I’ve been a big fan of Jon’s fantastically informative and inspiring blog ‘Art Order‘ for a while - it really is a must for both aspiring and established fantasy illustrators (any any other type of illustrator for that matter). Although extremely busy with his daily duties as Creative Art Director for Dungeons & Dragons, Jon still finds time to update the blog daily sharing his vast experience, running art challenges and being an ambassador for fantasy art.
Jon was kind enough to review our ‘zero2illo 12 Week Challenge Kit’ and take time out of his hectic schedule to be interviewed exclusively for zero2illo. I hope you’ll enjoy the interview as much as I did and I’d like to thank Jon for his time in sharing his knowledge and experience.
Hi Jon, could you tell us a little about who you are and where you come from?
I was born in Meridian Mississippi, grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana, and spent many a summer with my grand parents in NYC. After high school I went into wander mode. Worked a million different jobs, in a million different places. Ended up in Washington working at Wizards of the Coast after a lot of misadventures and mayhem. Climbed the corporate ladder, fell off off the ladder and later landed up as the Creative Art Director for Dungeons & Dragons. I love my job, I love art and artists and I love my Harley. The rest of the stuff is just interesting late night stories.
You’re passion for fantasy art is obvious to anyone that reads your fantastic Art Order blog, when was this passion first ignited and how?
That’s easy. Dungeons & Dragons and Frazetta in the 70′s. I started playing D&D in high school (yep, dating myself) and fell in love with the act of using my imagination to paint a world. When I first saw Frazetta’s work roll by on a van I fell in love with Frank’s work and became obsessive about finding examples of it.
Do you dabble with illustration yourself? Does seeing all of the amazing art that comes through your door inspire you pick up the brushes again?
Dabble might be a good word for it nowadays. I haven’t have the opportunity (haven’t made the time for it) to do a serious piece in years. Mainly do some rough sketches to get ideas across, sketch people in meetings or meeting rooms when I’m sitting in a boring meeting, do quick paint overs when words fail me for critiques and constantly tell myself that “some day I’m going to make drawing a priority again”. I was primarily trained as a commercial illustrator, so I did a lot of institutional and advertising work. More graphic in nature than painterly. I’ve got the itch again though. I recently ran across a water color piece I did for my oldest son when he was quite young (Wolverine, his fav comic character at the time) and I was struck by the fact that it was actually better than I remembered.
You’re now the Senior Creative Art Director for Dungeons & Dragons and Wizards of the Coast, can you tell us a little about your career route leading up to your current position?
My role has expanded to be responsible for the visual expression of the brand - globally and in all media. I’m honored to have been asked to take on this new role that Wizards of the Coast has created. I’ll be honest, it’s a bit daunting too. The brand is really in a growth spurt at the moment. It is gaining a lot of eyeballs and there are a lot of projects going on that I’d love to talk about…but can’t. Ask me this about this in another year…
My career was a twisted route. Sometimes I wonder how I ended up here, but then other times I understand that I had to have all of the experiences I had to get to this place. I started out as a photographer - magazines, newspapers, some fashion and food photography as well. If was fun, but it was actually my introduction to graphic design in art school that ended up drawing me further into the creative world. Later a request for a hand drawn calendar got my illustration side growing. When digital media was in it’s infancy, I decided to go back to school and get some training in 3d modeling, web design and “multimedia design”. That opened a whole new set of doors and a few years later landed me in an interview at Wizards of the Coast as the Web Art Director. My broad array of experience and my geek factor got me in the door. Since then, I’ve just been loving what I do and trying to do it well.
What does a typical week look like for you as the D&D Senior Art Director?
Pretty busy.
We have daily stand-up meetings with the D&D Creative Studio. We talk about issues, look at all the art that was received the day before, crit each others work and talk about the industry. There are weekly meetings that deal with production schedules, brand strategy sessions and a slew of boring status meetings. I spend time everyday reviewing the art work that I have commissioned, working on brand guideline documents, looking at portfolio submissions, doing art direction and graphic design, slogging through paperwork, reviewing work done by licensees and product partners, working with R&D on upcoming projects or “blue sky” ideas. . . then I have lunch and really get busy. 
