#of all the things that could��ve leveled up my art style …. it’s a french guy

[moss-brain-blog]

Interview with Jake Brown Transcript

What's your background?

With art? Or just in general?

Just in general, yeah.

Fuckin’ yeah, raised in a shitty mining town, surrounded by people with no prospects for life. From a very working class family. Always raised in the way of y'know, "you go to school, you go to work and you die."

*Both laugh* I feel it. [We're from the same place]

Nowt special really.

So... what is it that you're aiming to do?

Me, my ideal goal is to become a tattoo artist. Like, that's my ultimate end-goal. I also wanna’ like be good as well, I don't just wanna’ be like... yknow?

Yeah.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think I could ever settle for just being a tattoo artist. I see that as another level. If I were to ever have an end-goal with it, it'd be to be award-winning. Be able to travel over the world doing it. That'd be really fucking good for me. I'd love that.

What ways are you going about achieving this goal?

For me, at the minute, it's just drawing constantly. I never did art at school, I never did art at college. It was always like- I suppose it just feeds back to that family thing of "you work..." Art's never been considered a career or never was considered a career at a young age. I never really thought about it when I was young because I was never given the opportunity to think about it like that. It was like, you either play sport and become a famous rugby player or football player, or you work a 9-5 job or a shift job.

Off the back of that, I didn't write this one down but do you feel that not being in formal art education has impacted your work?

Yeah, definitely. I think if I could have been introduced to the things that I know now a lot earlier I think I’d be leaps and bounds better than what I am now. It's only in the last 6 months that I've discovered watercolor and like, digital art, sort of that I can do it. If I’d have had access to this kind of stuff at an earlier age, I’d be a lot better. I suppose it's the same with anything really. You give a guitar to say a 3-year-old that’s interested in it then y’know.

Can you tell me a bit about your creative process? How you go about seeing a piece through, start to finish.

So, I mean, at the moment it's flash that I’m doing so I’ve got to draw roses. so if say for example I’m doing an A3 flash of about 15 roses at the minute. I get my sketchbook any chance, any spare time that I have I’m doodling away. Like, straight away, just sketching roses all the time. I spend all my time looking on Instagram, looking at photos of roses, looking at a lot of other people's work, see how they do things. Take that, and mold my own stuff to it. But if it's for something else, say, that I personally want to do, I get inspiration at the most random times. Usually when I'm at work just doing the worst stuff possible, I'll think of a great idea. So, it'll be a case of whichever medium I want to do it, whether it be like watercolour, Promarker, pencil, digital.

You don't feel yourself restricted to just one thing?

No... No. Just sorta’ go with what I'm feeling at that time. So I’ll always just grab the nearest piece of paper- say I’m at work I’ll write it down then I’ll go home and I'll do a really rough sketch of it. Really, really basic rough sketch., Or if like I’m doing it digitally, for example with the print that I did, I got a really basic photograph of a skull, then a photograph of a mace, then a photograph of a chain. Then like, crudely photoshopped it all together and then just sketched over the top.

Building your own references?

Yeah, then just build my own line-work and style over the top of that. Yeah, I tend to put like, a lot of stages to what I do. I put a lot of planning into each piece, a lot more than I think people realise.

How do you go about choosing the subject matter for your work?

For me at the minute it’s looking at the most popular or most reoccurring thing with the tattoo industry. so like y’know back to roses and skulls and daggers and panthers and pinups it's all basic stuff that you see every day. but you’ve gotta’ learn the basics before you start pulling out your own stuff.

 I understand you use both traditional and digital media fairly equal-handed within your work. What advantages and disadvantages do you personally see in both for the kind of work you do?

I think for me like, with traditional media, I don’t have the patience for it. If I'm doing like, a really big piece- I can have all my line-work down perfect, the slightest thing goes wrong with the colouring and I lose it. Say, once I've ruined a large watercolour piece with the slightest thing I don't really wanna’ go back to it. I'd rather just jump back to digital. I think my only sorta’ issue with digital is that I rely on it too much at times. But then is it really a bad thing, I guess?

Was gonna’ say, do you see that as a problem?

Sometimes, because I’d like to be able to have more options. Like, I do have a fair few options open to me but I don't wanna’ rely on the same thing every time. I'd like to be able to do a bit of this, a bit of that.

Is personal expression important to your work? Or has it been in the past?

