Diana Greene Winston-Salem Monthly July 2007 Artist in Residence: Kyle T. Webster

This has been a breakthrough year for Kyle Webster.   Not to oversimplify the complexity of change, but the tide began turning when the Winston-Salem artist quit his fulltime job at a local design firm.  Webster had been feeling ill for a while, underwent a battery of tests, only to discover that his body was working fine, even if it wasn’t feeling that way.  That realization prompted him to leap into the world of freelance design and illustration.  “I realized that not drawing was making me sick,” he explains.

His get-well remedy began working immediately.  After more than a year of pitching ideas, an editor at PASTE magazine, a hip national music and culture monthly, gave him an assignment.  Create a portrait of Richard Linklater, the filmmaker who’d just released “Fast Food Nation.”  And, oh yeah, one more thing – do it in two days.

“I was a big fan of his, which helped,” Webster says, “but I was in a huge hurry.”                

That rapid-fire turn-around time forced Webster, who earned a BFA from UNC-G in 1999, to draw without thinking too much.  It proved freeing.  Webster claims that Linklater portrait cracked open a drawing style that was wholly his own, one that felt natural and unique.  “There was a line quality,” he says.   “I was over the moon about it.”

PASTE liked it too, and Webster began feeling better.  Webster is now regularly illustrating for dozens of national and regional magazines, including Utne, Seattle Sound, and Slate.com.  He’s won several awards for his style which combines humor with intelligence, elegant clarity with freeform fun.  And, like many artists today, he’s working digitally.  He draws on a tablet that appears on the screen of his Mac computer and uses Flash and Photoshop programs.  His website, www.kyletwebster.com, is a lively address that even includes a heading “Kyle’s Brain.”

Webster, however, is not a technophile.  He’s actually something of a classicist.  His abiding love remains figurative drawing, and for that he uses Conté Crayons, pencils invented in the eighteenth century.  Ever since the age of seven, when his mother gave him a Walter T. Foster instructional figure drawing book, Webster’s been devoted and disciplined in his approach to drawing the body.  He believes drawing the figure is the only way to become a better illustrator.

Inside his downtown loft, framed portraits, nudes, and busts fill each room.  The lines are exquisitely rendered, light and suggestive, full of soul. An admirer of Degas’ drawings, Webster is ever mindful that what gets put into a piece is every bit as important as what gets left out.  He strives for an “unfinished” look and therefore carefully considers when to stop a drawing.

“I love the body, the figure, the way that a model can turn her head by ten degrees and you have a whole new drawing,” he says.  “To me, there’s nothing more interesting than people.”

Take the man named Pete, a retiree from Greensboro who modeled for Webster.  “He was 70 years old and his body carried all those years of work,” Webster explains.  And, it’s true, there’s something in his face that exudes the worn nobility of a life lived.

Webster is a contemporary Renaissance man.  He’s steeped in the traditions of the past, fluent in the technical ways of today’s commercial art world, and, it seems, perfectly prepared for a gratifying freelance career.

“I’ll never go back to work,” he smiles.  “What I do takes up time, yes, but it doesn’t feel like work.” 

When did you realize you were going to live a creative life?

As soon as I was able.  I never ever considered, even as a child, that I’d be doing anything other than drawing. 

Where do you find your inspiration?

From looking at other artists’ work, more than anything.  Also from travel.

What do you think of failure?

Failure is great!  Every time I met with some kind of perceived failure while getting my business off the ground, I only got better in some way.  As a result, I now fail less and less, at least where illustration is concerned!  

What do you most admire in other artists?

I admire people who are good at things I need to work on.  In some way I try to figure out what they’re doing so I can improve.  I try to be more academic, to break it down and figure out how to do it myself.

Which artists inspire you the most?

Gary Kelley, James Jean - he’s a prodigy, Degas, the Wyeths, N.C. and Andrew, Winsor McCay.  There are too many.