PN Featured Artist: Thomas Jones

This weeks PN Featured Artist is our very own Thomas Jones (@thomasjones_89)! He’s a writer and contributor for PNM and PureNintendo.com. He has been involved in many projects for “Twitter Collaborations” creating pieces based on video games such as Earthbound and Street Fighter, but his true love Is the Legend of Zelda. Although he is very modest about his artwork I have been anticipating having him as a featured artist for a long time! If you’d like to get in touch with Thomas his contact info will be at the bottom of the interview. Enjoy!

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KD: How long have you been an illustrator? When did you realize it was something you wanted to do for a living?

TJ: I’ve had a passion for drawing from a young age, and it was one of the few things I excelled in as a child. However, during various points in my life and for various reasons I’ve (shamefully) occasionally abandoned my passion for art. This pains me to this day as I feel it’s hampered me and held back me reaching my true potential. Since becoming a full time graphic designer, I have managed to let creativity dictate my life a bit more. However, my professional life isn’t as artistic as I’d like and I see my free time as my chance to be truly creative. Having a full time job, being a husband/father and occasionally contributing (as a writer) to Pure Nintendo limits my time I’m able to do artwork but I fit it in when I can. My working holiday in New Zealand last year was great because I had a lot of free time on my hands, and 75% of the work you’ll see in this article was created during that time. It’s been nice working with a tablet recently though, instead of having to use a track-pad only for a year.

 

KD: What’s your favorite Nintendo game to play? Which one inspires you the most when creating artwork

TJ: I’ve been a big Nintendo fan for years now and despite playing a number of systems over the years, Nintendo has always held the biggest place in my heart. In terms of Nintendo franchises, I love nothing more than the Legend of Zelda series. I enjoy many of Nintendo’s franchises but nothing compares in scope, quality and history to the Legend of Zelda for me. Its wonderful universe, cast of characters and atmosphere definitely inspire me in my artwork. Pokémon is my other big love and I have been playing the games since generation 1 all those years ago. I’ve never “grown out” of Pokémon and never will. Some of my other favourite games and franchises include Earthbound/Mother, and non-Nintendo franchises such as Resident Evil, Metal Gear Solid and Final Fantasy. 

KD: How long does an average piece take you to complete?

TJ: Going back to what I mentioned in the first question, I’m ashamed to say I’m not very fast when it comes to artwork. This is for a number of reasons. Lack of time being one of the reasons but I’m also extremely critical of my work and this causes me to spend ridiculously long amounts of time on a single piece. Even once I’ve finished a piece I’m still guilty of going back to it and altering it. Being so critical is both good and bad. It encourages me to improve but on occasion I can overdo a piece. Sometimes it’s better to just be care free and do a piece fairly quickly. I see some of the most incredible pieces on twitter done for the “Sketch Daily” account and the pieces people complete in a day absolutely baffles me. Being able to work quickly is one skill I wish I was better at.

KD: Have you done any graphic design or artwork for our magazine PNM or PureNintendo.com?

TJ: I have done the odd layout or page for Pure Nintendo Magazine but I’m certainly not responsible for the beautiful magazines that fall through your mailbox every other month. If you’ve seen a review or article written by me in recent issues, chances are I did the layout for that. I also tend to do the Recipe spreads for my wife’s “Gaming Recipes” feature that you will see in the magazine.

 

KD: What are some recent project’s, contests or collaborations you’ve been involved in?

TJ:  Most of my artwork is done for “Twitter Collaborations”. These are joint projects done by a number of illustrators and keen artists who get together to make one larger joint piece of artwork, usually over twitter. These are usually themed on a specific game, anime, movie etc. and each artist will take a specific character to draw. I’ve taken part in a number of these in the past year. I especially like collabs because you have the freedom to do what you want and can be really creative with a certain character/franchise you love and it’s great to be part of a large project with some super talented artists. I also like to work to deadlines as it encourages me to actually get a piece finished, haha. I have a few other collab pieces to finish so look out for those. In terms of contests my two DuckTales pieces were done for a Capcom Unity competition following the release of DuckTales Remastered. Unfortunately, I did not win however. My Castlevania DuckTales piece is actually one of the few pieces I am most happy with.

 

KD: Do you take commissions?

TJ: I would certainly take commissions but without sounding too modest, I don’t really know why anyone would request anything from me. Haha. I certainly wouldn’t charge much for a commission because I’m not totally satisfied with my level/quality of output, so if you’d like something drawn at a cut-price offer, I’m your man. I’m being silly, but in seriousness I’m always striving to improve though so I’d like to think that one day I may be in the position to make a living from my artwork as opposed to just doing it in my free time. That’s the dream. 

KD: Thanks for the interview Thomas! Where can our readers contact you or checkout some more of your artwork?

TJ: You are more than welcome, and once again, it’s been a privilege to be featured following some truly amazing artists shown before me. Thank you for listening to me ramble on. My online portfolios do need updated/improved but you can, if you wish, see my work on my site at www.thomasalanjones.com or on my tumblr at www.tomservo1989.tumblr.com, email me at thomasjones1989@gmail.com or find me on twitter @thomasjones_89.

 

 

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Any artist interested in having their artwork on PureNintendo.com or in PNM can contact me at Kaelyn@purenintendo.com. Submit fan art, sculptures, baked goods, comics, etc. If the theme is ‘Nintendo’ we want to see it! You could be the next Pure Nintendo featured artist! Also to see artwork from artists featured in our magazine, PNM, please head to PureNintendo.com/magazine to subscribe! Thanks for reading.