Alex Kiesling is an illustrator and Senior Designer for Buck NY. His work stirs feelings of nostalgia and melancholy, channeled through his vibrant otherworldly characters and a surreal attention to detail. Kiesling’s clients include Adobe, Apple, Google, MTV, The New York Times, Spotify, and Adult Swim.
He is interviewed by his mentee, Alannah Astorquiza, who (drunkenly) cold-messaged him on Instagram asking to be mentored for a college assignment. Alex Kiesling might be regretting his decision to say yes.
Your name is Alexander Ray Kiesling, known colloquially as Alex Kiesling. If you could change it, what would it be?
…I think you’re screwing with me. My name’s not Alexander Kiesling, it’s Alex Kiesling.
Wait, really?
My birth certificate just says Alex.
Okay, well have you ever thought about changing your name?
Uh yeah, because there’s another artist named Alex Kiesling, who I had to compete with on Google (name is spelled slightly different). I followed him and he never followed me back, so I’m slightly insulted by that, but I’m out-competing him on Google, so I don’t care.
You seem to have an affinity for illustrating worm-like organisms. Is this a fetish?
It’s a fetish, you’re so right. This is funny, because as I was drawing yesterday in my sketchbook, my fiancee was just saying this. She said “you’re drawing a lot of worms”. They’re kind of gross but also fun to draw, because it’s a very simple shape.
“It’s an easy subject matter, but it’s also funny because it looks like a penis.”
Just drawing tubes is good practice, but afterwards I can also get into those little folds and fleshiness and then add a face and some limbs.
You seem to have a fixation with the colour pink. Why do you have problems with other colours?
Oh, pink. Funny enough, I actually was going through a pink phase for a long time, but I think I might be over it now. I liked pink because it looked like the person was angry. It looks like a skin tone but not really, and it’s just vibrant and poppy. Then purple is similar, but it feels moody and dark. I haven’t used that colour combo in a while though.
If you were not drawing a slug person right now, what would you be drawing?
I would probably draw mechanical robots. I always draw a lot of faces, but portraiture can get boring. You have to figure out how to tell a narrative or concept when drawing portraiture. Robots are just fun, and painting mechanical pieces and crazy metal textures would be something I’d like to get better at.
You’ve created your own custom brushes that have a marker-like quality. Have sales from this made you rich?
I’ve made around $8,000 from selling digital brushes, over the course of a couple years. It’s not a financially lucrative business, but I never went into it with the intent of making money. My partner disagrees, saying I should definitely try to monetize it more, but I feel dirty because if the product’s not good, I don’t want to charge a more expensive price. I often send out free updates on it, with completely new brush sets. That way, it’s on my own terms.
Six years ago, I asked you to be my mentor. Any regrets?
When you came to me asking for mentorship, I thought you could be a blank slate of a person that I could give my knowledge to. I never mentored anyone else after that though. It was way more work than I expected. I wasn’t even that good at it, because I never gave you tasks or anything.
How often do you brush your teeth, honest answers only.
Probably 1.5 times per day.
Are you Team Edward or Team Jacob?
I am probably I was gonna say I was team Edward because Jacob’s obsessive and weird but they’re both obsessive and weird so I kind of just don’t like either of them. I think they’re both unhealthy and they really should rethink the relationship. Also, Bella kind of just sucks.
And finally (I know you’ve been wanting this), the final question. Milk before cereal or cereal before milk?
Oh, the classic dilemma of whether you’re a serial killer or a normal human. I’ll take the NPC route and say that I am cereal then milk. I’m not a monster. I’m a normal human.
From left to right: Alannah Astorquiza, fellow artist Liam Archibald, and legendary normal human Alex Kiesling. Image taken on the night walk home from Pictoplasma, a Berlin-based character design festival of which Kiesling was a feautured designer that year.
Alex Kiesling’s work can be found on Instagram and his website alexkiesling.com.
Check out Alannah Astorquiza’s work on Instagram and her website alannahastorquiza.me.