Illustrator James Davies likes his work to be unpolished. A bit rough, a lot cute, his illustrations center around animals, humans, and the likes. “I draw monsters for a living,” he jokes in his Instagram bio.
Based in Bristol, his work is geared towards children, with his naive illustrations also complementing the books he has authored. “I think writing picture books, or any kind of children’s fiction, is much harder than a lot of people realize,” Davies relayed in an interview with The Association of Illustrators.
Much like the illustrations themselves, his color choices rely on simplicity. “I try not to use more than three colors and try and use as few layers as possible in Photoshop,” he explains. “This leads to everything being simplified down to pretty basic shapes, which I then work over with lines and textures to make them a bit more detailed. It’s a process that changes every day, which makes every new illustration really exciting for me (and hopefully others.)”
“I do everything digitally in Photoshop, using my three favorite brushes,” he adds, talking about his creative process. “I feel slightly guilty at how little pencil and paper drawing I do these days, but I guess you just find what works!”
Follow his work online or in print.
