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On October 11, where I was showing off my 2nd book, I promised to post my 1st book. So, since I am so busy working on my website and not illustrating half as much as I want to and need to, I will try to dig up already done art to keep the blog breathing. No one wants an out of breath, stagnant, mosquito infested blog. Si?
Just a warning. This book was illustrated 3 years ago and my 2nd book which just came out was illustrated around last year at this time. Now, the stuff you see me posting since I created this blog in September has moved on in technique and style and direction. There are some pages in these books, that frankly embarrass me when I compare them to my present characters and the direction I am going in now. So if you are fixin' buy these books, thinking that you will get the same level of work my blog is promoting, you may be disappointed. How's that for selling my stuff? At least you get honesty here. No one has ever said to Jimmy, "you can't handle the truth!".
Since we will be away, I am posting this a day early. As I mentioned in a previous post, Debbie has liked a total of about 2 photos of her since I have known her. This is one of them so it will make her happy to have her self image redeemed from the last post of her. Happy birthday beautiful girl. This picture doesn't lie.
<3 jimmy
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Just need to post some sketches. It's been awhile. I don't even sketch and doodle as much as I want to. My website is in progress now and it is consuming much of my time which means less illustration posts. Jimmy works full-time in the corporate world and does this art thing whenever he can, even if it means skipping sleep. I promise to post when I can. Yawn.
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This is an illustration from my old site that I illustrated from a Counting Crows song called "A murder of one". The words to their songs are like verbal paintings. My mind gets inspired and sees something in many of their songs and I hope to do more with the things I find rolling round my brain as time moves on. I cropped in on the crows and got rid of the rest because it wasn't as strong as my new stuff. There are a few illustrations from my older site that I have in mind to redo. I just purchased Dreamweaver 8 and will be crackin' on a new site soon. This blog will then take on an even more experimental flavor at that point and the site will represent my body of work. This blog is standing in as a showcase for my work (especially my new stuff) at this point in time. I feel so illegitimate without an actual updated site that I feel cool about sending people too.
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Smokin' Joe is the Lord of the Wings. I haven't posted since last Sunday. What a slacker. I'll try to get some more sketches and stuff up soon.
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There is something really cool about old Japanese and Chinese paintings. The typography, brush work, colors and mood amaze me. I decided to start there and then add my today Jimmy stuff and it made for a new cultural experience. It's the next best thing to traveling. The Far East has so much rich history when it comes to art. I would love to go there someday?
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There are many things to spend money on. So why not blow it on Jim?
Hello, my name is Jim and I endorse this message.
The skeleton illustration is my recent entry for DrawerGeeks. It will be posted there on Nov. 3. They supplied us with 5 actual kids illustrations and our job was to make it our own while staying as close to the original kid art as possible. I built mine off of 2 of the samples. The skeleton from one and the balloon from another. The originals will be posted along side of each artist's entry.
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Playing with new textures and cut outs. This was a different way to build my illustration than my usual. The experiment paid off. Each new thing I try brings all kinds of ideas in my head for future illustrations. It's cool how after all the years I've been doing this, each job can be like starting new. The wonder of it all!
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Here's the final to a sketch post and a preliminary post below. I have been struggling with this one for some reason. I'm not liking it as much as I want to. I felt like I was getting too close to it so I figured I would just post it and move on. There are parts to it I really like but can't figure out what it is that's bothering me. If anyone sees it, don't be shy about offering some criticism.
Here is my Black & Orange entry. This one was FUN to do. I have so many memories from my childhood. I can still remember how exciting it was to check out the goodies in the gum machine and hope to get a certain one and then after much strategizing, when you lifted the lid and your lucky pick came rolling into your hands... oh the glee of it all. Life was handing Jimmy the winning hand!
Many times I take a doodle from my sketchbook and work it up to a finished illustration. The original sketch is below in a previous post. Right now I am laying in some under color and texture. I hope you like.
This was Ned's day to be dead, but Ned's laughter alerts deathboy to a problem. Grimmy breaks out into a sweat as reality sets in. "What am I going to tell Mr. Beelzebub"? The old excuse, I forgot to change the lightbulb in my shed, was played out. Suddenly, Grimmy's luck changes when Ned dies of laughter. Grim checks Ned's pulse and Ned is dead (that's what I said). Then, the idea of making a killer living in comedy hits him. "I could be a prop comic. Yeah, how about next time I mistakenly pick the broom? Beware, the Grim Sweeper" (ha ha snort heehee dwindling chuckles). He tries to think up more garden tool puns. "Hmmmm. What rhymes with Grim? Hmmmm. I got it! Trim! The Trim Reaper prunes the... nah, that rots. C'mon Grimmy, think...(long pause)... hmmmm... (more pause). C'mon, this is hurting my skull. Dang, if only there were more rhymes in this cursed world". I could have knocked em dead. I guess I'll just go home and change the rotten bulb in the shed".
Here's one from my website cuz I can't make it to my scanner to put up my recent sketches. The clock has been winning lately, but it won't KEEP me down for long. There's not too much from my site that I would bring out here but this one is one of my favorites and it doesn't stray from my current look. Got to keep it current. This pup was influenced by Petey on the Little Rascals. I love that dog.
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After doing the cat background on the Trouble illustration, I wanted to revisit the idea of using my flat illustrator art with texture. I also wanted to go with a bright pastel color palette rather than my darker gritty color look. It's fun to change things up and experiment because it takes you down a slightly different road and the adventure and surprise ending are worth it.
