My name is Bill Muzzy and I am an abstract expressionist illustrator. My illustrations are born from a combination of music, emotion, and sleep deprivation.
I’m currently available for any questions.
People are always asking me why I choose to create abstract expressionist illustrations instead of more traditional subjects. For over twenty years I illustrated children’s books and was commissioned to do portrait illustrations and spot illustrations. I have always drawn my abstracts as a warmup exercise for my daily illustration assignment. One day I realized I was becoming more and more involved in the creation of my abstracts. Slowly my interest in other types of illustrations melted away and this became my main focus.
Music
The Music I choose to listen to while drawing plays a big part in how my illustrations turn out. As we all know the music we listen to tends to correlate with our emotional state. I try to choose music that helps me ride the wave of my current emotional state. The elements of each song have a symbiotic relationship with my emotional state thus informing and dictating the end result.
Emotion
My emotional state is the key ingredient to help forming the final abstract expressionist illustration. Each pen stroke and gesture form the lines and the ultimate shape of an illustration. As the purge of my emotions are sent through my pen the form itself becomes my mood at the time. Aggression, sadness, loneliness, jealousy, insecurity all of them are released as form, shape, and line.
Methodology
The methodology for my process has incubated for over twenty years. My illustrations have become a wanted guest and an uninvited intruder all at once. I have found that I have a need to draw every day. It has been equal parts cathartic and traumatic but it always leaves me satiated. I have created a process that allows me to explore the full range of my emotions in every illustration I create.
