When Brian Clarke, who uses the pseudonym name Les Toil, decided to major in art at the beginning of the 90s, he did not know he is majoring in a lost art.  His love for art and his talents in illustrations were enough to provide him with a decent income to provide a good living.

However that decent income started to dry up and go south as the 90s progressed.  Photography became cheaper to use and digital art started to be on the rise.  Then artificial intelligence (AI) appeared on the scene, and like a thief in the night, art and illustrations became a lost art.

So how can a magazine illustrator make a living in this digital age, and how are hand-created ink on paper illustrations and paintings differ from those created by AI?  These questions and more were the center piece of my conversation with an artist who spends his evenings, “doing warmup drawings, just keeping my hand busy, doing sketches from photographs…”

Brian Clarke is not only fun to chat with but also a passionate artist of the art of illustrations and paintings.  The “proliferation of AI art,” is what keeps him up at night, but he and his global network of art friends are searching for ways to stop AI from stealing their creative work.

I hope you will enjoy this Mr. Magazine™ interview with Brian Clarke, better known as Les Toil, as much as I enjoyed conducting this interview.

But first the soundbites:

On the origin of the pseudonym name Les Toil: “I got that name by looking at an old issue of National Lampoon, an issue called National Lampoon’s High School Yearbook Parody… and I saw the name Les Toil, which means less work, and I thought that’s a great name, because the style that I’m doing now, pen and ink, is a lot less effort, a lot less toil than an elaborate oil painting.”

On the value of ink on paper art: “You can pick up a magazine anytime. You can grab that magazine and go straight to that art, and Samir, it’s also like when albums went from LPs, went from big albums to little cassettes. As an illustrator, that broke my heart.”

On art and AI: “AI is actually replacing artists. I’m not happy about that. The way that we’re battling, us artists are battling AI art is by putting up restrictions for these AI applications or companies to start harvesting our art, to stop stealing our art.”

On the value of illustrations in today’s marketplace: “I think that importance has diminished a bit unfortunately. Even with AI art, as far as editorial journalism, I’m not really sure if illustration plays a big part as it did in the past.”

On original pieces of art: “I think for the simple fact that if you have a printed piece of art, or if you have your original art, I think just the fact that you have it, the original art in your hand, that kind of makes it art.”

On the reasons art and illustrations have declined: “Because, to be honest, art is not as valued as it once was. The process of photography is a lot easier to attain than it was before.”

On his favorite art magazine: “It’s called Illustration Magazine. Each issue, the editors highlight about three or four classic illustrators from the past, illustrators from all countries.”

On the benefits of art to him: “So there’d be all these different assignments, just hundreds of assignments of subjects that I wasn’t familiar with…I go to the library… I read up on it. And so that was a benefit. I got a good education through doing magazine art.”

On whether art and illustrations are a lost art: “Unfortunately, it is. It is.”

And now for the lightly edited interview with Brian Clarke, better known as Les Toil:

Samir Husni: So, tell me, Brian, my first question is, why the pseudonym name Les Toil?

Brian Clarke:  Samir, the name Les Toil came about in the early 1990s, and that is because I was working under my real name, Brian Clarke, ever since I graduated from art school. I went to California College of Arts and Crafts for two years, and then I went to the Academy of Art in San Francisco, which is where I graduated in 1991.

Right after I graduated from art school, art directors, clients, stopped using illustrators for things like magazines and whatever, the type of work that I was getting after art school. I was working for any type of industry that hired illustrators. Again, that included periodicals, it included the film industry, it included the gaming industry, it included advertising art, just any industry that hired illustrators.

I was fortunate enough after art school to get work. So, for a good three or four year period, I was doing fine, and then the whole world of illustration went south, and art directors started to use photographers, they started to use clip art, which is previously done artwork that can be recycled over and over again. So, I wasn’t getting much work after three years of a thriving career as an illustrator in the early 90s, and so a friend of mine, an illustrator friend of mine, started to do rock and roll posters.

He started to do these little mini posters for music shows around the Bay Area. We were young, and we were going to all these different rock and roll shows. He started to do these posters, and he had a friend that was printing these posters in his office, and they were beautiful color posters. Back in the early 90s, having your art printed in color, beautiful color, was fantastic, because all we had were those crappy color Xerox machines. So I started to do some of these rock and roll posters that were being posted all over San Francisco and the Bay Area, and I wanted to have a different name for myself, because back in the 60s, there were all these rock and roll posters for rock bands that were happening, the burgeoning rock and roll scene in the mid-60s, and those artists had cool names, so I wanted to have a cool name for this new style of art that I was doing, and I was also getting into my artwork being colored on the computer.

