DeAnne M. Bradley
Link
Nothing inspires illustrator Jason Levesque like a good science documentary.
“It’s all really disgusting – see a baby kangaroo born and climb into its mother’s pouch, jelly fish and frog eggs,” he said. “I like to present kind of gross concepts in an aesthetically pleasing kind of way.”
Levesque (aka Stuntkid) met Link for lunch to talk about the “pretty gross” Link cover and his mirage of art jobs.
THE NAME
Levesque came up with his art name while working at Teetimes.com, a dot-com start-up in Williamsburg. “I would ride my skateboard down the stairs. I was doing a lot of office stunts. I thought maybe Stuntboy, but that name was already taken, so I went with Stuntkid.”
DEBUT WORK
Levesque wrote and illustrated a story about ninjas when he was 12. He called it “Stryder.”
The crayon art was inspired by “Akira,” a 1988 anime film. “I really enjoyed the softer lines on the character. It was different than Marvel comics that all my friends were into.”
LEARNING THE ART
He dropped out of Great Bridge High in Chesapeake after his junior year. He got his first whiff of professional art at DeSigns Inc. in Chesapeake. “I actually started working on the floor and kind of poking my head in to work my way into the design department.” Levesque used Adobe Photoshop and Dreamweaver to teach himself web design. He said desconstructing and reconstructing Web sites was the best way to learn.
THE CRAFT
Most of Levesque’s art starts with a photograph taken with his Nikon D50 camera. “When I shoot through the lens, I’m imagining what I’m looking at as an illustration. Sometimes I have to ignore the background.”
His friends and family model for him. He pays them with photo prints.
SHOWING OFF
Levesque has shown his work in New York and Los Angeles galleries, but he said art shows aren’t always profitable. “It’s hard with digital work because you don’t have originals, so you have to do self prints.” An art show can cost Levesque $1,500 or more.
He also posts his art on the Internet – and the more he posts, the more fans he gets. “Art is like music,” he said. “Once they feel like they can start recognizing your work, it takes on a personal attachment.”
IT’S ALL RELATIVE
Levesque’s children are into art, too. His 11-year-old son plays around with frame-by-frame animation on his Mac. His daughter, 9, likes photography and painting with acrylics.
Levesque’s fiancée is local painter Elizabeth Henry, aka Lizzel Lizzel. “I stumbled across her Web site in 2001 and fell in love with her artwork. We hit it off right away and made plans to meet up in Philly. After a few quick months, she moved down to Virginia, and we’ve been together ever since.”
ARTISTS VS. ILLUSTRATORS
“I don’t have a motive to my art work. I think that kind of sets me apart from artists and puts me more in the world of illustration. People paint with cause or try to bring about a world of change. My art is really for the sake of aesthetic quality,” he said. “As an illustrator, I come up with an idea and then the most effective way to get it done in the practical sense. The entire time, I’m focused on the end product and not the inspiration.”
Reach DeAnne M. Bradley at 222-3897 or deanne.bradley@link757.com
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