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Putting Jorg Warda in a suitable box is quite a difficult task. The same applies to the artist as well as to the person. “I like to experiment with different techniques and stylistic means”, Jorg explains, and it seems that he has always stuck to this principle until today. He started his career as an airbrush artist. For more than seven years, Warda served the complete range of airbrush art, from custom painting to T-shirt-painting and body painting. “I am a passionate self-educator. When I am interested in something I cannot help but learn as much about it as I can”, Warda says. “In my time as an airbrush illustrator I have been able to acquire much practical knowledge and for the theory I studied and acquired a diploma as a graphic designer by correspondence course.”

At the beginning, he was unable to make a living out of his work as a fine artist. A friend from the Berlin airbrush scene procured the opportunity for Jorg to temporarily work in a lithographic workshop at night. No truly creative job, but there he learned much about color separation and earned the money for his airbrush equipment.

“Right from the start, my goal was to become a fantasy or pin up illustrator, but then, all of a sudden, I got more and more jobs that dealt with graphic design. At some point I realized that I had gone a long way from my original goal.”

Particularly through his work as a graphic artist, Jorg experienced the changes the computer had brought to the aspects of a whole branch of business. What started then as DTP has now expanded to all creative areas. With the Internet, more fields have been added. “Eventually, a friend asked me whether I would like to design his web site. I had no clue whatsoever of HTML, but it was exciting to try something new again.” In the course of his career, Jorg Warda has worked as an airbrush illustrator, graphic designer, web designer and passionate photographer. Besides, he was a founding member of Berlin Airbrush Club, did presentations at fairs and gave airbrush lectures at youth centers. Therefore he seems to be just the right person for us to talk about how much the digital era has changed the world of airbrush.

Art Scene: When and why did you decide to go digital?
Jorg Warda: It was not a real decision, but the computer and the digital techniques sneaked into more and more of my fields of expertise. As an example: a long time ago, when we had to do some chrome lettering, we had to design every single letter by hand - this was laborious and time consuming. As soon as this step could be done on a computer, this certainly saved us a lot of time. With the print you could then cut good stencils and masks. However, my personal development led from airbrush to more and more graphic design oriented work and in this field in particular, the computer has brought revolutionary changes. To come back to your question: I started digital work when I started designing logos and flyers. This had nothing to do with airbrushing any more and nobody would have thought at that time that one day it would be possible to seriously paint with a computer.

Art Scene: A concept that changed with the introduction of software applications like “Painter”, right?
Jorg Warda: Exactly. To be honest, this was the software that started everything for me. At that time, the software still came in this small paint bucket. I experimented around with it a while and the results were quite impressive. But as I said before, I was busy doing graphic design at the time. Moreover, I had to create web sites and so I never had the time to paint. At one point, my work had developed so far away from airbrushing that I only had very abstract tasks any more like creating pictographs and icons. One day, I simply felt the urge to once again paint something. I sat in front of my computer and just started painting. If you like, this was the point when I had decided to airbrush again, only I exchanged the airbrush for a Wacom tablet.

Art Scene: Did you completely say goodbye to “conventional” airbrushing?
Jorg Warda: I had to put the airbrush equipment in the cellar because I had no room. I think the last time I used it was when I painted a fantasy tin figure. I am always happy when I hold my old DeVilbiss Super 93E in my hands again. This is just a timelessly beautiful tool. But one I use only rarely any more.

Art Scene: As a person who has completed the change from airbrusher to computer illustrator: do you think that airbrush technique is outdated?
Jorg Warda: Oh no, of course not! You would never think that oil painting is outdated since we have acrylic paint now, would you? Anyway, I think that there is much too much discussion about techniques. It is not important whether a work of art has been painted with a brush or a mop. The finished artwork is the thing that counts and not the discussions about which technique is the one and only real McCoy. Leonardo Da Vinci was one of the first artists who used then modern oil paint instead of the usual egg tempera. Can you imagine anyone standing in front of Da Vinci’s artwork, shaking his head saying, “I do not know whether this was the correct paint?” Maybe there is time for a little anecdote?

