james@jshedden.com
http://www.jshedden.com
http://blog.jshedden.com
Hello, I'm James. I live in London and keep myself busy with illustration, web & graphic design, animation and the occasional bit of music. Have a look at my website to find out a bit more about me.
If think my illustration style might suit your project, would like me to design something for you, enjoy something you've seen here or simply want to say hello, please get in touch - just send an email to james@jshedden.com or find me on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ & Flickr.
If there's anything you'd like to ask via Tumblr, you can do so here.
I'm very grateful for whatever help you can provide in the way of sharing my work via the various methods below:
Howdy, coupla things. Above is the full version of an image that I posted a few snippets of previously. It’s a cover for an EP by the band Lost Tapes for the netlabel EardrumsPop. Thanks to them for having me!
They also did an interview with me which you can read here. Some fairly earnest answers from me about my environment & working process and what-not.
Lastly I helped my robot friend Poo John with a new cover. I recorded & mixed it etc and provided some backing vocals. Have a listen below:
Pretty gloomy around here still so here’s something suitably drizzly.
Wanted to work on something quick over yesterday & today. As always trying to depict more people & get them right; really happy with the foreground figures. Some work in progress shots as well!
A couple of snippets of an EP cover I finished over the weekend. Look forward to sharing the full version once the music is released! I also post this kind of thing on Dribbble, find/follow me if you’re on it!
Above: Was super excited to get this in the post this week! Thanks to Dave & Ammo Magazine for having me. Find out more about the latest issue of Ammo here! Lots of really lovely stuff inside.
Below: I made a game with a couple of friends. Sort of. It’s a work in progress which may be frozen in its current state, or we might continue working on it another time. It’s smooth and hi-res unlike the choppy, grainy GIF below, but you get the idea. Find out more & download at the TIGSource forums. I did concept stuff that slowly evolved into the final images (that’s ‘assets’ to those in the know), Ben actually made the damn thing, Bob worked on animation and sound & we all chipped in with general design & ideas.
Update: How could I forget to include my proudest creation: Breakfast Man. Enjoy:
A quick post from me to let you know about a couple of things. You can find a nice feature on my creative activities over at the Fishink blog. Thanks Craig & Fishink!
Also, my work will soon be found in a forthcoming issue of Ammo Magazine. Above is a small snippet of a double page spread that I’m looking forward to sharing soon!
A page I did for the awesome ‘Philistone’ comic which accompanies the magazine Untold Method.
Since I very rarely include people in my images (less rare recently but I’m still less practiced at including them than I am, say, cardboard trees…), I was pretty pleased with this. I have also wanted to experiment with sequential stuff/comic pages for some time but they’re one of those off-in-the-distance things that I probably won’t get round to very much, so it was great to have the opportunity to have fun with this. I prefer some panels over others but am generally happy with how it turned out.
Completed quite a large-scale piece (a double page spread for Ammo Magazine) which I’ll be excited to share once it’s been published.
I’ve started posting on Dribbble with more frequency, check out my shots and follow me if you’re into that kind of thing.
I did the above image of the band Fireworks Night for Amelia’s Magazine (see the blog post with my illustration here). Experimenting with the best way to incorporate people in my work - good and bad things about this attempt that I’ll be considering when working on new images.
A couple of things I should have mentioned a while ago. I was asked to contribute to ABC which I’ve blogged about before but I failed to mention that I’d received a copy of the book and attended the launch event where I got the chance to meet some of the other illustrators. Here’s the item in question:
It’s a lovely collection of images (if I do say so myself) and has been put together really well. As is stated on the cover it features the work of some really good illustrators. I was particularly proud to be featured in the same publication as Stanley Donwood who is one of my creative idols and a massive inspiration & influence. Hooray!
Another thing I failed to mention is that I recently updated my website. My aim is to let people know all the various things I’m up to so as not to second-guess or limit what twists and turns my career will take next. But I would really like more illustration work so I’ve tried to put an appropriate bias/focus on that. Click on the image below and have a look:
That’s all for now - cheers!
Didn’t there used to be a video of me here? Yes - you can now check it out here. I’ve set up a new blog, stuff.jshedden.com, for more general, personal stuff that doesn’t directly relate to my professional art & design work.
I’d like it if people could visit this blog (the one we’re on right now) to get a quick idea of what I’m up to in the way of illustration/design etc without having to sift through long posts about my songwriting crises - visit stuff.jshedden.com for all that jazz.
Posting those animations reminded me that it’s fun to set yourself the task of completing something in a day (I mentioned I had done this earlier in the year, for a small period, and the videos - as seen in my previous post - resulted). It also reminded me that it’s good to keep my blog moving. With that in mind, here’s something I conceived and finished today.
It feels quite different to my ‘normal’ stuff - I’ve been meaning to develop the ‘Poo John’ character for a while (see this animation & REM cover if you don’t know who Poo John is… although you may still have some pertinent questions after viewing) and for a long time I’ve wanted to experiment with sequential images (which I do incredibly rarely) - so here is a combination of both those desires. I’m fond of Poo John, and want to move the idea forward in a few directions, not least with some more music at some point - still deciding on songs which might go down as well as his YouTube debut. He could do with some more friends, so please go ‘Like’ him at his Facebook Page.
