News

Peter Pan: Part 3

Oct 22

From my early childhood Peter Pan has been my favorite. The idea of flying inspirational, perhaps even to painting. (That is another blog post, for another time.) Every time I get in a pool, the sensation of flying overtakes me and I imagine flight as the water passes between my finger. Back in February of this year, I started on a Peter Pan piece.  Here is part 1, and part 2. The spring and summer brought 3 big projects that have kept me very busy. ( I can’t wait to show you what I have worked on.)  Due to these projects, Peter Pan sat quietly waiting to be finished. It is funny coming back to a piece so many months later. Not only am I a completely different artist, but I also found a new fondness of the piece.

Here we move onto the watercolor and digital phase. I have tested out different types of spray fixatives to try to keep my line work while I paint. Unfortunately, spray fix also can prevent watercolor from interacting with the paper correctly.  Thus, the watercolor phase of this piece didn’t go nearly as planned.  Fortunately, I have found a much better way of preserving my pencils that requires no fixative, thanks to Peter De Seve. That, however, is another blog post all together.

The digital phase of this piece was the most epic of all.  I went back and forth, trying to choose a color palette.  After returning to the painting after a few months of letting it sit, I believe it is time to show you how far the piece has come.  I’m quite pleased with it, and I hope there will be more Peter Pan paintings in the future.

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A Color Revisit – Rapunzel

Sep 25

The other day I had some more prints made for the Yellow Umbrella and I realized that I don’t care too much for the coloring of my Rapunzel Piece. Therefore, I decided that I needed to revisit the color. Fortunately, Photoshop came to the rescue and short brawl with multiply, color, and soft color layer settings, I came out with the following piece. Then I climbed a tower.


 

I’m not altogether sure that I should revisit work like I did with Rapunzel. Perhaps I was naughty, and I should only focus on the future, and moving forward with new work. It was an easy change, and I think it now shows my vision much more clearly.  Probably the biggest reason I decided to change this, is my rent focus on color. My abilities in color leave me feeling that a child scrawling all over my work while wearing a chicken on his head. Time and time again I have to change things digitally because my colors simply look awful. Thus, it is time to really study color. This notion sends me trembling under my desk huddled in the fetal position. The last time I did this was while working at LearningChange because a client repeatedly asked for dreadful drop shadows everywhere.

So cheers to color.  Flann, the animated GIF is for you.

 

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SCBWI Conference in LA

Sep 07

I just got back from an amazing trip to Los Angeles, California. The Society of Children’s Books Writers and Illustrators hosted the 40th Annual International Conference. As a first time attendee, I was simply blown away by the amount of information and the crowds of creatives.  I met many creatives, which was probably my favorite part of the trip.

After a few weeks to mull over the trip I feel like I have gained the following from the trip.

Make art that is true - The best kind of art, comes from the heart. Not only does it have passion, but is over flowing with truth. People always like art that is true. I shall be talking about this in future posts, but this was the most intriguing aspect of the whole weekend. My art must be true.

Work Hard – Nothing will substitute good old-fashioned hard work.  If you want to make it in this industry, there is a lot of time put into honing your craft.

Consistent Target Marketing – Simple consistent marking to people you want to work with is so very important. Also, don’t try to work with everyone. Find the publishers and agents that deal in the kind of work that you do.  Since I want to expand in the children’s market, I need to focus on that.

I’m young - Honestly, there were not that many “young” people at the conference. It reminded me of all the learning I have in front of me.

All and all, I’m very glad I was able to attend this year’s conference. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in the Children’s Book market.

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Summer Painting and Plein Air

Jul 11

This summer has simply been flying by. My family and I helped out a camp for a few weeks and the rest of our days are spent in the sprinkler, swimming, and just enjoying the warm weather. I am happily busy with a few client projects that make it difficult to juggle personal endeavors.  Today I took an hour or so just to enjoy the outdoors and paint plein air (painting outside).

