Meet Josh(ua) Jackson | Character Concept Artist & Illustrator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Josh(ua) Jackson and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Josh(ua), let’s start by talking about what inspires you?
I’m mostly inspired by comics, video games, and animation. There’s a little slice of life in there too, who would I be if not for the people I surround myself with, but inspiration comes from all over. In my own work I’m usually borrowing from a lot of different places in the world and putting my own spin on things, or mixing and matching.

Personally I think its interesting that the easier it is to take photos and reference the smaller our world becomes. There will probably always be things to be inspired by, but its interesting how much as a visual artist that in order to remix this stuff in a way that you feel you can say you did it justice its gotta be close to your heart. You can’t get jiggy with it if you don’t understand what it is you’re getting jiggy with.

I’m speaking in broad strokes but when it comes to being inspired by and referencing people and culture, you really do have to be very observant and ask questions so you can better service your own visuals, especially if you’re on the outside looking in. With nature and animals you can kind of just take things and run with them, but with people you have to take a bit of time and really either dig or travel and take pictures. That’s what so interesting about how the world has sort of shrunken. You might find out that the people you’re traveling out to probably live in a very similar fashion these days. Modernity comes for us all, I guess but spotting how others choose to embrace it is always pretty interesting.

Now I feel like I’m rambling but the tl;dr people will never stop inspiring me, with all the crazy variation in most things we do. It’s all so interesting to me

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I think it’s always hard for an artist to say what they think sets them apart from others. I think the easy thing for me to say is that I’m pretty prolific. I really enjoy the act of drawing, I’ve been told that it really does look like I’m having a lot of fun on the page, but I’m just doing a lot of what I want to do, and I’m pretty scatterbrained so its all over the place.

So my process ends up being sketch a lot, find the good stuff, refine, cut, paste and isolate, then refine some more. So if you look at some of the larger sketch pages you’ll see stuff that gets turned into full illustrations or stickers. Or I’ll elaborate on character designs I think are interesting in that same order. It seems hectic when I type it out, but honestly its been pretty exciting for me knowing that this is how I like to work, but it does mean that I have a ton of drawings that don’t get used for anything just kind of hanging out.

Honestly I don’t think I am where I want to be professionally, but I do think a lot of that is my fault. I think as an artist and trying to be a commercial artist at that, you have a lot less freedom than you think. I didn’t start drawing because I was a fan of anything in particular I wanted to make up characters that fit into Dragon Ball as a kid, and from there it led me to wanting to tell stories and design things. However when you’re working freelance or trying to work for a company you do indeed have to fit a mold. So it doesn’t matter how good you are technically beyond a point so long as you can hit x, y or z. I came at the problem from if I get so good they can’t ignore me I’ll be fine, but that’s like trying to hit the lottery. So now I’m trying to build an audience for the cool, weird and fun stuff I make but even though the internet allows for all these opportunities people with bigger budgets, larger staff and stuff are also trying to get peoples attention. So its put me in and probably a lot of others in a strange spot trying to get started and noticed. Especially with social media kind of just being in an overall messy spot.

I think for me right now the biggest lesson I’ve learned has been to rely on my friends. For me its been a little spooky because I’m so used to being responsible for myself but if you have someone that’s willing to take a little bit off your shoulders there’s no real reason to refuse. The flip-side of that is you gotta also be willing to listen too. I know I’m stubborn by nature lord help me but sometimes your friends see stuff that you miss, or pay more attention to some of your bad habits that you might not notice. Then once its been brought up its up to you course correct.

I want to say that I don’t think I know what my particular brand is, but I know that I’m always learning and trying to grow. The stuff that I’m working on now I can tell is different from the stuff I was working on at the beginning of the year. Maybe not content wise but my approach to drawing has and that stuff keeps me engaged. I think its really easy to get stuck in a rut drawing the same things if you don’t change something about either how you think about the subject or the act of drawing itself. Its also really easy to not change subject matter and I’ve been trying to remind myself that I can draw anything I want, its really liberating sometimes. You’d be surprised at how many different ways you can draw a pigeon when you put your mind to it

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Definitely gotta hit up the Observatory and the Getty both those places are gorgeous especially at sunset. I feel like the beach is obligatory so probably like Santa Monica and maybe drive on up the coast hit up the Getty Villa. Probably grab food at some local spots like Leos Tacos, or El Chato, Delicious Pizza if they’re thinking bout a slice instead of Mexican. Definitely head over to Lil Tokyo check out the shops but mostly the Kinokuniya for the slick art book imports and the diverse selection of ramen. Speaking of that though we’d probably end up over on Sawtelle to check out Giant Robot and over through to Alhambra to check out Gallery Nucleus. Maybe roll through Pulp Fiction Comics in Culver, man there’s so much cool stuff littered throughout Los Angeles one week might be a little rough hahaha

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I think I’m obligated to say thank you to my mom for just not kicking me outta the house at this point hahaha. It’s not that she doesn’t see me working she just has no idea what it is that I do, and its not like I’m rolling into an office everyday and coming back in the afternoon. So I’m grateful that she’s putting up with all of this.( love you mom )

I’d also like to thank my friends for just being there. Ya’ll know who you are and I think you know but I’m hella grateful to have ya’ll be in and apart of my life. Especially both Tammy and Julian, ya both inspire me to do a little more and push me to be a better artist and homie. Thank you both

Website: https://acertainmisterjackson.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/misterjckson/

Other: I usually stream on twitch Tuesday afternoons https://www.twitch.tv/acertainmisterjackson