Artist Interview : Jim Auckland

Jim Auckland is an illustrator primarily known as a sport and entertainment artist. His career spans over 30 years as a freelance illustrator and an instructor at the Otis College of Art and Design. Jim has been living in New Zealand for nearly 4 years, and currently co-owns and operates Takapuna Art Supplies with his partner Sandy Collins. The store also runs workshops and classes at an adjacent studio space, where Jim offers foundational and advanced painting courses.

“Early on, like most kids I fell in love with comic books. I also noticed that some were better drawn than others. I used to paint with my mom and my grandmother. They were both very talented and encouraged me. I became a great admirer of the Disney artists and when I was 9 years old, the Mickey Mouse Club became a mainstay of American television. Disney promote themselves very well and I really wanted to become a Disney artist and that was my goal when I went into Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles, where I received my B.F.A. in Illustration.

While attending Art Center, my eyes were opened up to many other areas in the field. Many of my instructors were Disney artists and encouraged me in that direction while on the other hand, other instructors inspired me to consider other avenues of illustration like editorial and advertising.”

Takapuna Art supplies

Jim and Sandy felt that Takapuna Art Supplies would be a good business to purchase in order to meet other artists who share what they love. “It has been a lot more challenging than we initially thought. There are at least seven art supply stores in the Auckland Area and all of them have Brand Agencies, so we have to sell twice the product to compete. We also asked ourselves, ‘What do we have that they don’t have?’ and that’s where our focus has been. Sandy and I have BFA degrees in illustration and I have nearly two decades of teaching experience. I found that I was getting young artists coming into the shop to ask me to look over contracts or, university students and post-graduates coming in and asking me to look over their portfolios.

We immediately created a studio space in the shop where we could both work when there were slow patches. We suddenly started to sell the products we were working with, like lots of Super Sculpey and illustration board. So, we figured selling art supplies to support us while making a change from traditional assignment illustration to something more, would be ideal.

We were also getting a lot of requests for classes. Last year we decided to take on a large studio space next door to our shop and we are now holding workshops and I’m teaching a class 2 days a week. Our Saturday workshops have attracted a lot of attention. They are just casual untutored get-togethers where artists can draw and paint inspired by a costumed model.

We have also opened an online store with a gallery, and we produce a newsletter each month and talk about the business of art as well as techniques. It’s been fun.”

An illustrious career

“My illustration career started when I decided to go to the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles, where I was influenced by some amazing instructors like, Reynold Brown, Don Weller, Joseph Henniger, Lorser Feitelson, Harry Carmean, and Glen Vilppu. They are incredibly talented artists who totally changed my outlook on drawing and painting and I feel so lucky to be influenced by them. Everything I teach today, originates from them. I also sat beside other students like Craig Nelson, William Maughan and Walter Rane who always raised the bar on assignments. The competition at Art Centre was intense and all good illustrators feed off competition. Even today, when I paint, I’m really painting for other artists as well as myself.

After Art Center I freelanced briefly in the Los Angeles area and was shortly discovered and hired by Jack O’Grady Graphics in Chicago where I worked for 2 years. It was like a post-graduate course in illustration. I worked next to some of America’s best illustrators and designers who also influenced my style.
After moving back to Los Angeles I worked as an in-house illustrator for a number of aerospace companies, but always did a bit of freelance on the side. When I finally broke away and became solely freelance, I received a number of interesting assignments in the entertainment industry, like movie posters for Dennis the Menace, A League of Their Own, The Untouchables, and A Secret Garden, but my favorite assignments always came from Rhythm & Hues, a Los Angeles based special effects company. Dan Quarnstrom the head of creative there and a classmate at Art Center, made me their animal anatomy go-to guy.

After I had been working in the industry for almost twenty years, a friend and fellow studio mate, Jim Heimann recommended me to Otis College of Art & Design and that started my 17+ years with Otis as an instructor. I started part time and wound up in the last few years becoming a full time professor in drawing and painting. I’m very proud of my experience at Otis where some have said I created the Illustration Department. All I can say is that I’ve had a hand in the careers of some notable young illustrators like John Mueller, Bob Coronato, Bob Dob, Mia Araujo and Mike Lee. I’m really proud of them and the many others who have made a career of it. I also worked with some really talented faculty members including Nathan Ota, J.T. Steiny, Cecil Kim, Jenn Eggers and Gary Geraths to name a few.”

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