Amelia’s Magazine | Pick Me Up 2012 Special: An interview with fashion illustrator Jason Brooks

Jason Brooks Pick Me Up 2012 by Alia Gargum

As a self-proclaimed lover of illustrating and in particular illustrating fashion, I eagerly made my way to this year’s Pick Me Up Contemporary Graphic Art Fair at Somerset House. Pick Me Up is a massively important date for anyone interested or involved in Illustration and Graphic Design, and was excellently reviewed by fellow Amelia’s Magazine illustrator Emma Block this year, most definitely worth a read, here as well as of course by Amelia herself.

Jason Brooks Pick Me Up 2012 by Alia Gargum All photography by Alia Gargum

It was it a perfectly sunny London day, and I had an extra little spring in my step as Fashion Illustrator legend Jason Brooks was going to be illustrating live alongside the other guest artists and designers. You might not immediately recognise Jason Brook‘s name but you will surely know his slick, feminine style. He now has an impressive and growing client list, including Virgin Atlantic, L’Oréal, Vogue, Elle, and The Sunday Times Style Magazine, where I first remember seeing his work in print.

Jason Brooks Pick Me Up 2012 by Alia Gargum

Jason Brooks Pick Me Up 2012 by Alia Gargum

I immediately approached the friendly-looking Jason Brooks who was chatting to visitors while illustrating, hanging up his work to create a makeshift gallery. I don’t know what I was expecting, but I certainly wasn’t expecting him to be so open and easy to speak to, willing to give his time and simply chat. While we talked favourite materials to use and the loveliness of ink, I noticed that he was looking at me very carefully, which is when he confessed that he was illustrating me. Moments later, a beautiful ink illustrated version of me was produced, created on a page from an old french dictionary. He had been illustrating visitors all day, drawing inspiration from them and selling the portraits to those who wished to take an original Jason Brooks portrait home. I cannot thank him enough for the long chat, and the questions he answered so well, the best of which are written here.

Jason Brooks Pick Me Up 2012 by Alia Gargum

You’re one of the first modern-day Fashion Illustrators I remember seeing in print just as illustration made it’s massive (and continuing) comeback. What was your first big commission?

My first big commission arrived when I was in my early twenties studying Graphic Design at Central St Martin’s, which at the time was in Longacre in Covent Garden. It was an exciting place to be and every day there had an almost party-like atmosphere, buzzing with creative energy, conversation and ideas. One day a message arrived from Vogue (before e-mail) for me to come in with my portfolio as I’d recently won an illustration competition they were running. I was immediately commissioned by Vogue to illustrate a story about New Orleans which ran over about six pages and included a whole double page spread. I remember buying a copy from a newsstand as soon as it came out, feeling on top of the world. I used coloured oil pastels on black card for this first important commission, giving the work a very direct and vibrant look. I then became a regular contributor to Vogue under the wonderful art direction of Paul Eustace. I used it as an opportunity to experiment with different media and styles in print, including some early computer illustrations, so I was the first to use a computer to illustrate for Vogue back at the very beginning of the nineties.

Jason Brooks Pick Me Up 2012 by Alia Gargum

You’ve drawn at Paris Couture shows for The Independent, which led to more catwalk illustrating for a range of publications like Elle and Visionaire magazine. What do you love most about drawing at the shows?

Backstage is the most interesting place to draw at a fashion show. Not only is everything much closer, but the variety of poses and activities going on provides a whole range of Degas-like subjects. Models sitting in front of mirrors being carefully made up, impromptu fashion shoots going on, camera crews, interviews and striking people are everywhere as subjects. Drawing directly from the catwalk is more difficult to do well because outfits are only visible for a limited time, but nowadays it’s easy to take lots of digital photographs and work up drawings later. I love the drama and art front of the catwalk at fashion shows too, the crowd is always fascinating. The fact that every catwalk show is a one off performance, with high stakes for those involved as well as ever-increasing production values can create really intense theatre, so I love that too.

Jason Brooks Pick Me Up 2012 by Alia Gargum

What advice would you give to a graduate who wants to get some experience in illustrating from the catwalk?

I started off by working for magazines who would give me accreditation and passes to go to shows as a photographer, after a little prompting from me. I would then simply take my sketchbook instead of a camera. I think when you are starting out it’s all about first of all putting together a portfolio that you feel confident to show people, and then making appointments and really pushing your work out there. I would speculatively arrange lots of ‘go sees’ and then jump on a plane to New York or Paris and try to get work, but perhaps business was more often conducted in a face-to-face way at that time. Going to the Paris couture shows with the Independent began because their editor Marion Hume approached me after I left the Royal College of Art. Luckily, I had work and sketchbooks from travelling to different places that I was able to show, so I would also say that travel drawing is a great foundation for drawing fashion. As a graduate, or anyone for that matter, some catwalk shows are much easier to get access to than others, so if you are interested in drawing at shows it might be best to start with more accessible fringe and off-schedule designers at fashion week and then work up from there.

