Pencil Artist of the Week: Jeff Busch

Pencil Artist of the week is Jeff Busch. Check out his artist statement and work below and tell us what you think!

I’ve been an artist pretty much my whole life. I was seven when I first got paid for one of my drawings ($5 for a knight on a horse for one of my Mom’s friends) and I was so happy I ended up giving her another half dozen because she liked my work so much.

I enjoy every aspect of the creative process, from indecipherable, smudged pencil doodles scrawled in front of the TV at 1 AM to the final coupe de grace of a highlight or lens flare on a 4 GB, 65 layer Photoshop file. Even when I’m playing with my kids or out on a date with my wife, there’s always something of a creative nature rattling around in the back of my skull. I’m lucky they’re so understanding.

My first job out of school was creating a couple dozen illustrations for Dungeons & Dragons, then based out of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. This was before fax machines, but the twice-weekly two-hour drive to show off the latest pencils or finished art was well worth it. And I’ve been working non-stop since.

I’ve created illustrations for books & magazines, art packages for pinball games and slot machines and designed toys & premiums for cereal boxes. My work has been on puzzles, box art for model kits and sold in Hallmark stores.

I spent several months in the wilds of central Florida designing characters, vehicles and environments for a video game company, returning home every few weeks to recharge and refuel. And recently I was in Arizona for a month sketching storyboards and automobile tires at a client’s office.

I absolutely enjoy every media, some more than others. Most of my commercial clients require their art to be rendered digitally (for editability and delivery’s sake) but there are the few, rare ones that prefer traditional methods in the execution of their projects. These are my favorites.

Nothing beats sitting down at the drawing board with a dozen well-sharpened pencils, a pad of paper and an extra-large coffee. Whether the piece is then transformed into a tight acrylic or watercolor painting, re-rendered in ink or finalized in graphite depends on the assignment.

My work can be viewed at  www.jeffbuschcreative.com (for the more commercial work) and www.ferrulechild.com (for the stuff I do for fun).

If you want to reach me via email, write me at jeff@jeffbuschcreative.com and ferrulechild@gmail.com