Oct 10, 20203 min read

Artist Interview - Jamie Primack (Creator of Binary Star)

Jamie Primack is an artist I've been following for quite awhile. As a comic creator myself, I stumbled across her work online and have been a fan ever since! She makes awesome pen and ink illustrations as well as mixed media works. Because I work mainly digitally, I'm often awestruck by her traditional inked work (and am a bit jealous of those skills!) - so being able to interview her is quite the honor. Please enjoy the following interview and make sure to follow Jamie on social media if you like her work.

Q: Who are you?

A: My name is Jamie Primack and I live in Chicago. Born and raised!

Q: What kind of art do you make?

A: I do both comic art and sci-fi/horror/fantasy illustrations. My comics are almost exclusively drawn in stark black and white ink while my illustrations can range from colored pens and dried ink to fully-colored gouache paintings, metallic watercolors, Copic markers, gel pens - anything I think will look cool. I'm definitely best known for my dark, cosmic sci fi ink art, however - especially the starry splatter effect I overuse on everything.

Q: How did you get started?

A: I've been drawing since the moment I could hold a pencil. I used to draw all over everything - even children's' books that already had illustrations in them. I guess I just never stopped. I would doodle little pieces of art for friends, make my own comics on leftover printer paper... I just never wanted to stop drawing. I didn't pursue art professionally until I was in my twenties, however, and enrolled in the first-ever graduating class at the International School of Comics in Chicago. Since then, art's been my full-time job.

Q: What’s your favorite thing about being creative?

A: I think I most enjoy the ability to imagine something and then make it happen. One of the things that drove me to draw constantly growing up was the frustration I felt when a drawing just wasn't turning out the way I wanted. Rather than giving up on it, however, I would practice endlessly until things began to look like what I imagined in my head. Now that I've been doing art for so many years, I feel like I can create anything I want, no matter how crazy. It's extremely liberating! I would even call it a huge relief, as strange as that sounds.

Q: What’s your #1 tip for new artists?

A: Keep practicing and keep drawing no matter what. I know it's easy to get frustrated when trying to create art, but the thing is: you can never make negative progress. If you're practicing or creating something, you're gaining experience and you can't lose experience. Even if something doesn't turn out the way you wanted, you still learned something, and every second you spend practicing is a second you spend increasing your knowledge and improving your skills. No time spent creating art is ever a waste.

Q: What artist inspires you?

A: Oh, man... there are so many. I guess... this might be a strange answer but as an independent artist/comic creator who writes, illustrates, self-publishes, and promotes her own work, the artist I'm most inspired by is Toby Fox, the main creator of the hit indie game Undertale, as well as his assistant artist Temmie Chang. Those two proved to me that with enough passion, hard work, creativity, and determination, anyone can create a whole universe of original art and stories and turn it into one of the most critically-acclaimed, successful, and beloved indie endeavors of all time.

Q: What project are you currently working on?

A: My main focus these days is my self-published comic series BINARY STAR. I upload the series online as a webcomic and update it with 2-3 new pages a week. I also publish single issues of each chapter and crowdfund the trade paperback and hardcover books. My Vol. 2 Kickstarter just ended and was a huge success (the goal was $5,500 and we raised over $9,000), so right now I'm focusing on getting all the webcomic pages done for the current chapter while also putting together bonus pages for the new books, creating all the art prints and merchandise for the rewards, character sketches, commissions... Needless to say, I'm very tired. But in a good way!