Jason Brooks Pick Me Up 2012 by Alia Gargum

Thanks to the rise of digital design, a lot of Fashion Illustration has a slick, smooth, and sharp look to it. You were doing this long before it became popular. What drew you to this technique?

I was striving to create a look from using areas of flat colour for a long time before I started using computers on a regular basis. As with my Vogue commission, I used oil pastels to try to achieve this but I also really liked collage, cutting up books and magazines and experimenting with very flat gouache paint. Computers first came to my attention as a way of making pictures in the late 80′s and early 90′s, and once scanning drawings became an option I was able to combine my familiar drawing on paper with computer colouring techniques, and that particular look was born.

Jason Brooks Pick Me Up 2012 by Alia Gargum

Your style is undoubtedly feminine and luxurious. Has this always been the case or did it develop gradually?

The luxurious aspect perhaps is just from my idea of drawing things that are well designed and have an aesthetic appeal to me, so it was never a grand plan, just something that has happened quite by accident. I suppose it has developed over time to a certain extent because my taste has changed as I’ve learned more about architecture, fashion, design, film and so on. Looking back, I think my work has also been a reflection of a glamorous time for the western world where mid-century modernism has really come back and been reinvented through magazines like Wallpaper and through the activities of a whole generation of tastemakers in all areas of design. I happen to love drawing women because I think they can create powerful images, so in all it has been fun for me to reflect our culture’s interest in luxury and design through my illustrations.

Jason Brooks Pick Me Up 2012 by Alia Gargum

What are your favourite materials to work in and which digital techniques do you find yourself using again and again?

I love good old pen and paper. Biros are actually very subtle drawing tools, but I also use 4B pencils to draw out ideas and sketches which I then scan into my computer. I mainly use Photoshop and Illustrator to create my pictures digitally so I definitely still combine very basic old school technology – the dip pen, the pencil, etc. with the latest computer programmes. They are however all just tools, and I would be equally happy working in clay or building a sculpture out of sand on a beach.

Jason Brooks Pick Me Up 2012 by Alia Gargum

This year was your first as a guest artist at graphic design fair PIck Me Up at Somerset House. What did you enjoy and what surprised you about the whole experience?

It was a great chance to simply play with inks and coloured pencils. I made about 30 pictures or so, scribbling in an old french dictionary and on pieces of coloured paper throughout the day, which made me really enjoy the experience creatively. What surprised me was meeting so many new people who were interested in what I was doing, it was really rewarding to have direct contact and chat to them about their creativity too.

Jason Brooks Pick Me Up 2012 by Alia Gargum

You’ve had an impressive career so far, what do you think has been the reason(s) for your success?

Thank you, although I really don’t see myself as being successful yet. I guess any success I’ve had so far could be because I started at a very young age and have put a lot of effort and practice into my illustration because I enjoy it so much. I was fortunate in a way to have had a childhood without the modern phenomena of ‘screen time’ so I was able to immerse myself in my imagination through drawing worlds of my own instead of exploring ones created by other people. This lead on to college when creating work on paper was still very important, giving me the benefit of a ‘traditional’ academic art college experience with very little modern technology available unless I sought it out. I’ve always loved experimenting with all kinds of art forms and media, so when the digital revolution arrived in illustration and art I was very open to it and in a lucky position to be able to ride that particular wave from the beginning.

Jason Brooks Pick Me Up 2012 by Alia Gargum

What can we next expect from Jason Brooks?

I’m just finishing my first book called ‘A Paris Sketchbook’, which is due out in 2013. It is an eclectic collection of my own drawings and illustrations and a homage to a city which I love, published by Laurence King. My dream is that it will be the first in a series of travel sketchbooks covering different iconic cities. Aside from this I’m involved in a number of commissions with different companies and brands around the world, which is a part of my work that I really enjoy because it gives me the chance to collaborate with so many interesting people, adding a sometimes unexpected variety to what I do. I’ve also just signed with a new agency in New York called Traffic, so that’s exciting. Recently, I’ve completed a new collection of artwork for sale on my website called ‘The Gelato Series’ – all about girls eating ice cream in retro, sexy colours.

