The work of multidisciplinary artist Jon Adams plays around with touches of the surreal and the strange, but is always immaculately drawn
Whether for his abstract cast of characters that feature in his illustrations or for his brilliant ongoing comic series ‘Chief O’Brien At Work’, the finish and detail in Jon Adams’ drawings is always really beautiful. It’s the combination of the expertly etched lines with the humorous and bizarre that we think works so well.
Additionally to his illustration work, Jon wears many hats, doing anything from web, product, and UI/UX design as well. So it’s not surprising that his list of previous clients includes impressive names like MTV, Netflix, and LucasFilm.
Below, he tells us about himself and his process.
I’m an illustrator, graphic designer, and writer. My sketchbooks are filled with words more than drawings. The materials I use are very basic – an HB pencil or whatever hardness is available, Pilot Rolling Ball V5 pen which I’ve been using for decades (God help me if they ever discontinue that pen), Strathmore bristol board (vellum, because the tooth takes my ink more gently than smooth), and an eraser.
A lot of comic artists use non-photo blue pencil which baffles me. Who wants blue lines all over the finished art? Then I scan it. All the coloring is done in Photoshop. There’s a great plugin for laying down color separations called BPelt that saves me tons of time.
© Jon Adams, 2015
