Work in Skateboarding interview with Jack Tarlinton

Baker Cursed series Interview by Suziie Wang

You may have never heard of Jack Tarlinton but some of your favorite board graphics along with Australias premiere skateboarding magazine (The Skateboarders Journal) have all been formulated, chewed over and spat out of his creative genius. A master of all mediums from sculpture to illustration, Jack got his start in the skateboarding industry designing graphics for best mate Dustin Dollin which has snowballed into producing countless graphics for Baker, Cliche, and Vans whilst also co-founding, art directing and curating all things creative for The Skateboarders Journal - Dave Chami

What artistic formats do you work with and what is your most favourite?

With the exception of digital 3D, I can work with all manual mediums from pen and ink and various paints, to welded structures for sculpture. When it comes to board graphics everything is finished in Photoshop, with text often generated in InDesign or Illustrator. I try to be as flexible as possible in commercial art, but when it comes to my personal fine art, sculpture is my favourite. It just comes straight out of my hands.

Did you study or gain a degree in art?

I grew up in a pretty broke family, so I was encouraged to get a career where I could make money and then focus on art when I got established in life. I did a 2 year graphic design course, which in the mid 90s was focused on skills which have been totally superseded by the digital era. Only one of our 8 classes used computers which is impossible to imagine these days.

Baker Piñata Series

What was your first paid artistic job and how did you get it?

I did a poster for a community festival when I was about 14. I think I got 20 bucks for it.

At the beginning of your career how did you build up your portfolio?

My first real job was in a typesetting company. As digital started to make the old bromide systems redundant they got less work and I too was made redundant. From there on I freelanced for a couple of years all over the place in print, doing everything from kids book layouts to women’s magazines. In 1999 I was lucky to get a job with a guy who did a lot of work for various museums, and then moved on to work for the Australian Museum full time in 2001. Museums are a great place to work as everything is so varied, from little flyers to the graphics for massive exhibitions. I did quite a lot of illustration too, a lot of the stuff I did was for children’s education programs.

During this time I was doing some skate stuff on the side, getting involved with Baker doing the odd board graphic for the PD guys and I designed Dustin’s first 3 pro model shoes for Vans.

How did you make the contacts that gave you the most work?

In Australia it was just from knowing a lot of people through actually going skateboarding because I wasn’t involved in the industry. I wasn’t sponsored, didn’t work in a skateshop etc, but having been in skateboarding since the 80s I’d met a hell of a lot of people.

As far as contacts overseas, Dustin was my direct hookup and I’d meet a lot of people coming out here on tours. I’m part of the PD family so people would just hit me up directly via email with ideas and I’d get down to work.

I remember that in about 2002 while working on Dustin’s shoes Vans would hit me up for potential designs. I did an Omar Hassan that they took and turned into a Rowley and a Dustin hightop that came out as a TNT hightop… they still haven’t paid for them. Ha ha.

Do you have any advice for making work related contacts?

I don’t really have any advice, I was just in the right place in the right time. Any time someone gave me a chance I’d make sure I’d keep asking of they needed anything done.

Why did you want to create the Journal?

While I was in museum land I started to burn out from the long hours and moved to the country to help a guy build sheds.

After about a year of that I knew I had to return to the city. Sean Holland was a mate and was working at Australian Skateboarding Magazine as the editor.

He heard I was coming back so he gave me a call to come in as the art director.

I worked on that and did some work for some surf and snowboarding mags too.

It just came down to us believing in ourselves and becoming disillusioned with the corporates that we were working for.

We were at the pub and we decided that with the support of the skateboarding community and industry we could break out and make it happen. Almost everyone got behind us and we launched about 6 months after quitting ASM. 6 months after that ASM was dead and the rest is history.

How did creating the Journal help your career?

Working on the Journal gave me endless flexibility. I really wanted to experiment and when you have the opportunity to create your own briefs it presented me with the scope to go out and just make stuff. From the first issue I started to make little stop-motion style film sets for the product pages and do illustrations in whatever style I felt was appropriate. It gave the mag real texture and it allowed me to develop skills I may not have had the opportunity to acquire in another job.

I think I’ve only used the same style on 2 illustrations over 32 issues - I keep trying to do new things.

What do you do at the Journal?

I’m the art director, I do some writing under my name and a bunch of aliases, I don’t do the contests and bro-down events, I leave that to Sean if he feels like it.

