Peggy Roalf: Your ink/wash drawings are so expressive. Where did you first notice this medium and when did you take it up yourself?

Paul Alex: I’ve been drawing with Chinese brushes and ink wash for about three years now; before that I mostly used technical pens. I can’t recall specifically where I first noticed the technique although I have been a life-long admirer of Quentin Blake, who, uses water colour -- but it’s that free-flowing brush that’s more like an accent of language than a brush stroke, which has kept me so engaged in the style.

PR: What were you involved with when you realized that art and illustration would be your métier?

PA: It was in Kathmandu, Nepal, where I started getting my first real commissions. I lived there for four years in my early twenties, drawing editorial and political illustrations for the Kathmandu Post, Himal Southasian, and various local magazines. Although I have alway drawn, ever since I was very young. It has forever been my truest form of escapism.  

PR: There are many portraits on your Instagram page, particularly of great writers: T.S. Eliot, Kafka, Hemingway, Philip Larkin[!] and the like. Are you a big reader? Do you have a substantial library?

PA: Yes, indeed, I love reading, especially poetry. I have a great number poetry books, from Tagore to Adrian Mitchel, Coleridge to Kate Tempest. For me, poetry is one of the great pillars of art. 

PR: Do you use photographic reference materials very much? If so, how do you avoid the pitfalls that can arise when working from reference?

PA: I do use photographs as reference fairly often. I think how you use them is very important. I’ve drawn from my own photography quite extensively, especially from my travels. I’ll try most of all to capture a feeling from an image rather than try to replicate it completely. I mostly draw factual subjects and portraits, so having a reference ideal.  

PR: I noticed that you have recently taken up Procreate as a medium. Did you find the transition agreeable? Please tell the readers about some of its pluses and minuses, and, perhaps, why you might do an assignment on Procreate rather than on paper.

PA: Procreate is a marvellous tool, I really enjoy paying around with it. I quite often use it to do a pre-sketch of an image for to get the composition right before going to paper. For me, though, it doesn’t compare with the precarious permanence of working with ink on paper.

PR: What elements of daily life exert the most influence on your work practice?

PA: I suppose my mood. I have battled with depression quite a lot in my life and my drawings and subject matter do end up reflecting that. Drawing is as coping mechanism for me has always been a place to escape to.

PR: What are some of your creative inspirations—artists, music, literature, culture in general—that you draw from in your work?

PA: 20th century literature, artist such as Quentin Blake, Ralph Steadman, Picasso, Matisse, Lowry. I’ve been fortunate to have traveled quite lot, especially my time in India and Nepal has certainly influenced my work. Contemporary politics is always creeping its way into my work as well.

PR: Do you keep a sketchbook? If so, do you draw when you travel, or mainly use a camera to record? If so, have you had commissions that have originated from your sketchbook practice?

PA: I’ve definitely done commissions in a sketchbook before. Now, I use them to formulate ideas and I always had one when I was travelling. I fear I’ve fallen out of the habit of using one on a daily basis though.

PR: What is the most unusual place that  you have lived or traveled to: How did it influence your practice?

I lived in Kathmandu, Nepal for four years, which was certainly unusual. It was there that I started drawing op-ed illustration for the main English language daily newspaper (The Kathmandu Post), where the subject matter was mostly the unstable political situation. Trying to understand a foreign political and social system was very challenging and required me to really research what I was drawing.

PR: Where do you live now and how does that place contribute to your creative work?

I currently live in the town of my birth; St Leonards-on-sea, on the south coast of England. My apartment is right on the sea side. I’ve always felt a great connection to the ocean and its one of my favourite landscapes to draw.

PR: How do you know when the art is finished—or when to stop working on it?

PA: Most of the time I draw a picture in one sitting from start to finish. For me it's got to be a fluid process and it's finished once I’ve conveyed an idea or captured a feeling or expression with as little fuss as possible. When it’s done it’s done.

@Paulalexdraws @ Paulalex