“My creative process is hella eclectic”: illustrator Jack Fletcher

On a miserable, grey day (in June!), Jack Fletcher’s illustrations put a smile on the face of the entire editorial team here at It’s Nice That. The Edinburgh-based artist creates vibrant drawings of flora-inspired women, ghost-boy hybrids and other cheeky-looking characters that are sure to brighten up anyone’s day. Illustration seems to have been on the cards for Jack, who can trace the art back through his bloodline. “Both my mother and Grandfather were illustrators so I grew up as a child surrounded by family who were always creating. It was from them that I acquired my love of drawing,” Jack tells us.

Jack’s illustrations prioritise bold colours and line-work, and depict anything from intimate embraces to unconventional family portraits to the constant act of drawing familiar to any creative. “Inspiration for me comes from whatever is going on round me day to day,” Jack explains. “It can be something as simple as a nice colour combo, emotion, people or something interesting I read. I use illustration as a way to visually translate what is going on round me in the world and a way to absorb and make sense of things that I might find hard to put into words.” For Jack, instinct is what leads his creative process. Rather than following prescribed techniques or modes of drawing, Jack puts his faith in his intuition. The result is a set of unpredictable scenarios and humorous scenes.

“My creative process is hella eclectic,” says Jack. “It jumps from digital to pen and paper to screen-printing, at times. It is kind of whatever I feel works with what i’m doing at the time. The one constant thing for me is carrying round a sketchbook. Muji till I die. Thats where I try to record all of my ideas and work through them before finally transferring them to a sheet of paper or a photoshop document. It allows me to get most of my terrible drawings out of the way before I start on something big. Though, that being said, a lot of the terrible drawings I do become my favourites when I revisit them later. My sketchbook is therefore double important to my creative process as it allows me to keep track of all my creations.”

Over the years, Jack has become more confident in and assured of his unique style of drawing. Rather than forcing himself to experiment with scale and composition, the illustrator has embraced his personal artistic vision and its stripped-back aesthetic. This, in turn, allows him to be more playful with the colours and outlines he ascribes to characters and objects. When it comes to the future, things are looking bright for Jack: “I am currently creating a design studio up here in Edinburgh, and have a few fun secret projects on the horizon that (fingers crossed) will create some really cool stuff. There are so many interesting ways you can harness illustration these days and I feel Scotland is really starting to pop with top quality young creatives so I am in the midst of trying to jump on that wave.”