Today we’d like to introduce you to Anthony Campney.
Hi Anthony, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I started drawing when everyone does, around five or six years old. But it was probably second grade – so I would’ve been seven or eight – when I read Superman #78, the Death of Superman issue, that I knew I wanted to tell stories through comics and art and prose. My life since – moving from New Jersey suburbs to Eagle Pass on the border and then up to San Antonio – has had a lot to do with coloring the stories I want to tell and the visuals I like to use in telling them.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
In my youth I did not have the wherewithal or the sense of urgency to pursue formal guidance in my art and/or writing (I’m pretty sure I have some sort of undiagnosed attention disorder; though I’d proven relatively high intelligence, school was just hell for me). Couple that with the fact I was a very young dad to my first daughter and I’ve had to prioritize things a lot differently than I believe most of my comparative artists have had to. I didn’t really start breaking into this industry until my late thirties and I’m still scraping for good attention while I work day jobs. That said, when I’ve had successes they’ve been very sweet. Not at all a smooth road, but a good one. A challenging and educational one.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I think of myself primarily as a story teller and character builder, but in terms everyone can follow: I’m primarily a digital artist in the comic book/pinup vein, and I also write. I’ve written a few novels you’ll never see because they were of the formative and derivative trash variety that I think every writer goes through to figure out how they want to write but I’ve also written a novel that I want to release someday, but it’s not ready for various reasons; there’s a couple of other books I need to write and publish first before I unleash that one. Meantime, I’ve outlined and written the first issue of a comic in a genre I call “Martian Western”. It’s an offshoot of the now well-known sci-fi/western, but specifically set on Mars. My story – Red Frontier – takes place about 800 years from now and follows various and often violent character entanglements in a small town called Lyndon, right on the border of the independent human territories. The premise alone forced me to create a ton of original concepts in writing and designs in my art and it’s been a lot of fun; a little slow going considering my day-to-day life, but fun. While I’m working on that, I’ve done quite a few commissions for the paying customer and even launched my own website about a year ago, AntCamp Productions.
Before we let you go, we’ve got to ask if you have any advice for those who are just starting out?
If you have a parent willing to pay for you to go to school for something you’re passionate about, do yourself a favor and take them up on it. In the meantime, leverage the technology and resources available to you now. Tablets were not a thing when I first started to seriously go after art as a source of income, and just in the last six years or so my art quality has blossomed tremendously from being able to use digital tools to refine my work and build color and lighting effects into what I do. Mind you I am not an advocate of AI in this field and I’ve never used it in any of my work, but I do think that realistically one should at least remain open to the idea of experimenting with different tools; my views against AI in this field – apart from the mountains of moral questions that can be levied – comes down to the fact that you’re asking a machine to interpret your artistic vision, and if I’m going to collaborate in that sort of fashion, I need to do so with a human being. But so many programs come cheap or free these days for so much in the world. Do not let personal hangups or feelings of inadequacy or what anyone else tries to tell you stop you from pursuing a skill or craft if you honestly feel passionate about it. You can’t break out your heart and soul into your passions if you let yourself be chained down.
Pricing:
- Art pinup commissions start at $120
Contact Info:
- Website: https://antcampproductions.com/
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/antcampart
