Jon Boam

Here is another illustrator that was suggested to me by Lord Whitney and I fully understand why. His work has consisted of murals, comics and crazy characters, which is pretty much all of the stuff I’m thinking about doing!

Jon uses colour really well in his illustrations to tie the pieces together. The idea of limiting yourself to only two or three colours id something I always consider doing but either end up not bothering of mess it up somehow. I think that after Christmas it would be good practice to use this limitation and see how my work can benefit, even if I do get it wrong the first couple of times. Also, this would make my work easier to screen print if the occasion arises!

I’m not sure if it’s intentional but Jon doesn’t seem to draw people too much either, opting for drawing cool funky animals, plants, robots etc. These are the types of things I also like to draw and he puts them together in a great way. It reminds me of what Jo said to me recently, that it was as if I have my own little world in my head wanting to get out but struggle with. This is very true, and I can see from Jon’s work that this is the same kind of world he has, but he has a good time transferring from his head.

It seems to be a style that is becoming more popular, and I feel like I’m beginning to fit into this type of illustration better than all of the others I’ve tried. Using block colour and black lines, creating a great cast, wall art, these are all the things I’m looking in myself for.