An illustration of a pair of blue legs and black shoes stepping over a simplified city skyline. The buildings are rendered as geometric blocks of grey, white, red and blue against an orange background.

Introducing...The bold, richly coloured illustrations of the mysterious Jamie Jones

Words: Anna Trench
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Date: 22 February 2013; Work
Illustration

Jamie Jones sent us a lovely risograph print of a man so engrossed in his phone he steps off a roof. Won over, we searched his site to discover more but found it surprisingly taciturn. We were, however, met with some excellent illustration: flat, hand-drawn shapes confidently coloured and then softened a little with textures. Clever but simple, they’re bold in the best way.

Still keen to know about the creator behind this work, we chased him down to pose the question his website name asks and find out exactly who is Jamie Jones…

An open sketchbook shows a series of character studies and sketches. On the right, a figure in a blue jacket and light blue trousers strides forward, while the left page contains smaller drawings and the handwritten text “4 RED RUSO”. — Above
Jamie Jones’s sketchbook

A laptop and an open notebook sit on a wooden desk in a bright studio. A light box, scissors and a green desk lamp surround the workspace, with various prints and sketches pinned to the wall behind. — Above
Jamie Jones’s workspace

Where do you work?

I work in Bristol, where I graduated from UWE last year – I work either from home or from my studio in the centre, which I share with a few illustrator friends. It’s a great space to be, especially in the summer, it’s amazing for people watching! I think it depends on my mindset where I prefer to work – sometimes it’s fun to work at home on my own and get comfortable, more so in the winter – got to hibernate!

How does your working day start?

I’m realising more and more that I operate best by doing things methodically, but I am notoriously bad at decision making so can sometimes take a while to get going on the right track. Ideally I’ll get an early start and an extra large bowl of cereal, before checking my emails, procrastinating and heading to the studio. If it’s a particularly good day there might be some ping pong or a skate to the shop in between. It’s good to have some sketchbook downtime in the evenings as well.

How do you work and how has that changed?

I get a bit obsessed with working processes – trying to figure out the best way to do things and really push to improve my own techniques, so in that sense I think I’m always going to feel like I’m finding my feet a bit. At the moment I work with pencil and compose things in photoshop, mostly so I can spend more time drawing and I prefer the line quality to a perfectly digital one.

I’d say my work has changed in a positive way from spending more time drawing, working things through and resisting the urge to jump right into something (though sometimes that can be better). I think I’ve improved from not being completely happy with my work as well, I suppose it’s important to keep testing things out and going wrong. Lately I’ve enjoyed trying to just get away from the computer a bit, I plan on making some more experimental work to get me out of my comfort zone.

Where would we find you when you’re not at work?

Cycling around Bristol, skateboarding, drinking way too much Coca-Cola or playing Mario Kart.

Would you intern for yourself?

If I was myself, interning for myself – then yes because as the intern I would learn a lot about where I’m going wrong and what I need to change, whilst as the person in charge I could use the extra pair of hands to take care of the boring side of being an illustrator, chasing up money and sending emails! Then I could lead the truly glamorous illustrator lifestyle without admin.