Welcome back, Funky people!Derek Harrison is a painter in the John Singer Sargent school of realism, but painting 21st century women. Starting late (in his 20s), he got into art through tattooing and, trying to really polish his craft, got into oil painting and techniques of the old masters.A month ago, he did a live painting at Santa Barbara Art Foundry, and we got talking and soon I was grabbing my microphones and computer and setting up shop in his State Street studio for this hour-long chat.Topics talked about include:The new studio, right next to the old studioWhy 1st Thursdays in Santa Barbara aren’t as goodWhat Santa Barbara needs to borrow from Pasadena and Los Angeles’ art sceneMichael Husser and the Equator cafeSullivan Goss and Waterhouse galleries in Santa BarbaraGrowing up in Denver and Steamboat SpringsGetting started painting at 20 and the idea of “God-given talent”Ghost World and Art School ConfidentialThe resurgence in art schools for realismThe early Impressionists, especially MonetHow a desk job led to his first canvas work Does comic book art lead to ideas of how art is made in young people?How working at a tattoo shop taught him fundamentals of realism“Biomechanical” tattoosJer Clarke’s influence on HarrisonJeff Gogue’s tattoo workShawn Barber’s workshops and how he learned about colorJeremy LipkingSean CheethamThe learning curve of realist painting, and when he got his styleHow hard it is to find modelsHis methods of working with modelsHis current challenges in paintingHarrison’s top five artistsOne of his favorite models, SamanthaHis most successful methods of selling artMatt Kennedy and La Luz de Jesus Gallery and Harrison’s big breakHarrison’s daily routineYou can check out Derek's site here.