Adelia Ladson
MOULTRIE — The old adage “Every cloud has a silver lining,” seemed to hold true for Andrew Underdown, who moved to Moultrie in September for a job and was then laid off because of the slumping economy.
The Hickory, N.C., native immediately started doing inkwashes of iconic buildings in Moultrie and then selling them. That began his career as a free lance artist in this community. He also started designing and selling personalized business cards.
“I’m a free lance illustrator and graphic designer,” Underdown said.
He said he had always drawn when he was younger but then got away from it until he took an art class his junior year in high school.
“Then, I couldn’t really picture myself doing anything else,” he said.
He said his art teacher told him his options after school was either going to New York or to Savannah College of Art and Design. He chose to go to SCAD because he didn’t like the cold weather, he said, shrugging his shoulders.
He said he took a year off after school and worked with AmeriCorps, which is a network of national service programs that engage Americans in intensive service to meet the nation’s critical needs in education, public safety, health, and the environment, according to the organization’s website.
Then, he entered SCAD with the intention of becoming a fashion major. But he discovered he didn’t like to sew, he said with a chuckle, so he switched to being a sequential art major.
Underdown graduated from SCAD, initially, with a degree in sequential art. This style of art is like comic book illustration, he said. He felt that path offered the best instruction in drawing. However, he went back and also got a degree in graphic design because he felt it would give him a wider variety of skills and make him more marketable. This way, he could draw and paint pictures and also design business cards to make ends meet.
“I prefer illustration and drawing,” he said.
He said he incorporates a lot of illustration in his graphic designs and usually does everything including the photography for those pieces.
“A good thing with the economy going down, if there is a good side, is that I have learned to become incredibly fast at drawing,” he said.
He said the quicker he could get a project done, the more projects he could do and, now, about three days is the longest it takes him to complete most projects. He said the necessity of making a living has taught him to get things done quickly and skillfully. He said he doesn’t believe in spending a month to do something that should only take him a week to do. When he takes a commission, he said, he starts it and keeps working on it until he finishes it. He said he did all of his prep work in school so he doesn’t feel he should have to do elaborate research before he starts a piece. His business is based out of his home, and he has a website, www.blueadeptart.com.
“There’s a much bigger economy down here for art than I ever thought,” he said.
He has done a few portraits for individuals around town and a couple of murals, as well. His most recent mural can be found at the Colquitt County Arts Center on the walls of the hallway that leads into the ballroom. He said he completed the piece in about five days. It is the fifth large wall painting that he’s done.
Underdown also said that he has worked in various media but had his favorites.
“Inkwash is probably my favorite. I’ve worked with that the most,” he said.
He also said that acrylic was his second favorite because it was a “forgiving” medium. Meaning that if he made a mistake it was easier to fix than some of the other forms like watercolor and oils.
“I generally go for the more forgiving mediums,” he said.
After a thought, he said, ink wasn’t necessarily too forgiving either.
“I like going out in the public and drawing people and places. I don’t generally like working from photographs,” he said.
However, he said, he doesn’t like to sit on location and draw intricate details that he could do at home like, for instance, the bricks in a building.
“I don’t like starting drawings from photographs,” he amended.
He said when he first started drawing he would sit out on location and work on the picture until it was done.
“Then I said, ‘Wait a minute this is not efficient ... This is not practical,’” he said.
When he doesn’t have a commission, he is doing his inkwashes of Moultrie and he said he would like to put together a book of them.
“It’s a really nice town and I want people to take pride in their town,” he said.
He said he also wouldn’t mind doing graphic designs for local companies. He added that he designs a business card with the idea that it would be so eye-catching that if someone found it on the street, they would want to keep it. He said he would really like to expand his business so he can continue to work for himself on his own terms.
“I would rather be sitting at home doing something I love than working at a job I hate,” he said.
But Underdown will never be a “starving artist,” he said, because he believes that being an artist is still a business and he treats it that way. He said he has worked all of his life and would work for another business to make ends meet if he had to until his business started picking up again.
“If you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life and I feel like I haven’t worked in the past couple of months,” he said.
