An interview with artist Alex Gross on his unique style

comic books and superheroes were always my first love as a kid. it’s how I learned to draw. copying the drawings in marvel comics, and I even had a book called “How to draw comics the marvel way.” but when star wars came along, I was also immediately on board. I got all the toys and loved it as well. by the time ‘return of the Jedi’ came out, I was over it. but now, I have enjoyed many of the sequels, especially “Rogue One,” which I think is the third-best star wars film. so, it’s hard to say that I prefer one over the other, but if pressed, superheroes probably would win out.

I love to paint other stuff too. the geeky pop culture artwork is just a part of my overall body of work. I love to work with models, photographing them, and creating paintings based on more psychological and surreal scenarios. this gives me more control because when I paint pop culture characters, I am very dependant on finding existing imagery of those characters. but when I paint a model I have shot, I have already taken hundreds of photos and can decide how I want her to be lit, the setting, etc.

“Compulsion” has Spock, and “Diversions” has Batman, in the same way. Both of them have completely broken the internet, so to speak. Comments on both pieces on social media have skewed heavily towards those points. Some folks seem to get the joke. But it’s amazing how many people don’t seem to understand the humor involved. or they just think I’m stupid. I already have another piece in this series planned for spring, and I’ve got a good idea about who the “Spock” of that piece will be as well.

as I said above, it was all about comics for me as a kid. this was long before marvel movies were mainstream. I was, and still am at heart, a comic nerd.

I was always pretty good at art in school, but it was not clear to me what I would do with it. I planned to draw comic books for a long time actually. then, with some nudging from my parents, I went to a regular university for a year. this was the university of Virginia, a huge school (founded by Thomas Jefferson btw). within a few months, I had a regular comic strip appearing in their daily newspaper, and it was clear that art should be where I put my attention. so, after a year there, I applied to art school and came to California to go to the Art Center College of Design. although going to UVA was sort of a lost year for me, I think being in a bigger pond, so to speak, and seeing that even as a freshman, I was regarded as a good artist there, helped solidify my feelings about doing art. of course, once I got to the art center, it was a whole other story. I was not even close to the top talent there, and I learned that it was all about hard work.

See the last sentence above. It’s all about working hard. I don’t think you’ll find many successful artists, or any other creatives, who haven’t worked very hard to get where they are. once you’re in the world, there are plenty of people with natural talent. that only gets you so far. you have to put in the time. also, try to marry someone rich!

I tell people with commissions that I like to create most of the image on my own, but if they have someone they want to be included in the work, I can try to accommodate that. I had a request to put Vladimir Putin in a painting, which was fun. I included him in another painting after that too, not for the client.