Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jared Cullum. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Jared, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

I did not go to school for illustration. I drew a lot when I was a kid but without intrinsic talent it felt like an impossible hill to climb to do anything with art. I stopped drawing when I was around 16 and I ended up going to school for graphic design which I felt was creative and more practical but I always daydreamed of being able to tell stories with pictures. Eventually, while working as a graphic designer for a company, I decided to start drawing again. It became an obsession that I could not get enough of. On the advice of a friend who was an illustrator I started drawing everything I saw. I would carry around a sketchbook and try to document everything. The practice helped give me a basic framework to develop skills. I started making short stories at the time with a hope to do a larger story with ink. I visited a school that had a massive library of comics from all over the world and discovered a hand full of french artists that used watercolor in their books. I totally fell in love with the medium and became an avid outdoor painter. Painting with watercolor became my primary passion and studying it’s history.
Drawing was definitely the most essential practice. I wish I had started earlier in life, but I think everybody says that. When it comes to painting and storytelling, it’s all storytelling for me. Drawing, especially from life is the best way to develop faster and see things more clearly.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My name is Jared and I’m a kids and young adult book writer and illustrator out of Pittsburgh, PA. I always wanted to make art for stories. When I was a kid I was obsessed with animation, particularly older Disney films and wanted to make stories just like them. I would pause the VHS and try to catch the moments when you could see the under drawing shine though so that I could copy it down. The biggest hurdle I ran into was that I struggled to draw well and as a kid it never occurred to me that drawing was something you could get better at with focused practice.
I started out as a graphic designer out of school. It was an industry I went into because I felt like it had more potential for income and stability. I had hoped to one day get to a place where I could write and illustrate stories but it’s hard to get into. Illustrating books is one of those industries that you can’t get into until you have experience and it’s difficult to get experience until you get in. I had come to place in my life where I didn’t care if I “made it”- I just wanted to make these little stories. So I made my own short stories and eventually pushed myself to make them longer. All the while I was doing daily focused practice drills to try to improve my drawing. I’ve been working in comics and kids books for many years now and I still do my focused skill-training practice daily as much as possible to try to improve. Drawing was a passion of mine as a child that practicality and fear sort of snuffed out. It wasn’t until later in my life, on advice from a friend, that I felt the freedom it took let go of the self-doubt and hang ups that held me back from focused practice. I have worked in comics and kids books for about 11 years now professionally, having now worked with Jim henson, TMNT and other titles although my current focus is on my own book series, “Kodi” and a new YA comics series in the Usagi Yojimbo world.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

I am, for the most part, self taught in illustration and writing. I went to school for design which had very little focus on drawing except for the initial stages where you sort of try a bit of everything art-related. The best thing you can do is just develop mileage drawing, especially from life. Once you are able to get a steady habit of focused drawing daily, there are great resources online for studying particular aspects of drawing, like anatomy or perspective. Life-drawing, whether it’s getting involved in a local figure group or just sitting in a coffee shop drawing everything you see in 360degrees will make you grow the fastest. It helps to push your abilities with all aspects of drawing. Even if it’s just a coffee cup on the table you have to think about perspective and shape and eventually things like color. Drawing models from life is the hardest and fastest way to learn because we have such a natural understanding of proportions. If you draw a landscape and a tree is too big no body will know out of context but a person can have a hand too low and they look very strange. Life drawing is a core component to growth.
These days there are tons of resources online. Online ateliers like Schoolism and New Masters Academy are great resources with relatively cheap barriers to entry to take classes online and develop fundamental understanding. There was less of that 13-14 years ago when I started out but I go back to them constantly to continue to sharpen and am always on the look-out for resources for inspiration and a better understanding of how to improve drawing.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

There is a growing desire for short-cuts in life. People want cheap things fast. That goes for coffee-tables and also personal development. I don’t personally enjoy anything computer or app related. I use aspects of digital products to clean up work but after I’m done physically pushing the paint around on a page, the joy is sort of lost. I think that everyone would benefit from less time hoping for digital short-cuts to skills or happiness and focus on physical creative production that forces you to use your hands in the real world.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.jaredcullum.com
• Instagram: @jaredcullum
• Twitter: @jared_cullum
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@jaredcullum