No, never. For me, I mean... interpret this how you want but for me with art you should always just do what you want to do. But I think using art to force an agenda or an opinion is just- it's mistreating it. And I think it ruins a lot of- like there's so many people out there that could be amazing artists but they're too busy trying to push this agenda or this idea that it just pulls away from what they could be producing.

Yeah, definitely. I really like that answer. Who are your biggest influences, creatively?

I'm currently just doing a massive list. [He must have seen this one coming]. I would say definitely number one is a guy called Manuel Mendoza, his Instagram is @sacred_crow. He's just a neo-trad’ artist but I forget- he's based in the US; he's just moved shops. But his style is like it's really- the dark colours but he's using like greens and blues and yellows. So he'll do like skulls- a lot of skulls a lot of birds but they're all like, really deformed in a way. They're all stretched out and exaggerated, I find it amazing the way his line work is. It's absolutely amazing. But if I pick someone that's not a tattoo artist, that's always been a big artist it's gotta’ be French[@funeralfrench], every time. Definitely. So I've just finished up- here's a list of about five.

 @sacred_crow

@funeralfrench

@mattcurzon

@grindesign_tattoo

@tdonaire

I think I should also add on like, definitely John Baizley and Richey Beckett. I really love their stuff. I think that sums it up. They're definitely my biggest inspirations.

Name something unusual that inspires you.

Satanism. Definitely.

Hell yeah.

Seeing stuff like old photos from rituals and stuff.

Yeah, Occultism.

Yeah, just all that stuff in general. Like, from the Electric Wizard vinyl I recently got, there's loads of stuff on the inside of that. I dunno’ just summat’ about it, it's just the grim darkness of it all just fascinates me.

The overwhelming sense of dread. Does that appeal to you?

Definitely... definitely.

What ways do you keep up to date with the tattoo industry?

Instagram... and I occasionally will buy magazines. I visit the local studio quite often, stay in touch with all them. I keep up with a lot of the main websites and magazines online. I even follow a lot of product companies like the companies that make [tattoo] machines or like, inks. Just to find out what's new and keep up with what people are up to in that world as well. Like, looking at the business side of things.

Yeah, so you're not just looking at the artist aspect of it you're looking forwards to y’know?

Yeah, every aspect of it. All the way.

How important is social media to your personal practice?

It's everything. Without social media I've got no outlet to share my artwork. I mean, I 've just hit a hundred followers. That's taken a long time to get to. Without the social media side of things... I don't even know where I'd begin to start sharing my work, to be honest.

Gives you a platform, right?

Yeah definitely.

Can you recall the single defining piece of work or a moment where you turned around and had the realisation that this was the kind of thing you want to pursue?

When I first- hmm. I'd say I've got two points. First being at a really young age and seeing my dad's tattoos for the first time. Just being fascinated that that was... there. Just like, what it was. Once it got explained to me, I found it fascinating. So from like maybe age 4 or 5 I used to just draw up and down my arms all the time. So that really sparked something. And then I'd probably say the first time I got tattooed was the moment of realisation where I was like, "Oh, maybe I could do this." I mean, that was a fair few years back now like but that was the first spark of "I could do this, if I really put my mind to it." I mean I suppose a lot of depression and anxiety and a lot of stuff that's happened has really held me back over the years. But yeah, I think my defining moments of realisation are those two. Definitely.

Name something you hate about art.

People who put no effort in, no time in. Get ten times more recognition than somebody that's put hours and hours and hours into their craft. Learning every piece of what they do, say learning anatomy, learning the tools they want to use. Just, really putting the time and love in for what they want to do. Then you get some snot-nosed little kid that's- well, it's not kids but snotty stuck-up teenagers. They'll whip out a sharpie, scribble summat’ down and just put summat’ with no effort whatsoever, no care for what they're doing. They just knock summat’ out in 5 minutes maximum and it gets so much recognition and so much more praise than somebody who is putting the hours in.

So you care about the craft?

Yeah.

Name something you love about art.

That like, people- anyone can do it, if you put the time in. Anyone can produce summat’ that looks great if you put the time in. And it's for everybody that's willing to give it a chance, definitely.

What was the last piece of art you bought?

Bought... I mean I suppose I recently bought a coat just because of the print of the back. I've also bought a few vinyls mostly because like- I accept music as an art-form as well, also the album artwork.

Oh, definitely.

Like, the main reason I got the Crack the Skye album was because of the artwork on it. As for prints, I tend not to buy prints. I suppose the last proper piece of art was either a pin that I got of French's Heatseeker magazine.

Last question, how many toddlers do you think you could take in a fight?

Just line em up. I'll just keep going.