Becoming increasingly disillusioned with his sketch work, James found his niche in ink illustrations only a few years ago after returning from Canada where he lived for a while after university. Feeling frustrated with the blues after returning to the UK, he felt like he needed to ‘learn patience’ and found that pointillism was a useful tool to help him achieve this. ‘you need to invest in yourself if you want to gain a better understanding.’
However, he recommends beginners not to do what he did and use ink straight away, but to instead use a pencil- ‘since it can be a bit messy at first!’
Cleanliness is nevertheless now a key feature of James’ work, something he achieves he says by letting the ink fry and not ‘overlapping the dots too much’. Doing so expressed both a level of symmetry and balance within his work.Nature has also been a dominant feature in James’ life – be it growing up in the Welsh Valleys, out at sea, or traversing through the vast Canadian Pine forests. Though he also depicts the rural landscape due to its cleanliness as it then finds itself fitting his broader style and themes.
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