Jeffrey Alan Love’s sketchbooks feature foreboding figures that look out with imposing eyes from rich spreads of black ink. This preparatory work translates into haunting yet tender illustrations in his final images.
The atmosphere in Alan’s work seems to come from the balance he strikes between dark and light, the adding and taking away of details. His illustrations often employ a brilliant use of negative space to create mystery and form intriguing shapes.
But it is also his play with applying marks and different textures in creative ways that helps to make his distinctive style.
Whether working on his personal sketches or commissions, he is always looking for inventive techniques to put paint to page. Below, he talks about just a few of the many tools he uses and more.
My name is Jeffrey Alan Love, and until recently I would have described myself as a freelance illustrator, but I’m in the process of finishing my first book so I don’t know what to call myself anymore. Artist and writer perhaps.
For my illustration work, I work traditionally, usually with paint on paper, applying the paint with a variety of tools that include brushes, brayers, sponges, sticks, driftwood, sandpaper -whatever works or has caught my eye at the hardware store.
If you’ve figured out your values/shapes/edges effectively in your sketches you can use anything to make the final— the world is full of objects that can potentially make interesting marks.
I often work with mixed media, and love printmaking, monotypes, etc. and dream of having a press in my studio someday.
© Jeffrey Alan Love, 2015
