Location: Brooklyn, New York. On the Web—www.timtomkinson.com.
Duration: I have lived in New York for six years, and have been illustrating for almost five.
Staff: Just me in the studio, but I'm represented by Friend & Johnson, who have reps in New York, Chicago and San Francisco.
Education: Honors BFA, Parsons School of Design, New York.
Cultural Influences: NYC streets, any magazine or book with photos, Seymour Chwast, Peter Blake, typography, fashion, lsamu Noguchi, old signage, MAD magazine in the '8os, Rene Magritte, Paul Klee, album artwork, concert flyers, Charles and Ray Eames, old photographs of unknown people, Jenny Saville, Surrealism, Pop Art and Lowbrow.
Environment: I live in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, with my wife Kate and our two overweight cats. The second bedroom in our apartment has become my studio and office. The walls are painted bright red with original artwork everywhere, and my desk is surrounded by inspiring art/design books, sourcebooks, graphic novels and my sketchbooks.
Philosophy: Keeping a sketchbook is the most important thing in keeping my work fresh. It's my way of communicating the often strange, sometimes humorous way that I see the things and events around me. I try to allow concepts to formulate themselves in my sketches, from which I can reference for any other elements I'd like to include. The resulting pictures remain fairly subjective, allowing for different interpretations. In my commissioned illustrations, I usually adhere to a stronger concept, though I try hard to incorporate the same level of experimentation and fun that I use in my sketchbooks.