AMP recently caught up with James Gilleard, one of our very first contributors to the AMP project, and features in both of our little A5 books. We love what James does, so it was good to get to know him a little better.

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Name
JAMES GILLEARD

Age
30

Where in the world are you?
TULSE HILL, WEST NORWOOD, LONDON, ENGLAND

Job title
ILLUSTRATOR,ANIMATOR

How long have you been doing this?
7 YEARS

Is this your day job?
YES – FREELANCE ILLUSTRATOR AND ANIMATOR

Can you quickly describe your creative process, how do you start a project and what programs or pens do you use to make it
I ALWAYS START BY DOING RESEARCH, MAKING A FOLDER OF RELAVENT IMAGES. THEN I GO ONTO ROUGHS, DRAWING THUMNAILS FOR THE COMPOSITION AND THEN FOCUSING ON DETAILS OF CHARACTERS ETC. THIS IS ALL DONE IN A SKETCHBOOK (I HAVEN’T GOT TO GRIPS WITH DRAWING DIRECTLY INTO THE COMPUTER!) I THEN GO INTO ILLUSTRATOR AND DO CRUDE COLOUR ROUGHS – WITH BLOCKS OF COLOURS, SIMILAR TO THE COLOUR SCRIPTS FOR ‘THE INCREDIBLES’. FINALS ARE THEN DONE IN ILLUSTRATOR – TRACING THE ROUGHS FROM MY SKETCHBOOK USING A WACOM TABLET. ONCE THE VARIOUS PARTS OF THE IMAGE ARE COMPLETED I WILL PUT THEM INTO PHOTOSHOP FOR THE FINAL LAYOUT. HERE I ALSO ADD TEXTURES AND TWEAK THE COLOURS AND COMPOSITION UNTIL I AM HAPPY WITH IT.

Favourite movie
THE LIFE AQUATIC (Below by James)



Why?
BILL MURRAY IS GREAT IN THIS BUT THE WHOLE FILM IS FUNNY AND THEN THE FINAL SCENE WHERE THEY MEET THE SHARK HAS TO BE ONE OF THE BEST SCENES IN THE FILM.

Favourite original movie poster
DIFFICULT! MAYBE SOME OF THE OLD BOND POSTERS BY ROBERT MCGINNIS. MORE RECENTLY I WOULD SAY THE DEATH PROOF POSTER WAS PRETTY GOOD. MOVIE POSTERS THESE DAYS ARE USUALLY PRETTY RUBBISH – WHICH IS WHY THE ALTERNATIVE MOVIE POSTER THING IS SO POPULAR I GUESS.


By Robert McGinnis

Favourite alternative movie poster
I REALLY LIKE THE 3 STAR WARS POSTERS BY OLLY MOSS (see below)

Piece of work you’re most proud of

I DID A SERIES OF PRINTS FOR THE GAME SHADOW OF THE COLOSSUS WHICH AS A WHOLE I THINK IS SOME OF MY BEST WORK. (see below)

See more of this project here

Why?
I REALLY TRIED TO MAKE THE IMAGES SIMPLE – SO THEY ARE VERY STATIC AND HAVE ONLY AROUND 3-5 COLOURS PER IMAGE. THEY WERE DESCRIBED AS MINIMALIST WHICH I THINK IS FITTING.

Who would you say has been or currently is your inspiration
I USED TO LOOK AT SPECIFIC ARTISTS BUT NOW LOOK AT A WEALTH OF MATERIAL FROM 1950S CARTOONS TO GRAPHICS DESIGN, ARCHITECTURE AND COLLAGE. A GOOD BOOK I BOUGHT RECENTLY IS ‘ECHOES OF THE FUTURE’ WHICH IS A GRAPHIC DESIGN BOOK.


Buy Echoes Of The Future here

Last movie you saw
WRECK IT RALPH

Any good?
YEAH PRETTY GOOD – SOME CLICHED DIALOGUE BUT OVERALL A GREAT IDEA AND REALLY NICE CHARACTER AND ENVIRONMENT DESIGN. GREAT COLOURS TOO.

Have you seen anything recently that other people HAVE to know about? Exhibitions, books, short films, amazing artist friends etc?
JUST WENT TO JAPAN AND VISITED A JAPANESE PRINT MUSEUM AND SOME OF THE PRINTS THERE WERE VERY INSPIRING. THE CHARACTERS, COMPOSITION AND COLOURS WERE AMAZING, BUT THE METHOD WAS UNBELIEVABLE. A LOT OF EFFORT WAS REQUIRED

See more from James’s trip to Japan here

Any future projects you can tell us about?
I AM PRODUCING A MUSIC VIDEO FOR A SONG BY MY SISTERS BOYFRIEND ADAM WILLIAMS. ITS GOING TO BE VERY RETRO – TO SUIT THE STYLE OF THE MUSIC! I AM LOOKING FORWARD TO PRODUCING SOMETHING LIKE THE JETSONS FOR IT.

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Thanks so much to James for taking the time to chat to us.
You can see more work from James over at AMP here, or on his site here.

AMP