RESEARCH TASK week 1

James Jean has become a big inspiration of mine over the past few years. From Checking out the sketchbooks and illustrations on his website, I have been motivated to practice harder. It has made me push myself to attain an ultra productive work flow of pure illustrative bliss.


Jean was born in Taiwan in 1979 and moved to America at an early age. His natural talent at drawing led him to study Fine art, and in 2001, graduate from the School of Visual Arts - New York City. Forthwith he went freelance, working as a cover artist for DC comic's 'Batgirl, Fables, Green Arrow and Monolith' whilst contributing his illustrations to numerous private publications like books records magazines etc. His clients include: The New York Times, the Washington Post, Rolling Stone, Simon & Schuster, Mother Jones, NYLON, Playboy, Popular Science, SPIN, Men's Health, ESPN the Magazine, Target, Marvel, and the New York Academy of Sciences.

Proud winner of five consecutive Eisner awards, three consecutive Harvey awards, two gold medals and a silver from the Society of Illustrators of LA, and a gold medal from the Society of Illustrators of NYC, James has become world renowned for his mighty Illustrative powers.

From reading about Jean's work ethic and daily routine, I have picked up that most of his time is spent creating illustrations. His only apparent hobby seems to be playing trumpet, which he does quite proficiently in the video below. He is heavily inspired by traditional Japanese wood block prints which shines through in his works. Jean and as his wife collect numerous art books and large anatomical prints, which broaden his base of study inspirational material.

When asked in an interview where his personal ideas come from he stated:

"There are so many things that are visually incredible, like the bright colors of kids running around, beating each other up in the park, or that indecipherable white in the clouds in a dry, night sky. So the hardest part, for me, is getting over a sense of smallness I feel in the face of the beauty we are confronted with everyday, and mustering up the nerve to do something halfway meaningful. I believe that limitations are liberating in a way, that one choice or mark can sort of guide you along the way to finishing a picture. What ends up happening is frustrating, suprising, disgusting, and rapturous."* - James Jean

The elements that most interest me in his work include:

His well considered approach to character design. Here his approach to the balance of realism and graphic representation creates an elegant balance where the viewer can recognize Jeans attention and accurate realization of all details.

His sense of design and composition are extremely well practiced. We can see this in the flow, movement and balance of negative and positive space in his works, which flows over to the colours, texture and graphic representation of depth.

His ideas concerning subject matter with the combination of different characters and situations are what makes his work stand out most to me. He takes us on dreamy, surreal wanderings through landscapes populated by familiar elements from real life, combined in situations that are unique and unusual.



REFERENCE LINKS
His site>>>link
His blog>>>link
Fan made site>>>link
*In depth interview>>>link