Illustrative Artist Spotlight: Jade Boylan

July 12, 2011

Categories: Featured Designer

We always love to share more than just the indie brands from across the web, but also the artists and owners behind the brand. Again today though we are going to share with you the work of the independent artists who are working on their own creating designs of varying styles and inspirations. We are proud to share with you the work of a country some readers may not have even heard of! But we promise it exists!

Jade Boylan is an all round amazingly talented creative with a high skill set in the illustrative design side of things, her work is spread over several ways. But today we are going to showcase her t-shirt designs, we thank Jade for taking her time out to discuss her work and for us to showcase some of her designs available on her Redbubble store.

Here’s what Jade has to say about her young prospering career to date;

Hi, my name’s Jade, i’m a 20-year-old illustrator/writer/maker/blogger/designer from the Isle of Man. I’ve been drawing and doodling now for about 17 or 18 years, ever since I was old enough to scratch a felt tip pen or a crayon across a sheet of paper/a wall/the floor!

I always enjoyed art and craft classes from a young age and i enjoyed it more and more as i got older, but it wasn’t until I dropped out of sixth form and enrolled at a local Art College that I realised I wanted to make a living out of drawing. Although I am probably primarily an illustrator I’m currently studying for a BA in Fine Art since this allows me to explore any number of materials, techniques and processes to create my work whereas an Illustration course might have restricted me this way. I still use traditional mediums in my work but most of what I design is hand drawn, scanned, then edited and coloured digitally using gimp, illustrator and photoshop.

For the past year and a half I’ve been working as a freelance illustrator, character and logo designer for shops, companies and businesses both local and international. Like most illustrators and designers I would one day love to see my work sold on merchandise (stationary, notebooks, badges, jewellery, bags, purses, umbrellas, shoes, socks, scarves, clothing etc etc) but in the mean time I sell small prints, postcards and greetings cards as well as handmade items in my etsy shop + a local shop here on the Island.

So far as tee designs go, I had always wanted to make some t-shirts featuring my work but screen printing is a timely (not to mention costly when you’re an art student) and painstaking process, I’d also undoubtedly mess up and waste several plain tees while attempting it. I joined artwork junkies, la fraise, threadless and all tropical hoping for the best but of course you have to win the chance to get your designs printed on those sites so it wasn’t exactly ideal for someone as unheard of as me.

Instead a friend suggested I join redbubble where amongst other things your designs can be sold printed on t-shirts, hoodies and baby rompers immediately. It seemed perfect so I uploaded a few designs and now have the chance to sell my work on colourful tees for both adults and kids which is nice seeing as a lot of my work is very child friendly and most sites only offer you the chance to print your designs on adult tees. I currently have a design up for vote on All Tropical but my designs never win so i don’t hold out much hope for this one either - Rate “Pinwheels.” http://t.co/ON2VBOP

I can happily spend hours voting for designs on Threadless and similar sites but actually uploading things to these various tee design sites myself has taught me a lot about what people do and don’t like, it’s also taught me that making a design to go on a t-shirt is very different to creating something for a postcard or print, it’s going to be worn by someone so it has to tick certain boxes colour and shape wise. The thought of people wearing my doodles on their shirts all day is so great. I like to think that my designs would brighten the wearers day whatever the weather but maybe the artwork could put a smile on other peoples faces as well!

website: www.jadeboylan.com

blog: www.jadeboylan.blogspot.com

etsy: www.etsy.com/shop/jadeboylan twitter: www.twitter.com/jadeboylan

Zombie Ninja Panda Bear

Available for £15.62 on Redbubble

“Once he was just a humble Panda Bear, he spent his days chewing bamboo and rolling about. Then he trained as a super scary ninja, going around defeating evil with his broken samurai sword and shuriken stars, but then disaster struck and he was turned into a freaky creepy zombie who craves brains and hugs! Now he’s just a zombie ninja panda bear trying to find his way in the world. Deal with it…”

Rainbow Pinwheels

Available for £15.62 on Redbubble

“Remember days in the park, running around the duck pond feeling the wind in your hair, sticky ice lollies sliding off the stick and whippy ice creams coated in raspberry sauce, colourful little windmill pinwheels whirling around as you ran… Let this t-shirt take you back to those childhood days spent daydreaming about soaring away through the clouds.”

Slime Monster

Available for £15.62 on Redbubble

“There’s no need to be scared of this little fella, he may be made of gooey green slime… but he has a heart made of pure gold.”

Sugar Skull

Available for £15.62 on Redbubble

“Girly yet slightly creepy, this Sugar Skull isn’t just for el dia de los muertos… Celebrate the day of the dead all year round by adding a little dash of candy coloured macabre magic to your wardrobe.”