Owen Lindsay is an incredible South Australian illustrator. Over the years, he’s created album covers and gig posters for local bands, as well as illustrating for several Adelaide magazines including his current work with CityMag. We recently engaged Owen to create an illustration including 90 bands, plus 8 venues hidden behind cheeky puns and literal descriptive characters.
“This big crazy illustration was a lot of fun to do, particularly coming up with some of the more convoluted references (I think my high point was The Mark of Cain).” – Owen Lindsay
We want our audience to get to know a little more about Owen so we asked him a few questions…
1) When did you start becoming an illustrator?
I’ve been drawing for as long as I can remember. It’s just one of those things that’s been part of me my whole life.
2) Who would you say is your biggest inspiration?
I don’t really have a single biggest inspiration – I’d say that I’m most inspired by creativity in any form, whether it’s illustration, music, writing, or movies. When I see any art that does something a little bit inventive or weird, it always makes me want to make something myself. If I had to pick a favourite illustrator, though, I’d say Hergé, the creator of Tintin. His art is just incredible, he has a perfect balance of looseness and precision.
3) Have you got any favourite South Australian Bands?
Probably the Hilltop Hoods, whose last few albums I caught up on while I was drawing this big picture (it seemed appropriate).
4) Who out of all the 90 SA bands was the most challenging to illustrate?
There wasn’t a single band that was especially difficult to illustrate – the hardest thing was coming up with ideas for how to represent some of them. The Mark of Cain being a little Cain showing Adam and Eve the mark on his school assignment I thought was pretty good, as was Zephyr Quarter being four Zephyrs (the ancient Greek god of the western wind), blowing in a wind from the ‘west’ of the drawing.
5) What’s kept you busy during ISO?
Drawing 90 bands took up a fair chunk of time. Aside from that, it’s been a good chance to catch up on movies and TV that I’ve wanted to get around to watching. One of the best was a 2018 Korean film called Burning by Lee Chang-dong, which is an adaptation of a Haruki Murakami book. It’s one of those pieces of art I mentioned before that’s a little bit weird.
Thanks Owen!!