Along with your busy schedule as an AD, you also run the fantastic ArtOrder blog too (a must read for anyone interested in a career in fantasy art) - how did the blog get started and what motivates you to keep going?
ArtOrder started out as an experiment. I was really burnt out at work and was just looking for a creative outlet. I was getting ready to head off to GenCon and thought I could just write about the trip. I had no idea what I was doing and the idea unraveled pretty quickly. I ended up just writing. Writing about art, the industry, the artists that I met, answered questions I got, etc. The next thing I knew, I’d been doing it for a while and folks were starting to call me about it, write about the community that was springing up around it and it was quickly consuming more and more of my time. ArtOrder has been going for almost 2 years now, and it has seen a lot of changes and growth. I’m in the process of developing the next generation of the community, but I have to do it in my “spare time” - so it’s is going slowly.
I keep doing ArtOrder, because an early mentor, John Breland, told me to give back to the community. At least that was the initial reason. Nowadays I do it because I love it. I love seeing the amazing artwork folks can do, I love getting an email from someone that tells me how the community has affected their career. I love talking to the students and aspiring artists. I love trying to share everything that has been shared with me so freely throughout my own career. Yep, you can definitely say that I love it!
The ‘Art Challenges’ play a big part on the ArtOrder blog - do you find them to be a good source of finding new artists?
Funny. When I first started doing the challenges, it was at the request of some folks in the community. To be honest, I really didn’t want to do them. I was afraid it would just look like a rip off of challenges done in other communities. So I tried to make them a learning experience - not just a place to show off your skills. We’ve done everything from B&W concept sketches, to full on book cover illustration projects (from thumbnails to finals within an actual cover design). I want the challenges to be learning experiences.
I didn’t really think about using the challenges as “recruitment tools”. I do ArtOrder in my spare time - It isn’t not a Wizards of the Coast activity. Of course, it is impossible to separate my position as Senior Creative Art Director from my knowledge and experience within the industry - so there is always some bleed over. Because of that separation, I was kind of startled when other art directors asked me if I would mind if they started poaching artists from my community. I hadn’t even been looking at the art with that mindset, but once I did…I suddenly saw a ton of artists that I could start working with. So to answer your question - yes, ArtOrder is a great place for me to meet, nurture and mentor artists that I ultimately start working with.
What are the top 3 things you look for in a fantasy artist?
Ability to draw, creative visual solutions, storytelling - in that order.
What are the top 3 things you look for in a fantasy artists website/portfolio?
Relevant art samples, consistent style/quality, contact information - in that order
What are the 3 most common mistakes you see in artists portfolio websites?
Too hard to navigate, no ability to snag a sample for my “list”, difficult to find contact info
Do you accept direct submissions from artists wanting to get into the business and if so, how best do you like these to be submitted?
Artists can send portfolio samples or links to [email protected]. Submissions come direct to me, I review the submissions and share relevant submissions with the rest of the art directors within the halls of Wizards of the Coast.
The fantasy illustration/art industry is a very competitive market to break into, what advice would you give to aspiring fantasy artists wanting to get ahead in the business?
- Research the companies you want to work with. Know what they are currently doing and try and figure out where you think they are going
- Tailor your portfolio to match up with potential clients needs
- Keep your portfolio up to date
- Learn about self-promotion and do it…a lot!
- Do not try to get as good as the artist your potential client is working with - get better than the artists they are currently working with. You can never replace an artist on a roster unless you are better than they are.
- Look for opportunities to network and get very involved in the community. The best way to be remembered when a commission hits an art directors desk is to have your work and name pop up in their life all the time.
- Make every illustration your personal best
- Always exceed expectations
- Always beat a deadline
You can check out the ArtOrder blog here and also follow Jon on Twitter here.
This will be the last zero2illo post before we relaunch with the new look site, a slightly different approach and lots of great new content in January 2011.
Lea and I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for your support, encouragement and kindness throughout 2010 and wish you all a happy holiday season.