Peter Scanlan, NVD’s beloved art teacher, has had a long and interesting career before he started teaching high schoolers.
Ever since he was young, Scanlan has had a persistent interest in art. His father was an artist, whose pictures fascinated Scanlan. His desire to become an artist grew when he visited Europe as a child.
“When I was nine years old, my parents pulled me out of school, and we traveled around Europe for a year, visiting countless museums and historic sites, which further fueled my artistic inspiration,” Scanlan said.
Even before he finished his senior year of high school, Scanlan was already working as an artist.
“My first paid job was when I was in high school, and I spray-painted a mural based on one of my paintings onto a truck for a truck driver. I didn’t really know what I was doing, but he liked it, and I got paid,” Scanlan said.
After graduating, Scanlan went to the School of Visual Arts in New York where he was able to study under many talented artists. His exploration and studies of all different art styles taught him a large portion of what he knows today as an artist.
“[I was inspired by] artists like Marshall Arisman, whose dark visions and experimentation was a real inspiration; Michael Deas, who taught me art techniques used since the Renaissance, and Gil Stone, a great illustrator who I studied with in the very last class that he ever taught, just before he passed away,” he said.
Scanlan has painted many magazines, book covers, video game packaging, and collectible plates. Lots of people have seen his work and have no idea he is the person behind them. One of these is album covers, which millions of people have seen.
“When I was fresh out of art school I painted an album cover for an early rapper called Slick Rick, which got quite a bit of attention at the time. A few years later, I painted an album cover for KISS, which got more attention, still,” he said.
His career as an artist erupted when he started working for Marvel Comics as a comics illustrator. During his time painting for Marvel, he worked on many different comics, which were read by millions.
“I painted over 60 paintings for Marvel, which are very visible, and highly collectible,” Scanlan said.
One unexpected design of his, that millions have seen and loved, is a Happy Meal box for McDonald’s.
“I also did a Happy Meal box for McDonald’s that was on TV constantly last winter,” Scanlan said.
After creating so many unique designs, Scanlan has developed many techniques which help him perfect his projects. One specific technique that Scanlan uses for most of his paintings is reference shots. These photos are real life photos to help reference how to draw his illustration. While these reference shots can be numerous things, Scanlan often used himself as a model for his reference shots.
“Before I even painted each picture, I would take scores of ridiculous reference pictures of myself acting out dramatic situations in homemade costumes, wielding vacuum cleaners for ray guns, etc.,” Scanlan said, “I would then have to bring these embarrassing photos to be developed from the one hour photo, where they struggled to act normally while assuming that I was a complete lunatic!”
Today, Scanlan is able to continue working on various art projects while he also continues to work with the NVD art students. Scanlan loves seeing all the new faces in his class, especially when he gets to see his students growing as artists.
“I find art and creativity endlessly fascinating, and I really find it satisfying to see a light go on in a students mind when they suddenly understand something that can help them be more successfully creative from that day forward,” he said.
Scanlan is happy to see a new generation of artists flourish in any high school, college, and professional setting. With decades of experience in the art field, Scanlan knows how subjective art is and hopes these new generations know it too.
“There is a great deal of subjectivity in art, so be wary of people who mistake their own personal opinion for absolute truth,” Scanlan said, “In other words, go boldly forth and do your own thing.”