Cover, The Skateboarders Journal, Issue 20

Bjorn Johnston Portrait, The Skateboarder’s Journal Issue 15

Chima Ferguson Portrait, The Skateboarder’s Journal Issue 11

3D sculpture product page, The Skateboarder’s Journal Issue 2

Baker, Puppet Series

How did you get the chance to do board graphics for Baker and Cliché?

I tried to do a graphic for Dustin when he turned pro for Stereo, but Deluxe had graphics people and wouldn’t let me in the door and for some reason still won’t. I was involved from the start with Baker, even to the point of selling boards for Dustin at the skatepark to make him some money while they set Baker up. I think I did his second Baker graphic. I did a few here and there and then when the mag started people saw what I was up to and asked for more.

I’d known Andrew for years and pitched a bunch of ideas for series at him and most of them he liked, so he just gave me free reign to run with them, and I just went for it trying to one up myself each time. A lot of the PD crew were spending time living with Dustin during the summers in Australia so a I’d run a lot of ideas by them for individual graphics too.

The Cliche connection came through Sammy Winter. When I heard he was turning pro I had a beer with him and he was pretty much down for anything stylish. He dug the cutout girl idea and when Al Boglio and the Cliche guys saw it they asked me to expand it into a mini series.

Baker, Spanky ‘Headless’ graphic & Super Jack Series

Passport, Macabre Series

Which was your favourite board series you created for Baker?

I’ve made over 80 graphics for Baker but the Cursed series was the most fun. It involved sculpture, model making and painting - it was pretty ambitious and I had to set a time limit for each to get it done on time. I also really enjoyed the Macabre series, which Andrew freaked out on and rejected. Jamie Thomas also looked at it for a Zero series but in the end didn’t think it fit their style, and Real rejected it too so I adapted it and parts of it ran as a Passport mini series. Trent loved it.

What’s the process you go through when creating the various projects you work on?

I come up with an idea, or get approached with an idea. I generally chew on it in my head at the pub, then get to work a couple of days later. I might only do some rough thumbnails and go for it. Once I start I don’t stop. If it is an illustration I’ll generally finish it in one sitting.

A series like the Cursed series takes a couple of weeks, starting with shopping for materials and finishing with a photoshoot and then retouching in Photoshop etc.

Cliché, Pinup series

Poster for The Skateboarder’s Journal Issue 10. Created to celebrate the 10th issue, it shows all of the previous 9 issue devouring (and destroying) a city.

What was a defining moment in your artistic career?

Honestly, there hasn’t been one. I have consciously been using all of these commercial projects as experimental steps in the ladder to a career in fine arts. It’s been a great way to learn and have fun without drawing the criticism of the fine arts crowd.

I’ve been working on a show for about a year and will start approaching galleries early next year, so there could be a defining moment in the near future. Ha ha.

What was your favourite project and why? Can you describe the process with working on this project?

That’s a hard one to pin down. I find each brief demands a different approach. The main thing for me is that I have have to be a bit of a creative chameleon and put myself into a new headspace each time, psych up and tap into a part of me that isn’t always there. For example, for the SuperJack

series for Baker I watched a lot of cartoons in the concept stage. I don’t watch cartoons, but it put me in the right frame of mind to get it done. Once that was over I just do a brain dump with all of that input and stimulation and get onto the next thing.

I guess I just pretend to be someone who is really passionate about a certain style for the duration of a job, and then go back to being boring old me.

What do you consider to be the project you had the best experience working on?

The Skateboarder’s Journal in its entirety is by far the best. Not many people get to basically do whatever they want creatively. Sean is fantastic at bouncing ideas off and his general enthusiasm is inspiring to say the least. The photographers are all great people and are constantly pitching ideas. They know I want their input and they give what we do great energy.

What’s one of the weirdest projects you’ve worked on?

I made a photorealistic life-size portrait of a mate’s newborn daughter last year. I had a little too much water on the clay that had distorted one of the eyes and when I poked it in the eye with a sculpture tool to remodel it she blew a bubble out of her mouth.

That was weird!Living in cartoon land for two weeks making the SuperJack series was pretty weird.

Each time I have to create a new mental compartment to get a job done, in comparison to someone who has a normal job, I guess I get a little weird!

Any advice to pass on for aspiring working artists that you wish you’d known?

I’d say do it for the fun of it. Enjoy the process. Play around with it. Keep broad horizons and constantly try new things. www.tarloart.blogspot.com @theskateboardersjournal The Skateboarders Journal 19, Wasted Talent Illustration