My first Blog — Atomic Squib

They said it was impossible. They said it couldn’t be done! They said I was a fool to even attempt such a feat! …And so I didn’t, I started this blog instead, which I’m finding quite easy so far.

Firstly, my name is Jason and I am an illustrator and painter and director of Atomic Squib Ltd.

ATOMIC SQUIB LOGO – Digital illustration

I am married and we have one very beautiful child.

The other two are hideously ugly and we don’t mention them much. In fact most of our friends don’t know Billy-Bob and Suzy-May even exist.

I was born in the UK but grew up in Australia with lots of older brothers and sisters. Here’s a picture of my beloved mum and a glimpse into my childhood.

Mum loved to watch a good punch-up. Pen and ink — Mum loved to watch a good punch-up. *Pen and ink*

Then there was my dad. He was my rock, my confidante, my inspiration…

Although I love doing pen, brush and ink illustrations I find them a great challenge and I’m very rarely satisfied with the end results. For really great examples of this type of work have a look at coyote-bd.com , chrisriddell.co.uk and of course the great Albert Uderzo of Asterix fame. They make it seem so effortless. Here’s how effort-full it was for me…

My first sketch I did on the train on my way home from work.
rom this I drew a tighter pencil sketch and then attempted to ink it in.

It was only at this stage that I realised how truly awful this drawing was. I had to go back to the drawing board.

From this I did the final brush and ink drawing included above. I lost a lot of the warmth of this rough in the process but at least it didn’t look like the previous effort. If anyone has any advice about brush and ink illustration please share. I used a No 0 and a No 3 Pro Arte brush and India ink on Bond paper.

By the way my parents weren’t really like that… No, my dad was bald.

Now back to me as this is my biography. I recently moved to a medieval market town in the UK called Faversham and that will be the subject of my next entry…