Art Scene: Of course, go ahead!
Jorg Warda: I remember how I came to airbrushing. In the shop window of my artist’s tools dealer I saw an airbrush book with a chrome robot woman on the cover. Immediately, I thought “Wow!! How does that work? I want to do that, too!” So I bought the book and then my first little airbrush equipment (no compressor, we had air in cans back then) and so I started airbrushing. Later, I realized that this “Sorayama” - that was the guy who had painted the cover - paints most of his artwork with brushes and not with an airbrush. After I had taken great pains for years, I had to learn that these works of art I admired were not the result of 100 percent airbrush at all.

Art Scene: That is exactly how we feel about it. Back then, still under the title “Airbrush, Art + Action”, we tried to explain that same thing to our readers and that was the reason why we finally changed our name into “Art Scene International” and now simply show the best illustrations and artwork, no matter which technique.
Jorg Warda: A bombastic mix - please continue with it! Every technique has its own field of activity and airbrush technique will always be there, too - simply because the airbrush is a tool for applying paint in a completely different way compared to a brush. The field of application for the airbrush has shrunk, that is true. There are field where other tools have become more simple and efficient than the airbrush. But in custom painting, make up and special effects, there will not be any competition for the good old airbrush in the foreseeable future. Moreover, there will always be people for whom the sensual experience of painting is important - and the computer certainly cannot replace this.

Art Scene: Well described and we agree 100 percent. Did your knowledge from your airbrush period help you with your digital illustration?
Jorg Warda: I will give you a provocative answer: NO! Why? Because I think that knowledge about color theory, perspective, composition and everything an artist has to know to produce an effectual work of art is not part of a particular painting technique. Airbrushing has taught me to use an airbrush. Maybe I have also learnt to cut sheer masking foil with a sharp knife - but that was it. Digital airbrushing - if you may call it that at all - in my opinion has nothing to do with classic airbrushing, although Photoshop used to have a little airbrush symbol for the brush. The digital technique offers completely different possibilities to create a work of art. While working at it you may try out your ideas and discard them afterwards and the possibility of changing colors afterwards is great. In spite of all this, the computer is nothing but another tool.

Art Scene: Well, you seem to be on the way to establishing yourself with your fantasy illustrations. They keep appearing in international publications more and more often. Is this fine art or ordered material?
Jorg Warda: At the moment, all of my illustrations are fine art. I really enjoy the situation: no art director telling me that he would like to see this or that changed. And for a change it is very restful to be able to do an artwork just the way you would like it to be yourself. However, I am not as free as I think, because this little art director voice inside my head keeps saying “add some more sky to leave the space for the title”, or I lay out the composition for a double page. I keep catching myself while treating fine art work just like a job.

Art Scene: It seems that this is the commercial illustrator that hides inside many of us. In general, your artwork shows most beautiful women. What is it that particularly appeals to you in pin ups or other depictions of the female body?
Jorg Warda: As I mentioned before, Hajime Sorayama was responsible for the beginning of my airbrush career - even if it was based on false assumptions. But I am still a huge fan of his art and Al Buell, Gil Elvgren or Pearl Frush - just to mention some of the masters of pin up art - are other artists whose work has had some formative influence on me - not forgetting the unrivalled Olivia de Berardinis and Patrick Nagel. And - to quickly answer your question: I have never really thought about this - probably because it is more fun than painting an old pack of straws. As all of this is artwork that I have created for my own pleasure and to explore the ins and outs of the software, I guess I have just chosen the motive I like best and it seems that, obviously, these are women.

Art Scene: I guess that is exactly how many other artists feel! Do you rely on models for your work or do you get back to reference photographs from magazines etc.?
Jorg Warda: In general, I do a pencil sketch first and then I think about how I could implement the idea. Of course, it is the best solution to shoot your own reference photographs, like Boris Vallejo does. On the other hand, I cannot just take a little trip to the Sahara desert for a little photo shooting. Then I get back to my archive where I collect everything, from penguins to x-rays, I might need some day, but 3D software also turns out to be a handy tool. When I have the time, I work with the models from my photo projects. But most of the time, my wife has to pose for me - and I would like to seize this opportunity to thank her for her patience.

