In 2005, my professor Eric Velasquez sent me an inquiry from an art director he knew about illustrating a series of love poems in graphic novel format. I immediately got to work illustrating "She Dwelt Among the Untrodden Ways" by William Wordsworth, a poem I first read in high school and was very fond of. The job was on spec, and didn't go anywhere, but I created some pretty cool pieces.
"SHE dwelt among the untrodden ways
Beside the springs of Dove,
A Maid whom there were none to praise
And very few to love:
A violet by a mossy stone
Half hidden from the eye!
--Fair as a star, when only one
Is shining in the sky.
She lived unknown,
and few could know
When Lucy ceased to be;
But she is in her grave, and, oh,
The difference to me!"
Normally, I can't stand when characters look alike (if they aren't related). Some artists just draw all their people the same way. Wordsworth wrote a series of "Lucy" poems, but never discussed her true identity. Scholars speculate it was his sister and that he was infatuated with her, so it's OK they look similar here :)
I brought these samples around to book companies, another very competitive market. The style I used is a little too similar to Nightmare Before Xmas, but I still like them.
Last
but not least, this final Bermuda Triangle book I made. It was a
completely silent comic, no words or sound effects, all told visually.
This had the same character of Judith but told a different story about
her on Earth: a neglected child that meets a weirdo who trains her and leads her to the Bermuda Triangle.
It was done in ink and screentones, all of the architecture was painstakingly (for me) done with measurement and rulers in proper perspective. It was not fun to create but I enjoy looking at it. She's wearing my infamous BATS shirt that I bought at salvation army for $1. Some of the pages she looks waaay too much like me, but overall it was a good effort.
I printed out 20 copies at school and had them tape bound at Staples. I brought them to NY Comic Con and gave them out. I was dressed as Charlie Chaplin and was allowed to enter for free. I came in 2nd in the costume contest, an injustice since I lost to a little kid wearing an out of the box star wars costume. Another injustice was I was supposed to receive a year of free passes to comic con and I never got them. I gave one to ECW wrestler Sandman and he proceeded to draw in his own dialogue bubbles throughout the book, he created his own bizarre storyline about how Judith missed her boyfriend the Sandman. It was hilarious but I couldn't laugh lest I break character.
Around this time, I visited my good friend and amazing artist Jade Kuei at Cosmic Comics in midtown Manhattan, and her boss was kind enough to buy 6 copies from me! It was the first time I was paid in cash bills for my art, I was so happy.
I kept that money in a separate bank because that money
was special to me. Alas, the end of that year I was so poor that I had
to spend it on groceries :(
I told all of my friends my comic was being sold in the
"Independents" section of Cosmic Comics and a bunch of them came through
and bought copies, I specifically remember Rachel bought one, I think
Jessica bought one too. They ALL sold! It was awesome.
In 2004, I continued making comics set in the Bermuda Triangle. This one centered around 3 characters: Judith, Samuel, and Stephen. They were a pirate gang that lives in the Triangle until they cross paths with Bonnie and Clyde. They are sent to the outside world to find B+C's daughter Vera, but end up battling villains named Clarence and Jameson (me). It reads right to left (traditional japanese manga style) because I intended to submit it to Shonen Jump's call for submissions and that was their guideline.
I never heard back from Shonen Jump, but Tokyo Pop came to FIT and reviewed my 31 page creation. They were very surprised I did the whole thing myself, but told me I had too many panels per page for a manga and did not like my design layout for the type (not shown here because it was that bad). I kept in touch and showed my work to them again at NY Comic con, they were very happy to see me but nothing came of it work wise. I look at these pages now and I'm very happy with them, there's a lot of technique.
It ended with a huge fight scene, a lot of hand drawn action lines a la Dragon Ball, I'm proud of myself.
I did another BT comic that year; taking tokyopop's suggestions of doing my book left to right, having less panels per page, and doing all of the screentones as a pattern in photoshop.
This book was much weirder, it had Judith and Stephen taking a drug called "Swipe" and battling each other while they were out of their minds, ending with a huge Ladybug installation falling and Judith catching it. All of the lines done with ink and ruler. The characters were a little too posed, but there's some good stuff in here.
In 1998, I began drawing mini comics that took place in the Bermuda Triangle. This one I drew in 2001, at that time I was working at a bank and thoroughly disgusted by how creepy the male customers would act towards my female coworkers. This comic, done in ballpoint pen, features me and my friends Will, Rachel and Mignon, I give you: It's NOT a Man's World...
