James Spells Colour with a 'U'

Meet another Wolf Crier

Wolf Criers
Vol 4

Wolf Criers Club is a collective project of illustrators, writers, designers, and wolves. Members range about the globe in North America and Europe. We came together a year ago in a course called Children’s Book Pro - and if you’re interested it is starting up again later this year. Click the link for SVS Learn to find out more and check out 6 free classes to see if it’s right for you.

We help each other navigate the challenges and opportunities making picture books, sequential art and other creative endeavors. This weekly offering is our way of building an audience and sharing the work of our members. Thanks for coming along.

This week is an introduction to the moon-eyed creations of James Powell, an illustrator whose work is as charming as his accent. It’s worth checking out his website just for the sloth at the top with James’ name on it: www.jamespowellart.com

Here’s a bit about James:

James Powell is an artist from England living in Minnesota who still spells the word “COLOUR’ with a ‘U’.

He works in both traditional and digital media. His illustrations are influenced by childhood cartoons, movies and toys and often evoke a sense of nostalgia, celebrating childhood wonder and playfulness.

5 Questions for James                        

• Where are you from originally and where are you located now?

I’m originally from Kent in England but after meeting (and eventually marrying) an American girl while teaching English in Japan, I now call sunny Minnesota in the
US of A my home.

• How did you get your name?

I use James Powell Art on my website and social media as its the most direct and quickest to type out. There are a few James Powells knocking around and a surprising amount work in various art endeavors so I’m glad ‘ART’ was available when I started out as ‘ILLUSTRATION’  just becomes a hassle to continuously type out after a while. 

Once upon a time,  a few years ago,  my website was taken over by a chinese shoe stretching company (yep, for a while I would get queries emailed to me through my site for shoe stretching and storage services. My knowledge of this is very basic so I could not help) so I had to add my middle initial P to my name but that was always taken for a spelling mistake or some sort of online stutter (James-P-Powell)

• Who was an important influence, teacher, or mentor?

I think there has always been creative influences in my life through my family. I remember my granddad drawing horses when I was very young and thinking that, excuse me, but horses are really difficult to draw! My mum was always very creative and put together lots of crafts, toys and costumes for me and my brother. She definitely instilled something in me that made me think I would be able to draw/create or make something (she once dressed me as a flower box at a street party. That will definitely influence a person.) 

My dad would bring comic books and annuals of the cartoons I was interested in every week on his way home from work. I used to create my own comic books inspired by Garfield, Calvin and Hobbes and Snoopy. Even now my illustrations are heavily influenced by cartoons and comics from my childhood, especially those by Chuck Jones and all of the different Looney Tunes Characters. The varied personalities and way each character would interact with each other is something I try to put into my work.

I was also very drawn to anything related to the worlds and characters created by Jim Hensen. The different Muppety characters of course but also things like Brian Froud’s detailed illustrations and designs in the Labyrinth, Dark Crystal and The StoryTeller to the way Joe Mathieu would draw the fur and facial expression of a sesame street character in his books.                     

Though most of my influences and memories are positive, in my last year at school I had a teacher that was actually a negative influence on me and caused me to put a hold on my drawing for a while when I should probably have been learning more about it. I had switched schools from one with some great art teachers to one where they were not supportive or constructive with the work I created so my confidence and grades there took a massive hit. I think I developed a slight aversion to art teachers for a bit and dropped illustrating and painting and studied script writing and theatre studies while at university. The visual storytelling aspect of theatre appealed to me. A few years later I realized that I usually storyboarded my scripts and stage directions like comicstrips and stories anyway so maybe I was just taking a different approach that would help me out with children’s illustration later.

• When did you start taking your art seriously?

I had always picked up the odd illustration job here and there but it probably wasn’t until I moved to Minnesota that I focussed on my art. Originally I would only work in acrylic paint or watercolour. Selling paintings at galleries and art shows around the twin cities. I was scared of digital illustration for a long time thinking it was too complicated to learn. I think at some point I was offered a job that required digital art. I said I could do it, no problem, and was then forced to learn Photoshop in a weekend. I then started designing t-shirts for companies using various mash ups of existing characters or lots of designs with robots and dinosaurs. I felt that some of the characters I designed for those needed more of a story so I started developing characters for books and animations. Most of my stuff is digital now.

• What is grabbing your attention this year?

Despite how I just answered that last question, I am actually getting back into painting traditionally again this year so am going back to some of my original inspirations and seeing how their work has developed. I have always loved the work of Glenn Barr and how one piece can include so much, Amanda Visell’s bold characters and worlds, the humor in literally everything done by Scott .C, and the interactions and energy in Eiichiro Oda’s illustrations and comics. I’m pretty sure that most, if not all of these artists have illustrated for books too.

In terms of children’s illustration, I am really drawn to the work or work ethic (or both) or artists like Edwardian Taylor, Adilson Farias, Flavia Z. Drago and Erin Hunting and what they are doing at the moment. My favorite is probably Wiebke Rauers and the books she is putting out right now.

I also recently stumbled across an artist named Sumouli who goes by Woodle Doodle Designs on instagram. She often posts tips on how she illustrates her pieces. I feel like I learn a little something every time.  She is definitely worth a follow. 

Thanks to James for his answers and fun art.

If you enjoy this post, please share it with a few arts friends and subscribe or follow
Wolf Criers Club on Substack for weekly updates.