Are there artists both inside and outside of your field that you particularly looked up to?

Of course Bill and Hal. I met with Hal several times and picked up various techniques that I still use today. I used to look at their maps all the time and study the colors and techniques. Then there’s Heinrich Berann out of Europe, just a fantastic illustrator. Outside of that I really enjoyed the Impressionists, Van Gogh was probably my favorite, I really liked his boldness and color.

Are aerial photographs a factor in all the maps that you’ve done?

Pretty much. You just got to see it. With bigger areas it’s pretty much required that I go on location and fly and get more familiar with the mountain than I would if I just had photographs sent to me.

Did you have any specific training in aerial photography?

Oh no, I just go out and start shooting. In fact, I’d really rather have photographs taken by an amateur than by a professional. A professional shoots for a different purpose, they try to get a good composition. I just want information. You never know for sure what direction you’re going to illustrate a certain part of the mountain from, so you just need to go around and take pictures of everything. I’ll try and shoot the mountain from every angle possible, starting at about 4,000 feet over the summit of the mountain to get some very high altitude stuff, and then I’ll drop down and get more of the detail around the lower part of the mountain.

So you get the photos back and then what happens?

Well probably before I’ve even gone up in the plane I’ve had a good idea and gone through some thumbnails with the client so we know what perspective we’re going to take. Once I get the photos back I’ll sit down and go through topographical maps and review it with the client, and then I’ll make a full-sized 30 x 40" sketch with pencil on vellum, so I can make copies if needed. The client will review it, and if there are changes I’ll make them and I’ll proceed into the final rendering, with a brush, hand-painted. I do use an airbrush in the snow parts and the sky and some of the background and then it becomes all brush.

You use gouache?

Yes, it makes it easier to make changes in the future. Once it’s approved I’ll take it down to a photo lab and have them make an 8 x10" transparency, and that will be scanned into a CD in the file size we want. Then I’ll do all the color correction I want on the computer, and then send it on to the client, and they’ll put the layers of type and all the information they want on it—the ski-lift symbols and trail names and everything else.

This is your job, but are you painting for yourself?

If you’re asking how much I’m directed by the client, it depends on the client. Some want to have a lot of control, and others say “Hey, you’re the guy, do it.” Some clients get real picky, but that’s just part of being in the commercial field. Ultimately you end up probably not painting them exactly the way you’d want to. I’d like to paint in some real storm clouds but of course marketing doesn’t want to see that. They want nice blue skies—I don’t know how the snow gets there ...

In your own art you’re painting landscapes?

I do a few but I don’t have the time. I’ll do an oil painting now and then—wet on wet with multiple layers of oil. But it’s different than the maps, where it’s like putting a puzzle together with the end result being informing the viewer as clearly as you can.

I really like the way you have to look closely to find your signature, how it’s hidden away in the trees and not immediately apparent, like Al Hirschfield’s “Ninas.” Have you always signed them?

Yes, the block letters were developed after the first couple of years and now I switched to script on the J and the N. I take great pains to put it in the right place and they’re always putting blocks of information over it or some copy [laughter].