The DC artist tells Gary evans how his career began with an epiphany during a physical education exam
Jorge Jiménez was in the third year of his physical education degree, and it was exam time. The Spaniard studied hard. He felt ready. Then something weird happened. He looked around and saw how his classmates seemed really motivated by what they were doing. He didn’t have that. Sitting there in the classroom that day, Jorge had a bit of epiphany, a quiet little moment of revelation.
“I felt a bit out of place,” Jorge says, “and, suddenly, it was as if my eyes were opened, and I thought: ‘I am not this. Here, I’m just making up the numbers. I’m a cartoonist, and I’ve always been a cartoonist!’” There was just one problem. Jorge hadn’t drawn anything for years…
He grew up on the outskirts of Cádiar, a small mountainous village in the Granada region of southern Spain. His brothers were much older, so Jorge spent a lot of time alone. The one thing he always had was his drawing. His mother encouraged him. She made sure he had plenty of paper, oils, pencils and watercolours. But she challenged him, too. Jorge liked to sketch the cartoons he was waiting on TV. But his mother told him: watch first, draw later. This forced him to work from memory.
When he got a bit older, his parents signed him up for painting classes at a local art school. Because Jorge had always drawn freely, he found it frustrating when, during a still life class, a “bad art teacher” tried to force him to learn the measuring technique, where the artist holds out a pencil and squints at his subject.
“All the magic of drawing disappeared doing this and so, after a few days, I stopped attending class, and I promised that I wouldn’t dedicate myself to drawing. If this was the price of living to draw, I didn’t want that.”
This story is from the June 2019 edition of ImagineFX.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the June 2019 edition of ImagineFX.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
A Tribute To Akira Toriyama
Remembering a legend Artists from across the world pay homage to the influential manga artist and genius creator of Dragon Ball
First Impressions
The illustrator reveals his journey through the world of art
DEVELOP 3D SKILLS FOR CONCEPT ART
Gaëlle Seguillon creates a breathtaking fantasy environment by combining a selection of techniques within her workflow
DRAW FUTURISTIC VEHICLE DESIGNS
John A. Frye uses just a single brush to transform his messy thumbnail into a bold and colourful hard-surface creation
PART 5: SIMPLIFY THE VALUE SCALE
Charlie Pickard introduces his top advice for achieving strong values in your artwork to create clear and powerful imagery
Charles Ratteray
Page-turner Library meets laboratory in the artist's studio, packed with inspiration and a mix of media
How to tell a story in an image
Narrative masters Tanya Combrinck talks to four artists about using visual elements to imbue their work with personal and universal human stories
ILLUSTRATE A MAGICAL CHARACTER
For this illustration, I was asked to create a fun, bright image with the theme of making artwork magical by the developers behind the digital drawing app Clip Studio Paint.
First Impressions - Glenn Arthur
Influences from Disneyland shape the artist’s work
THE ART OF BRIAN SUM
Dominic Carter talks to the mech master about honing his cyberpunk visions, character designs, and his new artbook