So for my three-year career as an illustrator, since art school, I was doing these elaborate oil paintings, because all the people that I admired as illustrators when I was going to art school, they all worked in traditional paint, oil, acrylic, gouache, so that’s what I was doing. But then when I started to do the rock and roll art, I switched to an easier style, which was pen and ink, pencil, drawing it in pencil, and then inking the pencil lines, so it kind of looked like comic book art, basically line art, and then I would scan it on a computer and color it with Photoshop, which my friend taught me.

I got an Apple computer, and I started to learn to color my pen and ink art on Photoshop, and so I changed my name to Les Toil, because I thought that was a cool name, and Samir, I got that name by looking at an old issue of National Lampoon, an issue called National Lampoon’s High School Yearbook Parody, and in that issue, they had all these class of 1957 photographs of all the students that were graduating, and they had all these goofy names, like Lindsay Doyle, Jason Rainbows, just all these hilarious names, and I saw the name Les Toil, which means less work, and I thought that’s a great name, because the style that I’m doing now, pen and ink, is a lot less effort, a lot less toil than an elaborate oil painting, so I started to sign those rock and roll posters, Les Toil, with basically a stamp.  I wasn’t even signing them, I just put a stamp saying Les Toil. I started to make a name for myself doing this rock and roll art. I started doing rock and roll CD covers, album covers, posters, and I was being interviewed in magazines for the rock and roll art that I was doing under the name Les Toil, so I just kept that name from like 1993 up until now, and nobody knows who the hell Brian Clarke is, but that’s where that name comes from. Sorry for the long story.

Samir Husni: When you look at the art that you create, where’s the value of the ink on paper compared to the digital sphere that we live in, especially that you graduated at the beginning of the digital revolution?

Brian Clarke:  I say there’s a value for your art in a printed magazine because you’re not restricted to looking at it on a screen. You don’t have to be at a particular place looking at a particular image to enjoy it. You don’t have to look at a small screen to enjoy that art.

You can pick up a magazine anytime. You can grab that magazine and go straight to that art, and Samir, it’s also like when albums went from LPs, went from big albums to little cassettes. As an illustrator, that broke my heart.

I was a kid when it happened, but you had that big beautiful artwork to look at as you were listening to the music, and I think the same applies to magazines. You have that beautiful illustration to look at that gives you reference to the article that you’re reading or the interview that you’re reading. It gives you reference if you’re reading a fiction story, a short story in a magazine.

You can constantly look at that, and you’re not restricted to having to come into your studio or  to look at a computer.

Samir Husni: What role does illustrations play in today’s marketplace?

Brian Clarke:  I think that importance has diminished a bit unfortunately. Even with AI art, as far as editorial journalism, I’m not really sure if illustration plays a big part as it did in the past.

People are more than happy with using photographs, even if it’s a fiction story. People seem to be just as happy with a photograph of a man and a woman sitting on a park bench for a short love story. But what the benefits of illustrations in a printed platform is that they’re exposing the reader to art.

Periodicals quite often are the average citizen’s primary exposure to popular culture. When I was going to art school, I discovered so much about art based upon the illustrations that were being printed in magazines throughout the years. I was learning about so many different things including cultures of different countries. You’re not getting that now if you’re not seeing art, original hand-created art in periodicals.

Samir Husni:  I’ve seen so much fake art generated by AI on Facebook and other social media platforms. How can you protect the authentic art from the madness of fake AI-generated art?

Brain Clarke:  Well, Samir, as you can imagine, I’m very much in social media.

I expose my art through social media, and all of my art friends are just up in arms about AI. We’re very unhappy about that. And people that use AI  give the excuse that AI art is only a tool to help real artists, but I don’t believe that’s true because I’m seeing finished pieces of art that were completely created by artificial intelligence.

So AI is actually replacing artists. I’m not happy about that. The way that we’re battling, us artists are battling AI art is by putting up restrictions for these AI applications or companies to start harvesting our art, to stop stealing our art.

There’s now applications that will put stamps or watermarks on our hand-created art in which an AI platform or company can’t steal it. And that’s the only way artificial intelligence art is created is by stealing real artists’ work and then manipulating it. So that’s the only thing we can do to battle the proliferation of AI art now, is to prevent them from stealing our art.

Samir Husni: So tell me, because I think you and I share this love for print. If I have a piece of art in my hands, let’s say the Mona Lisa, if I own the Mona Lisa, or if I see it on my computer screen, which one, does that ownership gives me a different feeling, a different sense of ownership, of showmanship?

