Interview with Tux Paint Artist Jacob Menden

Conducted by Bill Kendrick. Posted July 7, 2023.

Bill: Here is a video Jacob shared with me six years ago, which uses art and animations created in Tux Paint:

How do you usually interact with Tux Paint?: Wacom tablet, mouse, trackpad.
What are your "go-to" tools in Tux Paint?: Square brushes, distortion, stretch, shift, smudge, drip, zoom, mirror, fisheye, chalk.
Is there something you wish Tux Paint could do that it can't?: The limitations are what makes it fun for me to use.
What other kinds of art tools do you use?: Gouache, pen, pencil, inkjet printer.
Do you ever edit your Tux Paint art in other drawing programs or vice-versa?: I create animations entirely within Tux Paint– in order to play them I run the image sequences in After Effects. I rarely edit them beyond what I have already done with the Magic tools in Tux Paint. Sometimes I animate more complex scenes in Photoshop and import an image sequence of the line work into Tux Paint, color and manipulate it and assemble the scene in After Effects.

When I first started using Tux Paint I didn't understand how to use the file system and I would just take a screenshot whenever I decided I had manipulated the image enough for it to be considered a new frame.

(Note from Bill: Hopefully the new single-picture and animated GIF export options help your workflow, too!)

What would you call your art style?: Based freestyle animation.
Are there certain topics or fandoms that you like to focus on in your art?: Ape Escape
What artists do you look up to?: Bob Clampett, Eiichiro Oda, Art Tatum, Lil B, Peter Elloian, Ichabod. I look up to anyone who has a work ethic that defies common sense.
Have you ever published or exhibited your art?: Yes, at a group show at 22 Ludlow in New York City. (2019)

(Note from Bill: Wow, that's awesome!)

If you could interview me, or someone else who works on the Tux Paint project, what would you ask us?: What inspired you to create Tux Paint?

Bill: Around the time I started Tux Paint, I was writing a lot of games for Linux (both desktop, and Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs)), and around that time I spent a few years doing mobile game development. So when a friend asked if I knew of any kid-friendly art software for Linux, I decided to make something myself.