Joseph McDermott — Pop Art Illustrator, Philadelphia

When he was a boy growing up in New Jersey, Joseph McDermott remembers drawing the panels from his comic books, and creating scenes featuring his favourite cartoon characters. Now based in Philadelphia, he’s doing the same thing as a career and has developed a Lichtenstein-esque style based almost entirely on Silver Age comics. Before becoming a full time illustrator, he worked in an art museum for eight years. He has a Scottish terrier called Monty, a large collection of vinyl albums, and still loves his comics.

Training

Joseph has a BA in Art History from Messiah College in Pennsylvania and has trained in drawing, painting, sculpture, screen-printing, typography and photography.

Approach

In one sense, Joseph works traditionally. He sketches and fine tunes everything first, before colouring and finishing the image. However, all of this is done digitally using the SketchBook Pro application, along with Illustrator and Photoshop.

Style

Joseph’s vintage comic book style will certainly remind you of Lichtenstein’s approach to Pop Art, right down to the replication of ink dot patterns that reflect 20th century printing techniques. In fact, many of the brushes and halftone patterns Joseph uses in his work are of his own design.