Brian Clarke: I think for the simple fact that if you have a printed piece of art, or if you have your original art, I think just the fact that you have it, the original art in your hand, that kind of makes it art. That kind of makes it so you can now frame it and hang it on your wall.

Again, you can’t do that with AI art. When AI art is displayed in art galleries, which I’m starting to see, unfortunately, now, it’s just prints, low resolution prints for that matter.

So, in my opinion,  just to hold it, and to be able to display it, and be able to make large, whatever, reprints of original art, I think that’s the benefit. It’s created by a human being with human spirit.

Samir Husni: Why do you think, a hundred years ago, we used to have a lot of art magazines. Why do you think we don’t have as many art magazines, as they used to be a century ago?

Brian Clarke: Because, to be honest, art is not as valued as it once was. Because the process of photography is a lot easier to attain than it was before.

We can pull out our phones and take a photograph. In the past, in the 1920s, the 30s, the 40s,  illustration was the official way to embellish a story, to embellish anything, to convey something, because photography just wasn’t all that easy back then. I read your interview with Marianne Howatson on your blog and I completely agree with what she said. You held up an art magazine just now, and I believe, niche type magazines, periodicals, will always thrive. I pay good money for a number of art-related magazines, such as Illustration Magazine and Artist’s Magazine.

These are beautiful, glossy magazines that come out once every six months. They have just stunning prints of old illustrations by great masters of art. I think if I were to start my own magazine, it will be with the type of art that’s always inspired me.

So in that sense, a niche publication, I do believe would thrive. If you believe there’s an audience for what you love, then I think that type of printed material will keep going on.

Samir Husni: What’s your favorite art magazine, if you can?

Brian Clarke: It’s called Illustration Magazine. Each issue, the editors highlight about three or four classic illustrators from the past, illustrators from all countries. The editors get their hands on photographs and scans of some of these classic illustrations that were printed in Saturday Evening Post, Esquire, Newsweek, Time, all those magazines from the 30s, 40s, 50s.

They have beautiful scans of these slides of these pieces. And that’s why I like Illustrator magazine specifically.

Samir Husni: Before I ask you my typical last two questions, is there any question I failed to ask you and you would like me to ask?

Brian Clarke: I’d like to tell you why I had such a fantastic time as an editorial magazine illustrator. And the reason I had such a good time, and it was about a good six years that I was earning a living doing magazine illustrations. The reason why I loved it so much is because almost every assignment was a new exposure to some subject.

I remember getting an assignment to do an illustration for a story on King Henry VIII.  I went into the library and I did all my research on King Henry VIII. I gathered all that material, how they were dressed, the structures, the architecture back then. I created an illustration based upon what I studied about that period. Then there’ll be some other assignment that has to do with whatever science fiction, life on Mars.

I’d go to the library and I’d study up on that and I’d see photographs and I’d look at other illustrators interpretation of Mars. So there’d be all these different assignments, just hundreds of assignments of subjects that I wasn’t familiar with. I read up on it.

And so that was a benefit. I got a good education through doing magazine art.

Samir Husni: Let me ask you my typical last two questions. If I come unannounced to your home one day, what do I catch you doing? Painting, drawing, a glass of wine, cooking?

Brian Clarke: You would catch me doing warmup drawings, just keeping my hand busy, doing sketches from photographs. Or if my fiancé is here, I sketch her sitting right over there in front of my table.

I’m always sketching if I don’t have an assignment to do. So just honing my craft with my pencils and my paintbrushes is pretty much what you’ll catch me doing. Or I’ll be looking at an old movie or a new movie after my work day is over.

And that’s pretty much it.

Samir Husni: And what keeps you up at night these days?

Brian Clarke: What keeps me up at night is the proliferation of AI art. Pretty much that.

And also because the economy is not doing so well now, what keeps me up at night is worrying about where my next assignment is going to come from. And right now I’ve been paying my bills and staying busy by doing portraits of people and portraits of their pets. And classic pin-up art portraits of women.

And a lot of husbands and boyfriends will contact me and say, you know, my girlfriend wants to look like a 1950s glamour queen, calendar queen. I’ll do it like a classic pin-up portrait of a person’s wife or whoever wants to hire me to do that.

So that’s how I stay busy.

Samir Husni: So can we say then art and illustration are a lost art?  

Brian Clarke: Unfortunately, it is. It is.

But me and my art friends across the globe, we’re trying our best to keep it alive.

Samir Husni: I wish you all the best.  Thank you.