Illustrator Jim Bryant (photo curtesy of Jim Bryant)
Jim Bryant considers himself an illustrator not an artist. He makes money doing what he enjoys and what he enjoys is “bringing people’s ideas to life.” Bryant feels that the “ability to draw, when done properly, looks like magic.“ His artwork is realistic and highly detailed yet he looks at it with a critical eye, always striving to do better.
How he got started
Bryant, born in Muskegon, Michigan, on the shore of Lake Michigan in a village called Wolf Lake, describes it as “a great time and place to grow up.” He was “initially impressed by comic book artists Milton Caniff, Walt Kelly, Al Capp and others that created their own two-dimensional worlds.” At age seven, while recovering from being hit by a car, Bryant began to draw to pass the time. As a boy, he was shy but drawing made him popular.
A long and accomplished career
Drawing has also been his bread and butter. “As an illustrator,” he says, “my art is going to sell before I pick up a brush. An 'artist' can wait a long time for a buyer.” Bryant has lived in Arizona for 43 years with a brief stint in California. Currently, he lives in Avondale with his wife of eleven years and has children in California, Texas and Washington State.
Bryant works in watercolor, pencil, acrylic and gouache. He is self-taught and does all of his work by hand. He has several published works and a background that includes advertising, publishing, motion pictures, portraiture and fine art with a client list that includes major college textbook publishers, aerospace corporations, magazines, newspapers and law enforcement agencies. Bryant has previously displayed aviation art in a Scottsdale gallery and figure studies in a figure gallery on the central coast in Cambria, California.
If you would like to purchase artwork from Jim Bryant or commission a piece contact him through his website.
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Comments
interesting coverage of a self taught illustrator, your article is a motivational one for others.
Thank you Susan. I'm glad you liked the article. We have such a diverse art community here in the West Valley and I hope to portray that here through my articles. And as a self-taught artist myself, I also feel these success stories are motivational!
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