Feature Friday: Jason Enos Art

When I first started Feature Friday my intent was to feature cosplayers. That concept changed quickly because I decided that cosplay photographers should also be celebrated and recognized for their talents. I still want Feature Friday to primarily focus on cosplayers, but the reality is that the cosplay community is so much larger than that. Today I am featuring my friend Jason of Jason Enos Art, an artist who attends cons alongside cosplayers, and is a great supporter of cosplay as an art form. Someday he will be convinced to do cosplay, but today I am sharing his artwork which cosplayers and geeks everywhere can certainly fall in love with.

Jason Enos Art

What is your brand name? Jason Enos Art

How did you come about your brand name? I once did a Google search for my name, and I found that I was the only Jason Enos I could find doing art, so by adding “art”, I could help people find me easier.

What is your real world name? Jason hahahaha

What do you do when not arting? Either writing music or playing video games… honestly more video games, unfortunately.

How old are you? 36

How long have you been in doing artwork? Since I was around 6 or 7, I think. I have drawings of mine dating around the late 80’s.

What made you want to be an artist? That’s hard to say, since I was drawing from a very young age. My mom was always very artistic, and she’d written and illustrated a book as a Christmas present for my older sister and I when we were kids. She typed out the whole script in duplicate and drew each illustration by hand twice, once for my sister’s copy and once for mine. It was such a great idea for a present. Maybe seeing her drawing gave me the desire to pick it up, or maybe it was watching art programs on PBS like Bob Ross, but I honestly can’t remember. All I know for sure it that my desire to learn to draw was something that I feel like I’ve always had.

Tell us about your art style. I’ve always bent more towards realism. I highly admire John Singer Sargent, so when I’m painting, I’m trying to blend loose brushstrokes with more polished realism. When it comes to comic style illustrations, I love Adam Hughes (who, like me, looks up to Norman Rockwell). So, even if I am working in a very illustration heavy style, with bolder outlines and flatter colors, I am still keeping fairly realistic.

If you could leave your full time job for art, what would your dream job look like? Probably a combination of editor, teacher, and creator. I’d love to help guide other folks with art tips, but I could never give up the creation process.

Talk about your work on Trixie Dynamite. I’d found this online forum, Digital Webbing, where folks needing art would post “wanted” ads. I was trying to pick up some freelance illustration (because I’d never really worked on comics, at all) so I regularly browsed the wanted ads. I came across Ben Schwartz’s posting (he writes and edits “Trixie”). Now, I’d already applied for probably about 6 to 10 jobs, gotten only one (which ended kind of badly) and I really was starting to lose hope. Nevertheless, I sent in a sample page to Ben, and I was not very shocked to receive yet another rejection letter. However, I’d gotten two emails from Ben, and I pulled open the second one: “Yeah, that first email was accidentally sent to everyone. What I mean to say was that I loved your work and we’ve picked you for the issue.” I was beyond excited! I completed my story in issue 1, about 8 pages, all digitally. I couldn’t keep up with a digital workflow, so I switched to all traditional inks from that point forward. To date, I think I’ve inked about 6 to 7 different stories across 5 issues of “Trixie”.

Talk about your work on Continuum Triad. Triad is another story by Ben. Where “Trixie” is kind of more all-ages, kind of silly and cartoony. “Triad” is more a straight-up adventure comic. The pencils are by Catia Fantini, this great Italian comics artist. I love working on “Triad”, since it’s so different stylistically from “Trixie” – the art is much more realistic. It has a Mediterranean terrain, so there’s lots of villas and ruins to draw!

What is your dream project? Making my comic from the ground up. I’ve been writing my own comic, about this woman named Allison Blizzard who gets stuck in Wonderland from “Alice in Wonderland”. Making the time to actually write a solid script has been a nightmare, and it’s something that I honestly thought would be farther along to completion. If I had nothing but time, this is what I would be working on.

What is the project you are most proud of to this day? When it comes to finished art pieces, I would have to say my portrait of cosplayer Linz Stanley as Wonder Woman. I was going through a low period personally, trying to break into the freelance world and recieving tons of rejections. As a break, I sketched Linz, whom I had known through her Twitter feed. I drew it as a quick sketch, not expecting any response or any further development beyond a quick pencil sketch. But Linz loved it and encouraged me to take the drawing further. It’s still one of my most talked about pieces.

Who is your favorite/most admired artist that you take inspiration from? When it comes to comic illustration, Adam Hughes. He blends Norman Rockwell with Art Nouveau in a very beautiful way. It’s a very bold illustration style. I think early comics borrowed very heavily from Art Nouveau, so it’s great to sing Hughes bring his art right back to the source.

What are your most immediate projects we can look forward to seeing in the near future? My goal is to make more convention-ready prints. I’m also going to try to work more on my “Alice in Wonderland” comic, but writing is slow.

What’s the hardest thing about art for you? Convincing myself that the finished piece will be worth the time it takes to make it. hahahaha

What is the best advice you have for other artists? Art is more about seeing than drawing. Everyone can draw. Writing is just drawing symbols. It just takes time to translate what you see into a finished piece. Talent is just the burning desire to learn, so if you can fan the flames of interest, and stick with practicing, you will be able to grow as an artist in ways you’d never think possible.

What is your favorite part about the convention scene from an artist perspective? All the people I see, both friends and random convention guests.

Anything else you want to add? Todd Nauck once talked about rejection – We remember Babe Ruth for his home runs, Stephen King for his novels. And yet, Ruth struck out far more often than he hit home runs. And Stephen King has more rejection letters than novels. We remember successful people for their successes, not their failures, so we shouldn’t let our failures define us. Keep working hard on being the best version of “you” that you can be! As Bob Ross would say: Happy painting, and God bless, my friend!

Jason will be at Heroes Con in Charlotte this weekend, so make sure to say hi if you see him around the convention! He also does art commissions. Check out Jason’s social media below. Leave a comment for her (or me!) below, and don’t forget to subscribe via email or Bloglovin’ to never miss a post.

Jason’s Social Media:
Instagram: @jasonenosart
Facebook: Jason Enos Art
Website: http://jasonenosart.wixsite.com/illustration