Click the image to read the tutorial behind this painting
3D Total: A fair few of your paintings & sketches include wings, especially on the women. Is it an underlying metaphor regarding women or just something you like to paint?
Robert Chang: I think it's because I'm drawn to delicate, fragile, ethereal, and melancholic things. I've always thought of angels as melancholic for some reason. When I see a beautiful girl that appears melancholic and fragile, I think, "She needs a pair of wings." I think most creative minds have recognizable themes that are apparent throughout their career. It's as natural and hard to explain as idiosyncratic behaviors we have like chewing our nails or trying not to step on the cracks in the sidewalk.
One of Rob's comic covers.
3DT: Would you consider going back into comics again? Maybe self publishing the rest of the Enchanted series?
RC: My heart says yes, but my mind says no. The labour involved with illustrating a comic book series is not something I enjoy too much--although I enjoy the early process of laying out the pages(it feels like making film to me). But, I love writing the stories/scripts for them, and I don't need to write specifically for comics to satiate that passion. The thought crosses my mind now and then, and maybe it'll happen one day. Enchanted is an epic tale, and only the tip of the iceberg was shown in the published series. I'd love to show the entire saga in complete form one day--but that doesn't necessarily mean it'll be in the comic book format. Epic tales don't seem to be suitable for anything else except comic books, novels, and TV series. (Star Wars, LOTR..etc are anomalies, and IMO epic tales shouldn't be told as series of movies--not enough time to truly develop characters.)
This image shows just what you can do with dramatic lighting and a carefully chosen colour pallete.
3DT: You must get a lot of requests for pieces for people or collaborations. What's the weirdest request you've had?
RC: Yeah, I get tons of emails that are requests, and I always try to answer them, no matter how busy I get. People that don't answer emails piss me off. No one is THAT busy. Use a form email or autoresponse if you have to. People can at LEAST do that, right? I swear, modern conveniences are making people even lazier and more insensitive now. I guess the weirdest request was a guy who wanted to pay me to rework one of my paintings so that it could be high resolution enough to print a large poster.