Art Scene: Let us talk about technique once more. It seems as if the number of illustrators, particularly in the fantasy field, is growing steadily. We keep seeing incredible artwork from artists all over the world. Do you think that their number has increased because of the computer medium? In other words: Does the computer possibly enable less talented “craftsmen” to create good artwork?
Jorg Warda: Well - good point. I guess that we see most of this artwork on the Internet and only a small portion of it ever gets printed. Our feeling that there are ever more fantasy illustrators probably results from the fact that virtually everybody may present his/her artwork to the rest of the world via Internet. Of course there are some whose work is not exactly what we would consider brilliant, but what matters is the fun people have in being creative - not the talent they have or have not. Actually, it is very difficult to judge who is a “talented craftsperson” and who is not. Looking around in many a museum I sometimes ask myself why certain works of art are exhibited there, but somebody somewhere must be convinced of them being great artwork. From that point of view, maybe the computer offers an opportunity for many people to get a more relaxed approach towards being creative and expressing themselves. Good quality craftsmanship is not so important then.

Art Scene: A subject we could certainly discuss for hours without ever getting to a result. That is “art”.
Jorg Warda: You are right. It is an endless subject, just like the “dogma of photorealism” in airbrush or whether commercial illustration is art at all. We may discuss this subject in a separate interview.

Art Scene: Okay, we will do so - back to your digital illustrations. Do you still do any conventional steps, like e.g. a handmade sketch? Or do you create everything on the PC?
Jorg Warda: As a matter of fact, I could do everything on the computer from beginning to end, but I am unable to do sketches on the tablet - it somehow does not work out for me. So I take my pencils and a nice sheet of paper and design my sketches in the good old-fashioned way. I like the sound of the lead on the paper and the crumbles from the eraser - this is just the kind of thing that a computer cannot offer. Nor does it give you the sensory perception of brushes, paint and canvas.But on the whole I guess that it does not matter how much of the work has been done with a certain medium - one should always use the tool that gives the best result.

Art Scene: This is certainly true for many digitally working illustrators. Let us talk about customers. In the past, without Internet, artists used to work for companies in their own country and it was a very special event to be hired by a customer from abroad. Today, it seems that most illustrators are working for foreign customers.
Jorg Warda: Personally, I am a huge fan of the Internet and the many advantages it offers. I may send my artwork to Australia or any other place over the net or I may do this interview without even leaving my own desk. People from all over the world are sending me emails and I am in contact with artists from other countries whom I would never have gotten to know then. Of course, isolation to a certain extent is one of the disadvantages - I realize projects with people whom I never get to know personally. On the other hand, for people with a certain fondness for a hermit’s life like me, this may rather be a blessing than a curse. My biggest concern would be that one day the Internet will not be there any more. How could you possibly find out most important things like who played the Ewok in Star Wars 3 without it?

Art Scene: I think you do not need to worry about that. Probably there are even more incredible things waiting for us that we never dreamed were possible. Well - considering all your jobs - what would be one of the greatest challenges for you at the moment?
Jorg Warda: I guess that there is no such thing as “the job of my dreams”. When you are still interested in the things you do after 30 or 60 years, this probably results from the fact that you have never felt it as being just a “job”. Just like e.g. old scientists who never stop researching. Okay - I still have not answered your question yet. Well, in general I am interested in so many different things that I would have a hard time telling you which one I like best. What attracts me most is the possibility to try as many things as possible. For the time being I would be glad to finally have enough time to paint one picture from beginning to end without having to do other work in between.

Art Scene: Okay, we will keep our fingers crossed for you. Followed by the pledge to document this picture step by step for our readers, then.
Jorg Warda: Okay, I will do that. Thank you very much for the chance to present my work and me to our readers.

More information about Jorg Warda and his work can be found at his web site: www.warda-art.com

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Find other interviews in Art Scene International Magazine - a visual arts, illustration, and digital imaging magazine published six times a year. Within its 88 full color pages, you will find interviews, art workshops and tutorials, industry news, and more!