Jason Brooks Pick Me Up 2012 by Alia Gargum

It’s fascinating to hear from someone who has managed to carve such an astonishing career in fashion illustration. What a lovely guy. Be inspired! See more of Jason Brooks’ work online hereAmelia

Jason Brooks portrait

Categories ,2012, ,80s, ,90s, ,Alia Gargum, ,Amelia’s Magazine, ,catwalk, ,Central St Martins, ,collage, ,couture, ,Covent Garden, ,Creativity, ,Degas, ,Digital Art, ,Elle Magazine, ,Emma Block, ,fashion, ,Fashion Illustration, ,Feminine, ,gouache, ,illustrator, ,Jason Brooks, ,L’Oreal, ,Luxury, ,Marion Hume, ,New Orleans, ,new york, ,paris, ,Paul Eustace, ,Photoshop, ,Pick Me Up, ,portrait, ,Royal College of Art, ,Somerset House, ,The Independent, ,The Sunday Times, ,travel, ,vogue, ,Wallpaper

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Amelia’s Magazine | Andy Gilmore: Like a Black Math to the Flame

Oxfam’s Pedal Powered Outdoor Cinema

Laban
Creekside
London SE8 3DZ

Thursday 6th August
7:30pm
Free

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“A screening of Franny Armstrong’s ‘The Age of Stupid’, sickness cheapest starring Pete Postlethwaite, followed by a panel discussion with contributors from Oxfam, the GLA and the team behind the film. The event is completely powered by bike and those attending are invited to contribute some pedal power. Booking essential.”

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Dan Garson and Henry Diltz – The Woodstock Experience

Idea Generation Gallery
11 Chance Street
London E2 7JB

5th August – 30th August
Monday – Friday 12pm – 6pm
Saturday & Sunday 12pm -5pm

Free

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“Woodstock Experience provides a visual trip through those legendary days, 40 years ago, in a field outside New York, featuring scores of photographs from official Woodstock photographer Henry Diltz and unseen and unpublished images by star-struck but quick-witted teen photographer Dan Garson.”

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Paper City: Urban Utopias

In the Architecture Space
Royal Academy
Burlington House
Piccadilly
London W1J 0BD

31 July—27 October 2009
10am-6pm every day except Friday
10am-10pm Friday

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Laurie Chetwood

“Paper City: Urban Utopias showcases a selection of extraordinary drawings, collages and photomontages that have been produced for Blueprint as part of their back-page ‘Paper City’ commissions over the past three years. Architects, designers, artists and illustrators including James Wines, Steven Appleby and Ian Ritchie RA articulate their ideas about the city, suggesting imaginative possibilities for the future. The exhibition also includes new commissions from Peter Cook RA, Chris Orr RA, Marc Atkins, Javier Mariscal and RA Schools students Inez de Coo and Rachael Champion.”

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The Tomorrow People

Elevator Gallery
Mother Studios
Queens Yard
White Post Lane
Hackney Wick
London E9 5EN

Friday – Sunday 12pm – 5pm
Until 14th August
Free

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“Part of Hackney Wicked festival, The Tomorrow People and Elevator Gallery presents you ‘the artists of the future’ with exciting work by recent graduates across a broad range of different media, including Amy Clarke, Vicky Gold, Andrew Locke and Jon Moscow.”

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Clare Shilland – Girls! Girls! Girls!

House of Propellers
5 Back Hill
London EC1R 5EN

Until 23rd September
Tuesday – Friday 10am – 6pm, Saturday 11am – 4pm

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This is the debut solo exhibition from south Londoner and fashion photographer Clare Shilland. From a lifelong urge to be a female drummer comes this documentation of girls who are just that, an ambition she says was thwarted when she realised she had an inability to play the drums. Contrasting the two poles of Shilland’s personality, the tomboy and the femme, as well as beauty and bravado, movement and stillness, these images are both intimate and honest, qualities that are the backbone to all Shilland’s work.

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Deceitful Moon

Hayward Gallery
South Bank Centre
Belvedere Road
London SE1 8XZ

Until 31st August
Open daily 10am – 6pm, late nights Friday until 10pm
Free

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“Opening 40 years after the Apollo 11 moon landings, the group exhibition Deceitful Moon does not mark the anniversary of this world-shaping event, but rather commemorates the longstanding doubt that it took place at all. Featuring work by British and international artists, the show explores the moon as a site for misrepresentation and mistrust, touching on a tradition of hoaxes and conspiracy theories that reaches back to at least the 18th century.”

Artists include: Tom Dale, William Hogarth, Aleksandra Mir, Karen Russo, Amalia Pica, Sam Porritt, Johannes Vogl, Grant Morrison & Cameron Stewart, Carey Young and Keith Wilson.

This may come as a shock to those who know me well, page but I do have a resounding appreciation for mathematics. My GCSE Maths results may say otherwise, ailment but I’ve always found geometry fascinating and beautiful; the ability to reach perfection with numbers, lines, angles and curves astounds me in the same way much of what I’ve since forgotten from Science does too.

