Interview with David Mascha

When did you know that you wanted to be an artist?

Oh, that's a good question. I originally started with graffiti almost 25 years ago. At that point, I was just fascinated by art. Then I started using Photoshop and Illustrator, and it took me into this direction. I like that you could just undo things in Photoshop, you can't do that when you're actually drawing or painting something. And then I studied multimedia design, and I learned more about all the programs and design.

Was that in school?
Yeah, that was in a university program. Then I started submitting work on Deviant Art, it was really big back then. There were all these people doing these abstract graphics, and I was just amazed by it, it was totally new and different for me so I started emulating that style, and it just made me happy. It was like some sort of like therapy, or maybe meditation. I felt like, okay, this is like what I want to do, and I want to use the computer as a tool. And so, there wasn't a certain point where I said, ‘Okay, I want to be an illustrator or an artist,’ I just grew into it.

How did you learn Photoshop and Illustrator, all those digital programs?
I learned the basics in university, but really learned by doing and trying out all the effects. What happens if you click this and that? I think in Photoshop, it's a little more limited, but in Illustrator, it was quite easy to experiment, you change a couple numbers and try some effects and poof, something happens and you're like, whoa, I didn't expect that. So I think that that's where the magic was with Illustrator.

What is your approach to color, how do you come up with your color palettes?
It's funny because in life, I wear mostly grays and blacks, neutral colors. But when I work with color, even when I started with graffiti, I always wanted bright and flashy colors. I wanted people to look at them and think, “this guy's work is so vibrant and wild.” I think that was the starting point for me to use these crazy color combinations. And I love neon. Of course on the screen, you can't really work with neon, but I always try to mix and combine bright RGB colors in a way that’s very intuitive to me.

Sometimes it's difficult because I’ll get to a certain point and feel like the colors are good but they don’t quite work, so I just keep experimenting. I’ll try some layer effects and blending modes in Photoshop, and then suddenly there's totally different colors coming up that might work better.

Can you describe your creative process? How do you go from blank page to a complete piece?
It depends, sometimes it's very chaotic. Like, I have this image in my head, and then I try to bring it on the screen, but it's a lot of trial and error. Sometimes I come up with something nice in an hour or two. Sometimes it takes a couple of days. Sometimes I work on it a couple of hours, and then I feel like no, it's not going anywhere, and I just save it and let it sit, and then look at it a couple of weeks later. This is for my personal work, for client work you have to speed up the process. But then it's also nice to get some some input from clients. Sometimes you get a good input, it might push you further.

But I always have this approach to have everything very polished, very clean. Maybe sometimes I try to make it too perfect instead of just saying, this is it, and I'm not going to touch it anymore. But then sometimes you feel it's finished, and then you look at it again, and you have another idea. When to say it’s done is so difficult.

Have you ever been able to pin down what inspires you?
I think it's just everything you see, whether it's art in a gallery, or even on Instagram or Pinterest. Tutorials also help me, to figure out the technique behind certain looks, then I can use that to in my own idea. So I think other artists are definitely a big inspiration.

Also, nature and the colors in nature, flowers, or geometric shapes in nature, or even old letters. Just like everything I see– sometimes I take a photo, or remember what I saw in a museum or a gallery, some pattern or some kind of shapes, and I try to use them.

You mentioned other artists being an inspiration. Who are some of your favorite artists ?
To start with the old masters, I love Viktor Vasarely [pictured below]. He was painting these huge geometric patterns and 3D objects, and I've always been amazed by them. For a long time, I didn't know that they were so huge. And for me, it was also crazy how someone can paint so precisely. He also used wild, vibrant colors.

Escher, of course, and I also love Bridget Riley. She's a British artist, and she's still alive. She's also doing a lot of geometric pop art.

And then Alex Trochut, he was quite big like 10-15 years ago. He did a cover for the Rolling Stones, and a lot of big clients. He had a very fresh approach to typography, and he was also using Illustrator and the blend tool. The blend tool is one of my all time favorites, I don’t know what my work would look like without the blend tool.

You do a lot of work in typography too, what is it that excites you about type?
I think it's nice that you have some sort of basic shape to work with. Every letter you're using or a word, you have a reference. And it's nice to work in those guidelines. For example, the letter B, I can do whatever I want, but it still has to look like a B. And then of course, you have to refine it to see how crazy you can go, but it still needs to be a B that someone can recognize.

What would be a piece of advice that you would give to an artist who's just starting out?
Just keep grinding [laughs] I mean, it’s always helpful to look at what other artists are doing; how their work is evolving, how they promote themselves. But, in the end, do what makes you happy. Even if you think it might not be the best for getting client jobs or whatever, you never know. So if it's something very different from what other people are doing, there is a good opportunity that at some point, someone will see it and say like, “God, it's so different and it's so cool, and we want it, here's the money.”

So you mentioned working with clients, and you've worked with some really big clients (Samsung, Google, Apple, Adobe, Forbes). So do you have any advice for people who want to land those big names? How did it happen for you?
Yeah, I think the most important is to just get your work out there so people can see it. Even if it's some smaller projects that might not pay that well. Make a portfolio website or an Instagram, and I think it's good enough, even if it's just like personal works. That's how I landed my first big jobs, I was approached because of my personal work. And they said, look, we like it, and we want you to do something like this for our clients. Just get your work out there and make sure people see.

I think that's really good advice. Because it's so easy to make something and then just let it sit on your computer forever.
I mean, I’m the same. I have so many unfinished works, what you see on my website, or on my Instagram is just the tip of the iceberg.

If you had to choose another career, what would you do?
Maybe an archaeologist, or a professional climber, or someone who's just traveling the world exploring and taking or a photographer for like National Geographic.

You’re based in Austria, so do you spend a lot of time climbing?
Yeah, now when it's cold, I mainly go to the gym. But normally, I try to go at least twice a week. And on the weekends, if the weather is nice, I just like to spend the whole day outside on a rock. It's the best contrast to staring at a screen, which I hate sometimes, because you just sit there, you don't move. So it's really good to just go out and put all that that away, and get some space from it. And in general, I like spending time in nature, it’s really important to get energy and clear your head.

*this interview has been edited for clarity