work to, in that way I don’t loose that fiery tempo that makes a good artwork become good, when you work too slow the painting usually ends up beautiful but without any human emotion and inner depth, I don’t have a favorite kind of music because I listen to everything l like which is A LOT! Like country, rock, pop, techno, metal, classical music like Schubert not that wannabe movie soundtracks, musicals too but what helps me more than anything is to sing along with the music until I feel my throat is a bag of rocks I love singing although I’m an average singer.

Q How do you usually find inspiration?

A I don’t. I don’t believe in inspiration, I won’t be dictated by some emotion or concept of “when I should paint” or create something new so I work my ass off to create what I must, every chance I get I work in my studio and continue with my projects until I feel my eyes shutting down. Even when I don’t feel like it when I work that “inspiration” will come. I always download images I like; I keep them in arranged folders for each segment and that way I can get ideas or references for my work.

Q What is your most difficult challenge when making art? How do you overcome it?

A I don’t have a problem working for hours with no end the main problem is that I work, study, I’m in a relationship and I have a lot of friends so my big challenge is actually- time, I barely have time to sleep properly the only way I can manage my time properly is actually set up meetings with friends a week earlier, plan ahead as to concerning work and time limits and to keep a journal and write everything down- if it’s not written it doesn’t exist! - That’s the motto.

Q How many companies have you worked for? What the peculiarity of each company your feel?

A One. Corbomite. To tell you the truth I don’t care much for concept art and stuff, don’t get me wrong it’s fun! But I basically do it to pay the bills it’s a job. I am a traditional and digital artist but I don’t like being told what to do. The people I work with are very cool and very professional and I really enjoy working with them.

Q Are you looking for some kind of special aesthetics? What have you found?

A Like everyone else I love beauty but I prefer the twisted, the dark, the black color and the rotten hearts of the characters. I believe the human body is fascinating and when twisted or shown in a classic pose the meaning of the human existence and our whole fear of dying are represented beautifully.

Q Do you read some fashion magazines? What magazines did you recently read?

A I love Vogue but it’s super expensive and I’m a broke student and I usually read the news but I do get updated on the world of Fashion from selected blogs and cruising for art on the web.

Q What feature of Alice attracts you?

A Her inner pain. I can relate to her suffering and the fact that she’s misunderstood; by people, in her world, that isolation and distance that’s happening simultaneously in her inner Wonderland as well.

Q How do you choose the suitable model?

A I look for the correct proportion according to my character, it’s like a look a like game, you mix and match until you find the correct model that kind of looks like the character you are going to paint. For Alice it’s more of her stare, Britney knows and understands how to act like her besides being beautiful and to resemble her. The stare and the body movement must look natural and not forced and the model must know how to get her\his photo taken.

Q What kind of man and woman do you find sexiest?

A Me. No not really. I love muscular big guys, with a hairy chest and a beard with a bad temper, preferred or white or tanned with Irish\polish facial features- something like my boyfriend! And I love black girls! Flat stomach, D cup, round ass, huge lips and delicate features, personally I think Naomi Campbell is the most beautiful woman on earth.

Q Would you continue to explore your target-painting theme? Or you have another new target?

A I always have new targets but I will always, in some way will create things Alice related, even if I’ll decide to stop, I love that world because it resembles my own inner world and I feel at home there. The images and characters have familiarity in my life and my imagination.

Q In the last 20 years, many wars have happened in Israel, did these turbulences have any influence for your art creation and life?

A Life, yes it’s not an easy thing to have your country fight for a cause that you perceive is good and the rest of the world thinks you’re the bad guy, but art wise It pushed me even further from reality, most of the artists in Israel deal with Politics and other clichés in some over obsessed manner in their art, I don’t, it doesn’t interest me, I prefer to run away inside my mind and extract imagined worlds than to deal with the banal and obviousness of reality.

Q You have mentioned that you love Alice's world because it resembles your inner world. So could you talk about what are the similar characteristics?

A In my world nothing makes much sense, there’s a lot of emptiness and elements that don’t have a purpose, I love the darkness I adore black, it reminds me of my mother, my work usually go between the disgusting and the beautiful merged together, plastic, especially dolls, I enjoy making them too. Those elements exist inside the Alice world, wonderland has always been a big impact in my artistic world, it evolved with the media and when the game came out it was a fantastic treat because I knew from that moment that the presented world is a mirror image of my mind.

Q You have mentioned you believe the human body is fascinating when twisted or shown in a classic pose the meaning of the human existence and our whole fear of dying are represented. So what do you think of the human existence and dying?

A We are born because of some biological engineering of nature and when the time comes we die, people should die if not otherwise there won’t have enough resources to survive, as a species and I believe that the strong will survive just like in nature. Human existence is the funniest think ever, we are so afraid of death and we are so afraid that our species will extinct one day like the dinosaurs that you can see reflections of that in our media and what not and people keep trying to find “meaning” for living which I just don’t understand why not just have fun and enjoy life! The human body in my mind is a temple so every body is designed differently and has its unique attributes so I connect the human body to the idea of loss and pain.

Q What do you think of the Queensland's gothic style?

A I think that Queensland still isn’t portrayed at it’s best, from the versions of the games, they gave out a great visual but I still think everyone missed the point with Queensland; that it should be spectacular, with a huge maze all around the tower that IS the castle, it’s royalty! It should be far bigger and far more elegant. I think that the Queen is a big diva so I always thought that the castle should be designed accordingly.

Q You have mentioned you prefer the twisted, dark and black color and the rotten heart of the characters. But as we know, this is not popular nowadays. So would you insist to this kind of style?

A Yes, definitely, because of two reasons, first I do think that dark and gothic art is very popular in the world, for example in my Deviantart account, 0mri, I’ve seen a lot of dark and wonderful art mixed with some pop elements, Tim Burton is considered a genius and I do think that the dark & sweet style it will be very popular in the future, and the second reason is that my visions and the way that I see art IS dark, I love the disturbing and the twisted and I cannot escape it even if I tried.

Q You have mentioned you are very busy, could you please kindly talk about what do you do every day usually?

A I work in my studio on different projects, I work in my day job as a colorist, I go to school, I try to see friends and hold a relationship steady and give my family some attention so I have to juggle a lot of things to make them work together it’s frustrating but that’s life, I really try my best and so far it’s working so I’m good! The pressure comes and goes so I don’t sleep as much as I want to or just not at all- but you get used to it, I have my ambitions and nothing will stand in my way.

Q If you have any chance to create the Alice of your own version, how would you do it?

A Well first of all it would look crappy next to the AMA version, not visually but actually story wise. But in my version wonderland is an alternate universe and that world called a character, someone from Alice’s family line, there would have been a LOT of dialogues and quests to be taken, of course some fighting as well, when the character would of found wonderland she will understand what happened to her great, great grandmother, Alice. Eventually wonderland and our world would collide and chaos will spread, death and destruction that our character will have to fix in the next game. She’ll be or an albino or have platinum blond and it should be as dark and cruel as possible.