Who are you and what do you do?
My identify is Anthony James Gustafson, but my family members, friends, and colleagues call me Jamie. I am a science and normal background illustrator from Chicago, IL.
Why do you do what you do?
Art and science are two of the issues about which I am most passionate. Possessing the prospect to make a residing combining all those passions has constantly been a desire of mine.
How and when did you get into art?
I have been drawing at any time considering that I was aged sufficient to hold a crayon. And I have been involved in building art in one particular way or yet another ever given that. I have been carrying out it skillfully, both of those as a graphic designer and an illustrator, for the earlier 15 years.
Your drawings are so technological & specific. Have you generally drawn this way?
I have often attempted to make my drawings as in depth as possible. Discovering to see all of those specifics, and then discovering to seize them in my artwork is something I have spent decades training, and anything I consider to increase on every day. When your artwork is created for scientific and academic applications, concentrating on specialized information is usually a vital part of the method.
What are your beloved topics to draw?
I appreciate internal anatomy. Developing sensible, illustrated types of zoological anatomy is one particular of my complete favourite factors to do.
In addition to that, prehistoric restoration is almost certainly my greatest enthusiasm. That is the method of making use of present fossil records and the hottest paleontological investigate to reconstruct extinct species. My paleoart normally focuses on reconstructing prehistoric mammals.
What conjures up your artwork?
Predominantly my artwork is impressed by my love of nature. I like learning from mother nature and then employing my artwork to teach what it has taught me to some others. From a youthful age, I was taught to be curious and passionate about the all-natural entire world. The greatest objective of my work is to inspire that similar curiosity and enthusiasm in other individuals.
How has your practice altered about time?
For the previous several years I have really focused on understanding how mild and shade functionality. I have appear to fully grasp that drawing is really just the act of mimicking the effects of gentle and color in the environment all-around us, and then translating that on to paper. That’s oversimplifying it a little bit, but in result, I have expended a lot of time and power cultivating my means to realistically re-develop the results of light-weight on different surfaces this sort of as fur, feathers, trees, rocks, and other pure aspects. As a coloured pencil artist, that signifies hrs of honing my competencies at layering and blending diverse hues, to attain refined variants of mild and dim hues, tones, highlights, and shades.
What is your favorite piece of art that you have made? Why?
1 of my preferred pieces is a get the job done I did final 12 months illustrating a few rarely-highlighted anatomical capabilities observed in sharks. The piece focused on a shark’s one of a kind skin texture, as very well as an inside mechanism that presents them the potential to detect minute electrical impulses in likely prey. I was really happy to have the do the job regarded when I was awarded the International Award on Scientific Illustration by Academia Illustraciencia and The Nationwide Museum of Organic Science in Madrid.
What’s the very best piece of art advice you’ve been specified?
A number of a long time ago I was given the possibility to exam for a series of guides by a well-recognized publisher. Eventually, I didn’t land the gig, but the editor assigned to the project gave me a good deal of constructive comments. Most notably, he suggested me to “draw everyday living, not taxidermy”. That has really trapped with me. Even though the photographs I create are however, I check out my greatest to breathe as substantially lifetime into them as attainable. I uncover this especially vital when re-constructing animals of the previous. I want the viewer to consider these creatures as the residing, breathing beings that they ended up. Not as the wonderful, mythological beasts that they are inclined to become in our minds.
What’s a person artwork idea/method you can share with us that you find seriously helpful?
This would seem like a really clear assertion, but I have located that it Is one particular of the most tough and essential factors an artist can do: Draw what you see. By that, I indicate draw what you genuinely see. Not what you know, or even what you imagine you know. If you ask somebody to attract a tree, most men and women would possibly create some thing akin to a vertical brown rectangle, topped with inexperienced squiggles, or individual inexperienced markings representing leaves. And whilst that is a universally regarded representation of a tree, it is not what a tree essentially seems to be like. They, like any in a natural way occurring object, are much extra intricate. And so when an artist genuinely learns to see and then learns to translate what they see onto paper, it has the potential to take their artwork to a wholly distinctive degree.
Do you have any magic formula guidelines or tactics you use to salvage a piece when you make a miscalculation?
I usually like to hold my blunders. I may scrap a piece and start in excess of, but I will retain all those off to the facet and refer back to them. I imagine both of those as artists and as people today, our blunders can at times be our biggest discovering instruments.
What is your favored Strathmore paper? Why?
The 400 Series Toned Sketch papers are my go-to. I particularly really like the toned gray. The texture of the 400 series lends itself nicely to the layering and mixing that coloured pencils call for. And the grey surface produces an priceless, mid-toned track record. Enabling extra control above lighter values, whites, and highlights.
What artwork materials could you not stay without the need of?
I couldn’t do what I do with out superior-high quality, qualified-grade coloured pencils. Consider it or not, when I 1st commenced functioning with colored pencils, I’d frequently rummage by way of my 5-yr-old’s arts and crafts box in research of colors. At the time, I hardly understood the distinction in between fantastic pencils and bad pencils. Given that then, I’ve come to understand that there is no substitute for excellent. It seriously will make all the difference in the planet.
What styles of colors are you drawn to for your artwork and why?
I really use a extensive array of colors. It all relies upon on the subject make any difference. But I constantly make absolutely sure I have a healthy provide of different brown and grey tones on hand. Even when using vibrant colours, neutrals truly support to form those colors into the precise hues that I’m striving to attain.
Who are your largest influences (or who have been when you began accomplishing artwork)?
I have had so lots of influences over the many years, it’s complicated to identify just a several. I suppose my 1st affect was my older brother. I 1st learned how to attract by copying the points that he would draw. As I grew, quite a few of my influences ended up comedian reserve artists these types of Frank Miller, Jim Lee, and Todd McFarlane. Now most of my influences are fellow paleoartists this sort of as Mauricio Anton, and Beth Zaiken, and sculptors like Jim Burt and the Kennis Brothers.
What’s the most frequent artwork-similar dilemma you get from your followers?
With no a doubt, the most frequent query I get questioned is “How do I turn my artistry into a job?” Regretably, there is no a single-dimension-fits-all response. Everyone’s route is different. My have path was undoubtedly significantly less than orthodox. But I give every single aspiring specialist artist the same information: Emphasis on the function. Draw. Paint. Sculpt. No matter what it is that you do, do it. Do it a good deal. Even when you never want to. Particularly when you really do not want to. For the reason that as any creative specialist will convey to you, there will be times when you will will need to generate artwork, even when you really don’t want to. So dedicate yourself to becoming the extremely finest artist that you can. Then obtain a way to get your artwork in front of as a lot of individuals as doable. I am a firm believer that it is extremely hard to cover good perform. Inevitably, another person will come across it. Someone will give you an prospect. But right until then, be prepared to hear “No”. Or worse however, be organized to hear nothing at all at all. Anticipate rejection, but by no means acknowledge it. If a career as an artist is what you really want, under no circumstances allow any individual tell you that you just can’t have it.
Site/social media back links:
Web-site: https://ajgusillustration.weebly.com
Instagram: @ajgusillustration