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Practice? I know it's the most boring answer ever, but this is the only real one. Also it's all about lots of passion and self-educating all the time. These are not empty words, just facts.
I get this question a lot, so I made a whole, long post about it here: http://vinegaria.blogspot.com/2010/08/11-tips-on-drawing-and-becoming.html -
Well, not really (at first). I got my Master's Degree in History of Art at Warsaw University. I've never been to any art school before I got my first art-related jobs. But right now I'm also doing another Master's Degree course in Graphic Design at Academy of Fine Arts. For fun, I guess. Art studies are really easy to finish when you've already done another, more theoretical major.
But to be honest it didn't influence my illustrations, the course is focused more on design and typography. I'm actually the only person there who often uses figurative pieces in projects. Of course we do have some painting and drawing classes there as well, but it's not our major and I'd lie if I'd say it taught me a lot. I do believe studying anatomy and life-based drawing improve your art a lot and I'd love to do more of it, but honestly we usually have there the same person sitting in the same pose all the time or we keep painting the same still life over and over again. Seems more like a chore than actual practice. But all in all other classes, design ones, were really useful. And the thing that you can watch other people's ideas on the same given topic - this is priceless and very inspiring. -
At first - no. They didn't think it's any kind of a serious thing or job. It always seemed like a nice hobby, not a proper education and that's what I thought as well. But I really wanted to work as an Illustrator or Concept Artist. No other job seemed that much fun. And they never really forced me to choose otherwise. Right now, when I have some publications and work in the industry already, I think they slowly start to treat it more seriously.
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Oh yes, I like to travel a lot. Usually by car, so I can stop in many small towns and visit places not that popular. In recent years I've been sightseeing Bulgaria (amazing!), Romania, Croatia, Hungary, Italy (including San Marino), Turkey, Holland, Belgium, Switzerland and parts of France. I've also spent some time in England (I lived in London for a brief time), Spain, Germany, Greece, Macedonia, Cyprus (which I love), Crete, Tunisia, Egypt, Ukraine, Lithuania, Austria, Czech Republic (I lived there for some time when I was a kid), Slovakia, Slovenia and I've been in Yugoslavia when it was still a country. I've also been to Russia, but only in Sankt-Petersburg (and by train, which was pretty amazing).
Basically I've been everywhere in Europe except Scandinavian countries (yet, I hope). I'd love to see Asia one day, especially Thailand and Japan and would love to go to China by train through Russia (Warsaw - Moscow - Beijing, 6 days of travel), but that's just more expensive or takes too much time that I don't have at the moment. -
Night. Even though I usually prefer to get up in the morning (I hate wasting time as I don't have too much of it anyway), I still become really awake around 11p.m.
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