The Daily Illustrator : Jacky Sheridan
Welcome again to The Daily Illustrator, today, featuring former Illustrator in residence from the Belfast School of Art, Jacky Sheridan. If you don't know the drill, we're essentially giving you a little insight into illustrator's work, from inspirations and ideas to process and favourite music to work to. Read on for that, some examples of Jacky's work and click through here to check out the full portfolio. Cheers!
WHEN DID YOU FIRST START ILLUSTRATING AND KNOW WAS IT SOMETHING YOU WANTED TO DO AS A PROFESSION?
To be honest, I've been drawing on everything since I could hold a pencil but I didn't cop that it was something that was even an option as a job until I went to art school. I went fully intent on doing graphic design and then had an epiphany during my first illustration module that people might actually eventually pay me to draw for them.
WHERE DO YOU FIND YOUR INSPIRATION?
I want to just say from anything that I can take the absolute piss out of. But really, I get inspired a lot too by photography and film- I'm a complete sucker for anything with good cinematography. I love collaborating with photographers, the last one I did was with Ken Grant for my final exhibition as artist in residence. I drew characters plucked from various photos in his 'Shankly' series and amalgamated them into two concertina style images. It was a lot of fun to work on, and I'd love to do something similar with another photographer soon.
HOW DO YOU GET THE IDEAS FOR YOUR ILLUSTRATIONS?
As soon as I get a brief in I tend to throw on some upbeat work music, generally soul or something I can sing mindlessly out of tune along to, and just write down any and every idea I have on the topic. Then I whittle them down, do some visual research for reference materials and then just play with the rough drawings I do from there. For personal illustrations, I like to keep an ideas diary and force myself to write down a few each day just to keep my brain ticking over.
WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE MEDIUM TO WORK WITH?
Ink. In any form, indian ink, screen printing ink, I don't care. I like the bold confidence of it, pencil is too meek and timid for my liking illustration wise. If something doesn't grab my attention on a page immediately then I'm not fucked spending hours looking at it, and that's just how I feel about anything that isn't ink.
IS THERE ANYTHING YOU ARE CURRENTLY WORKING ON?
At the moment I'm swamped with editorial work which is great, but it means I haven't had too much time to do personal work in a while. I'm hoping to start working on an illustrated book of things girls have cried at on their periods though because for some reason I have amassed far too many gas stories about just that that I definitely need to share with the world.
CURRENT PLAYLIST AS YOU WORK?
Not so much a playlist, but a really random mix of Bikini Kill, Rites of Spring and the few bangers Bieber has been putting out lately(seriously I hope that producer got PAAAAAID) to psyche me up to meet my looming deadlines.
ARE THERE ANY ILLUSTRATORS THAT YOU ARE A FAN OF THAT DESERVE SOME EXPOSURE?
I could name about twenty but I'll keep it short and sweet- Conor McClure, Linda Coulter, Lauren O' Neill, Donough O' Malley, the list goes on. For a small island, we're a talented bunch.