Draftsman, painter, animator and toy
designer: Steve Talkowski
(image courtesy of Steve Talkowski)
Steve Talkowski came up with the Sketchbot idea a year ago November, but the speech for the character has been around for almost 10 years now. He has just celebrated one year of blogging and records his progress throughout the year, which in turn has given him an accurate archive of sketches and oddities and the benefits of a growing fan base.
(image courtesy of Steve Talkowski::Created when Steve worked with Blue Sky. The conception of Sketchbot)
Steve comes from a fine art background, starting off as a painter in college and then taught himself the world of computer graphics. After this, he began working on animation and graphics design for various production studios.
(images courtesy of www.flickr.com/photos/stevetalkowski)
14 years ago, Steve moved to New York where the offers for work were pouring in. He ultimately took a job with Blue Sky Studios, and was then able to define his skills as a character animator. Throughout his 7 years at Blue Sky, Steve kept his sketchbook at his side drawing robot thumbnails during meetings and throughout his day. The first robot ideas and drawings created a character called ‘Barrelbot’. A short and squat robot inspired by retro Japanese robots like Gigantor. After a few other creative changes, the ‘today’s’ version began to emerge. 
(images courtesy of www.flickr.com/photos/stevetalkowski)
After a short time freelancing, he began working with Hornet Studios directing live animation and product shots, then spent 3 years at Guava. Though the experience was exactly what he needed, Steve was unable to work on the character development that Sketchbot required.
Inspired by the Kid Robot collection and Japanese toys, Steve recognized that a 3-D vinyl version of Sketchbot would be his next natural progression. He began to frequent a toy store in NY called My Plastic Heart. Steve would visit every other week and became friends with the owners while talking about ideas for toys he wanted to create. One day Vince, the owner, asked him to be in the next toy show and gave him his first ‘ Moneygrip blank’. Steve had not painted for quite some time but really enjoyed the physical interaction, so he was thrilled to begin his work on vinyl. Building the character for the vinyl toy required some conceptual images done in Photoshop then intense layers of spray paint and in the end, he received great response from the show and was introduced to Hans Yim, creative director of APW Gallery. At the time, Yim was organizing a custom show so Steve then went on to paint a Munny blank for a show at the APW.
(images courtesy of www.flickr.com/photos/stevetalkowski)
All the while, Steve maintained his blog, posting progress with shows and the continuing development of Sketchbot. Contributing successes to popular photo hosting site, Flickr.com, Steve began to notice a following with his work and was able to appreciate the sites valuable networking features. Though he was a digital artist for several years prior, it was the world of custom vinyl toys that provided the opportunity to participate in 8 different art shows. During the summer of 2008, Steve had to turn down shows for the first time ever. Since the summer, the popularity of Steve and his Sketchbot character has driven the project to the next stage; 3D Sketchbot. After 5 weeks of tight 3-dimentional images were created, they were sent to a manufacture that would mold the body, limbs and head of the Sketchbot character. These completed pieces will then be used for digital animation as well as a limited run of custom vinyl
(images courtesy of www.flickr.com/photos/stevetalkowski) toys. Steve’s goal is to ultimately create a line of vinyl robots with integrated accessories to go along with the different characters. In the future, expect to see this little guy as one of at least three new fantastic plastic toys. At some point, several blanks will be produced for other artists to paint either in collaboration or on their own.
(images courtesy of www.flickr.com/photos/stevetalkowski)
The unique twist that separates Steve’s work from the other urban toys is the story behind it. Most of the custom toys done are from artists with graffiti or some sort of urban background. Steve comes from fine art and digital animation so the end product will have an inherently different feel. Before doing this interview with Steve, I asked a few of you for question to fire his way…here are some Q & A between you and him.
Q: What robots in your past (other than Gigantor) have influenced you in your work?
Steve: That’s a great question…Well, I’m a sci-fi geek , you know?! I love the genre. I was 12 when Star Wars came out and it really blew me away. But also, Tron was a huge influence. I was just getting into computer animation on my own with my Texas Instrument computer. When I was in college, I started to teach myself computer graphics. Before animation packages came out, I would take my camera into the lab and play around taking photos of the monitor and turning it and stuff. (images courtesy of www.flickr.com/photos/stevetalkowski) Going back to the robot question, I have to really say Gigantor was such a huge influence. There is something about the simplicity of him. I do appreciate a good complex robot, but sometimes they get too fancy where they aren’t functional.
At the same time, I think it’s important not to be too influenced by other ideas…you have to be careful not to over saturate yourself with other peoples work. Where my work has been compared to other images out there, the Sketchbot character was really created out of my love of drawing and my obsession with robots.
Q: In battle, who do you think would win, a Terminator Robot or one of the ‘bad’ robots from IRobot?
Steve: So a Terminator or an IRobot? Oh, definitely a Terminator Robot.
Q: Tron vs. R2-D2?
Steve: Well, Tron is a computer program so he could just hack into R2-D2.
Q: Would you ever consider doing a comic book, and if so, with what writer/creator?
Steve: To be honest, I have not considered doing a comic with Sketchbot. I am thinking about him more right now as an animated short. If he were going to be in print right now, it would be as cute little one-offs or in a children's book.
(images courtesy of www.flickr.com/photos/stevetalkowski)
Q: Do you draw your Sketchbot character to be larger or smaller than yourself? Steve: That’s a very good question. I’ve always envisioned him to be about 4ft tall. At some point, I would love to do a life size, fiberglass replica of Sketchbot.
Q: Does your robot have a race or origin?
Steve: Hmm, not really… well, he’s not alien. He is more self-generative. He creates his own drawing tool then draws himself… that’s kind of the building of the character part I’ve been working on.
Finding the time to balance the many facets of Steve’s life is possibly his biggest challenge. Right now, his closest deadline is the New York Comic Convention where he is hoping to further the Sketchbot brand. Beyond that, keep an eye open for his limited run of vinyl characters and more animation.
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