We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jacob Skelton a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Jacob, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Are you happy as a creative professional? Do you sometimes wonder what it would be like to work for someone else?
I am extremely happy with where I am at in my art Journey. It has been a long and difficult journey to get here. I am a self taught artist, and I’ve gone through a lot of trial and error to master my craft. And though I feel there is room for improvement, I feel confident in my craft and I love the work I create. I pride myself on my hard work ethic, it’s all or nothing for me. This is my greatest strength and well as my weakness. I will work myself to the point of exhaustion and sacrifice my needs and health for the sake of completing a goal or task. So I don’t need to wonder what it would be like to have a “regular” job. I’ve been working many full time jobs for the last 10 years, working 50+ hours a week. I am now unemployed and a full time stay at home dad and have made my brand as an artist an official business.
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.
I am a self taught artist. I’ve always been drawing. I probably made it a career goal and passion sometime in middle school. I found inspiration in the cartoons and movies that I watched as a child. Anything that was unique and creative was fascinating to me, and I would have a desire to draw what I see. I learned to draw from memory for many years, but felt my art needed more. So I would later draw from references to strengthen my abilities as an artist. I started with graphite pencils and sketchbook paper. But now I draw with alcohol based markers, ink, colored pencils, acrylic paint, digital art, and more. I strive to be eclectic with my art, in style and media. I’ve also developed an ability to be like a chameleon with my art to meet the needs of my customers. I diligently do research in whatever my customers commission me for, and work with them to find the result they are looking for. My goals as an artist are to bring beauty to things that are bizarre. I love the juxtaposition of bizarre and strange things with things that are commonly accepted as beautiful. The biggest of these is skeleton and skull art. I feel skeletons and skulls have a negative association in the world of art and I want to bring beauty to what is a part of our basic human anatomy. My other long term goal is to create my own comic series.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
I love being able to provide joy to people in my art, in many different ways. I try to draw a little bit of everything. So my art can appeal to different audiences. My content ranges from nostalgic fan art of video game or cartoon characters within the last 2-3 decades, to original paintings and art that speaks to each person differently. I love seeing peoples faces light up when they see an old favorite cartoon or video game character from their childhood. With my original art, most of the time when i come up with a new drawing or painting idea, there’s not usually a deep meaning behind the piece, it’s just the idea of the image that comes to mind. But what Ive found is meaning and symbolism come out of my art in the eyes of my audience. And that brings me a lot of joy and satisfaction that my art can mean something to someone. The most rewarding thing about my art is how it appeals to my audience.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
Growing up, I would draw a lot of skulls and skeletons. But this would come with a lot of negative feedback from my peers and family. Most of the time, it would get positive feedback from people who like that type of art. But from everyone else, it had a negative association. It would often be viewed as demonic or evil. And it was always very frustrating to get that feedback because it made it feel shameful to draw those things. I’ve always viewed the skeletal system as beautiful. I love the structure and complexity of our bones and found it so satisfying to draw. So this has driven me to create skeleton art that showcases its beauty. It is my goal as an artist to provide a more positive association with our skeletons in the world of art. My art piece “Life in Death’ Showcases this thought the best. I always ask my audience what they feel when they look at that piece. Every response is different, but yet revolves around the same feeling and idea, “Hope” and “New Beginnings”. That painting has been my greatest pride, it does exactly what I strive for in my art. And I plan to create more pieces like it.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.skeltondesigns.art/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/skeltondesigns/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SkeltonDesigns.Art
- Other: I have a Tiktok @skeltondesigns but can’t figure out how to provide a link.
Image Credits
Jacob Skelton. SkeltonDesigns LLC.