Today I decided to continue a painting I started over a year ago and never finished (how silly of me). Say hello to Sherlock Fox. I usually don’t work in acrylics, and I find them actually rather difficult.  Thus, I feel like I was challenged appropriately, and then went inside for some lemonade and left this painting for another day.

 

 

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Artist Mentorship Program

Jul 05

This has been quite the busy summer for me.  Not only have I been enjoying the sun but we have also recently been volunteering at camp.  Another adventure I have  begun is mentoring two local students in the ways of art. Region 2 Arts Council is sponsoring 9 students through a legacy grant to learn whatever kind of art they are interested in. Over the next 12 months I will mentoring Zoey and Rachel on a bi-weekly bases.  They are both at different paths in their artistic journeys, and I am excited to come along side each of them. Feel free to check out the Pioneer Article about the whole program.

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Lot 6 Art Fair

Jun 13

Christina and I decided to make the leap into art fairs this summer by kicking it off at the Lot 6 Art Fair. It was a fantastic event that brought out all kinds of people looking for their next artistic addition to their collections.  I sold my prints while Christina showcased her essential oils line as well as her aprons and shoulder bags. Showcasing at a local art fair was a great experience.  I can see how people enjoy the atmosphere and comradery, while we sit back and just hope that people buy our art.  While sitting and enjoying the afternoon I often thought about how much selling I really should be doing.  Should I be the artist, the salesperson, or both today. One thing that I did come back with is that I need to work on my sales pitch. I tend to come off with the attitude “It would be great if you bought this,”  rather than actively persuading a potential customer to make a purchase. With that being said, it was a fantastic day in spite of the sunburn.

The event was covered by the local news station and you can click over to check out the newscast.

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New “Paul and Babe” and “Comfort Before The Sacrifice” Postcards

Feb 18

As I mentioned in my previous post I had some postcards made. I think they turned out just great!  The Paul Bunyan card is available at my Etsy store and at various stores (to be announced) here in Bemidji.  The “Comfort Before The Sacrifice” card will be sent out to publishers advertising my illustration services.

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Nicholas Jackson’s New Website Unveiled

Jan 17

I’m very excited to unveil the new design to my website.  It has been months in the making because my old website was in dire need of a face lift.  The main reason for this was, from a marketing stand point, I needed something that would bring the most important information directly in front of my viewers.  Thus, the biggest change is the main landing page which consists of my portfolio, a brief summary of who I am and what I do, and a contact field.  Those are the most important aspects of a creative’s website like this.

Holy Ginormous Thumbnails Batman!

Yes, that is right, ginormous thumbnails.  I wanted to give my work a lot of real estate to mildly overwhelm the viewer with color and design.  Some things are just better when they are huge. I have also limited my portfolio to only show the best of the best of the best.  Gone are the days of 20 images per section.

Quick Contact and Navigation

Users should be able to easily traverse the website and contact information should never be too far off either.

Finally

Believe it or not, I finally update this website.  It has been a long road but I’m excited for the journey ahead with a fresh new brand.

Hurray for illustration!

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Scissorhands 20th

Dec 28

Hey friends, I recently had the opportunity to work on a fun piece in honor of the movie, Edward Scissorhands.  My friend Sebastien Mesnard, started a blog called Scissorhands 20th, in honor of Edward Scissorhands being released 20 years ago.  Sebastien is a great guy as well as an astounding illustrator.  He inspires me.  Speaking of inspiration, Edward Scissorhands has inspiredhis artistic journey.  Since I saw he was putting on the project I jumped at the chance to join in with him.  He recently honored me by putting my painting on the blog.  I totally forgot to name my painting, so luckily Sebastien and his witty humor, named it E-Rex for me. Make sure to go check out all the great work over at Scissorhands 20th. One of the great things I have enjoyed about watching this project grow is the vast array of styles.  We have seen everything from pen and watercolor to whimsical vector.  I can’t wait to see more artists from around the world contribute to this project.

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