My whole life I've refused to play along as "one of the guys", whenever "guy talk" reared its ugly head I would shut it down. As a result, I was shunned by almost every guy I met and looked at as a spoilsport and trouble maker... and darn proud of it!
I still like some of the work I created during this time, it has charm and energy. These drawings were done on blue paper from direct observation of the models. Mia Paloma Sorada was among the best, I called this one Waiting For Him.
Conversely, here is Waiting For Her. I don't remember his name, but they were both great models. I used a quill, brush and an awesome retractable multi-colored ballpoint pen I got from Japan. Drawing live really does add so much. These were done in Karen Santry's class, she had fun, elaborate setups.
This caricature of Owen Wilson was made to market my work to the NY Times. I like this, even though it is in such a generic editorial style. My friends thought it was funny I chose to draw him, but I loved him in Zoolander.
My friend Jason Raish and I were among the 10 finalists in the Dave Chappelle's Block Party Poster Contest. This would have worked much better if I was allowed to do a landscape composition, but I really love all the likenesses here. This was the first in a series of renaissance homage paintings I would create.
My favorite: Jack Nicholson's Joker! Since seeing Batman in the theatre in 1989, I have thought about the Joker every single day of my life. I began experimenting with spray backgrounds a la Ralph Steadman. You mix a batch of watercolor in a spray bottle, mask the areas you don't want the spray on using frisket film, then go to town! It adds a quality and directness that is missing when you piece the background together (like the block party background).
"That obscene giggle!" I love the film Amadeus, and created this large scale watercolor. I remember this was the first piece I framed with acrylic instead of glass, I was happy how light it was but it was prone to collecting dust and scratches. Amadeus and the Joker were given to my older sister.
I took my portfolio to every magazine and newspaper, it was a grueling and frustrating process. Most of the art directors would not meet with me in person and I had to leave it with the mail room. I'm sure they never even looked at them because I installed a trap to tell if it had been opened.
I met with Steven Heller from the NY Times, he flipped through quickly and mumbled something about my work being a "Chinese Menu". He went on and on about a drawing I did of Elvis, he loved the expression and the technique. I met with him again 6 months later and he honed in on that same drawing of Elvis and spent the entire time telling me how much he didn't like it.
I had been drawing since age 3, but I had no fundamentals. I started taking art lessons with the extraordinary June Jermyn in 1997. She taught me form, composition, contrast, color, technique but most importantly: she taught me to see. The work I created during this time was not good, but it was necessary. The above self portrait is interesting because almost 20 years later... I haven't changed much.
I only have slides of the work from this time period, and they were a little scratched from countless moves. I did endless pencil renderings from photographs she took of ghost towns and factories.
I believe I gave the above drawing to my Mum, she hung it up in her cubicle at work and told me she received many compliments.
There's an Edward Hopper thing going on here, I like it. This one was my favorite of this series, I like the tone. I painted a lot of still life oil paintings during this time as well, but you don't want to see those.
Silent James, whose innocent artwork and picture-stories have gained
him a worldwide cult following, lived in New York for three decades. His
school years were survived by writing and drawing comics of his punk
friends. Living in a house on a dead end, he also became fond of
silence.
Silent James and Esther Westwood
Many suspect his name originates from his own quietness, but it
is actually from his love of silent film. His artwork occurs in an
asymmetrical 1920's/modern world coloured by favorite cartoons, movies,
and a lifelong fondness for pro-wrestling heels.
Asymmetry plays a huge
part in his life, right down to his own heterochromia.
Silent James' different color eyes
Upon seeing the Jean-Claude Lauzon film Leolo and Guy
Maddin's Brand Upon the Brain, Silent James decided to make his own
childhood recollection piece. Three (2011) was his first picture-book,
an entrancing adventure of a boy that no one pays attention to...
Mr. James became notorious for dapper garb, as favored by his
characters, complimented by suspenders and bow ties. In 2011, he
successfully took his character skills to the theatre in the starring
role of barber John Guerrieri in Speakeasy Dollhouse. In 2014, he was
cast in The Brothers Booth as the role he was born to play...
himself! A completely silent performance of physical comedy and audience
sketching in the grand setting of the Players Club.
In 2012, Silent James coined the term Prepessimism to describe his art. Prepessimism is art which seeks to bring the viewer back to the innocence of childhood...
In the very popular semi-sequel to Three called Dee (2012),
we follow a girl's adventure to escape unwanted attention...
Later work includes his visual autobiography Secrets of Silent James. He has also done portraits of famous people
and nobodies, illustrated articles, record covers, film posters and is a
graphic recorder for ImageThink. He happily made the move to California
in 2015, with Esther and Oscar Westwood.
