Ep. 74: Animator MARK BEHM on Day Jobs and Nightwork

I first started trading emails with Mark Behm (pronounced like "beam") after seeing his artbook, Nightwork, advertised on the Brandstudio Press website. The excerpts from it were amazing, so I started looking around for an official site on the artist. Lo and behold, there was one—and a blog!

I visited a few times and eventually sent a note, which is how Mark and I became Internet-acquainted. The funny thing was, he mentioned in one of our exchanges that he was already a listener to SiDEBAR, and really enjoyed the show. Needless to say, I was thrown—that doesn't happen often! Sitting in a basement, speaking into a microphone to somebody on the telephone...well. After a while, you start feeling like you're the only one who knows you're doing it!

Anyway, back to our guest. As I said earlier, he's an amazing artist and versatile as all get out. His blog is rife with gorgeous painted images, character designs, 3D stuff and some kick-ass life drawing studies. Mark told us during our talk that he thinks his interests are too diverse, but Dwight and I, of course, love the variety! You get to see something different every time you drop by his site.

Behm recently left his gig at Dreamworks and made the switch to Valve, a video game company out of Washington state. But if you're curious about his past filmwork, he was a part of the creative teams that brought you Madagascar 2, Shrek the Third, Robots and The Ant Bully. In the interview, he pulls back the curtain on Mad 2 and gives us a little peek into the challenges of working on a huge, animation project.

We also chat a good bit about his dad who was an artist as well, growing up loving Star Wars, DrawerGeeks! and how you've gotta make time to do your own stuff—even if it's at night.

Check Mark out at his sketchblog and pick up a copy of Nightwork too!

Click here to download the show.

Comments

[Jason Pruett]

This Mark Behm interview was really great. Mark has been one of my favorite artists for a while now. (I discovered him a year or two ago on Blue Sky's artist sketch blog - saw work from when he was there).

You covered so many aspects and also were able to talk about other artists that I then went to check out - thanks!

[Dann y]

This is my first time here and I just wanted to say the interview was great. I've worked with Mark, and as nice as he sounds in the interview, he's even more friendly in person. He got me in to Zbrush after giving me a demo years ago, and his work and work ethic have always inspired. Great interview, and cool site!