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What reminded me of this secret joy of oscillating patterns and symmetrical shapes was discovering Andy Gilmore, king of the kaleidoscope, who’s futuristic graphics are as mesmerising as they are complex.

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The 34 year old New Yorker is also a musician, and in Gilmore’s work the colours play like chords, scales made from tonal graduations and harmony is achieved as a result. His pieces are like Spirograph drawings for adults, swirling intricately interwoven lines complying within the framework of physics and equations to produce hypnotic digital art.

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His work has been likened to slipping into a ‘visual vortex’; the circular whirls morphing and hovering away from their black backgrounds as if like spacecrafts, other images forming ‘off-kilter shapes like small planets bouncing around some condensed parallel universe’. There are simultaneously retroesque and ultra modern, cleverly blending genres to form his own abstract vision, rather than making it something for everyone.

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The New York Times, Foursquare Outerwear, Seed Magazine, Dazed and Confused, Wired Magazine and the Webby Awards are all fans of Gilmore’s creations, and the following of his talent is snowballing. Prints and t-shirts emblazed with his designs are available on etsy, and we recommend that if you’re into the whole wowing your friends with being two steps ahead thing, that you get your hands on this stuff before it gets global and anyone who’s anyone covers their walls in Andy Gilmore’s geometric masterpieces. And for those lucky enough to reside in Berlin, an exhibition of his work is currently on show, details below.

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Andy Gilmore – Black Math

Pool Gallery
Tucholskystrasse 38
10117 Berlin Mitte
Germany

July 11th – August 22nd
Monday to Friday 12pm – 8pm
Saturday 12pm – 7pm

Categories ,Andy Gilmore, ,Berlin, ,Digital Art, ,exhibition, ,Graphic Art

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Amelia’s Magazine | An Interview with Illustrator Tom Hughes

Tom Hughes

Tom Hughes, aka Hyoos, is an Illustrator and Designer whose favourite word is ‘blimp’. Studying Animation at Falmouth, he’s currently working on some great projects, including cover art for Music Producer KickRaux and Singer-Songwriter Elly Jupp. Having trademarked his alter ego Hyoos, he’s hoping to spend the next few years building up the brand. Tom has plans to start collecting watches and a love of outer space and Wales, he’s also about to take the first steps towards forging a career in illustration. With all things comic and creepy as part of his signature style, you can’t but help be drawn (geddit?!) into his scary and intriguing world.

Tom Hughes

Whether it’s a panda wearing a giraffe Kigu-style onesie (with a sprinkling of superhero), a dinosaur indiscreetly parping, or a grimacing planet earth, his drawings are always raw, grumpy and, most importantly, engrossing. I spoke to Tom about the first time he picked up a pencil (a Tuesday) and his plans for post-university life.

Tom Hughes

Can you tell me a little about yourself?
I am an aspiring Illustrator and Designer from Falmouth, Cornwall.

How would you describe your illustration style?
Quite creepy and realistic but with a touch of humour added in some places. I love a bit of wordplay.

Tom Hughes

What are your influences?
Anything different and unusual really, at the moment I love looking and finding animals that people forget exist and drawing them

What’s your dream career?
To be a full time Illustrator, maybe selling my designs on T-shirts…

Tom Hughes

How do you make your images?
I usually draw them freehand on paper with my trusty pencil and then scan them/take a photo of them to then put them on the computer to make them digital and add colour.

What’s the most valuable lesson you’ve learnt from uni?
It’s all over WAY to quickly. I did get some experience on freelancing which will hopefully help me in the future.

Tom Hughes

What do you have lined up for the future?
I am working on making my name HYOOS known around, and getting it an ‘internet presence’. Fingers crossed I get a lucky break someday.

What kind of projects have you contributed to in the past?
I have contributed in many different random projects, too many to mention. My favourites are ones where I get the creative juices flowing and design fun and quirky things!

Tom Hughes

What would win in a fight: a pencil or a computer mouse?
Pencil any day!! The mouse is a boring piece of technology that would probably just flip over and struggle to find its feet again..

Do you remember the first time you got your hands on a pencil?
I do, I think it was a Tuesday. I haven’t looked back since.

Tom Hughes

Favourite Illustrator?
Mr Keaton Henson.

Fill in the blank. You find illustration____________
EXCITING!

Tom Hughes

You can see more of Tom’s work on his portfolio site www.hyoos.co.uk

Categories ,Animaltion, ,comic, ,Cornwall, ,coverart, ,creepy, ,dark, ,Digital Art, ,Elly Jupp, ,Falmouth, ,Hyoos, ,illustration, ,illustrator, ,jessicasrcook, ,Keaton Heston, ,KickRaux, ,pencil, ,Technology, ,Tom Hughes, ,Tuesday

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