Each year, The Big Chill venues seek out an individual contemporary illustrator or artist to highlight and profile throughout our promotions and activities.

We're very proud to announce that our illustrator-in-residence for 2011/2012, is pencil-bothering wunderkind Jack Teagle...

Jack has taken our meagre creative direction and run wild with it, creative limbs flailing technicolored light into dark recesses of imagination we hadn't dared dream of. Keep an eye out for the latest nuggets of whimsy in our monthly posters and flyers - plus, weather-permitting, we're also hoping to produce a limited-edition print collating all Jack's work into one beautiful piece for release later in the year.

Jack's Biog

Jack Teagle is a freelance illustrator living in South West England. He divides his time between commercial work, drawing comics and painting. Since graduating from the University of Plymouth in 2009 Jack has worked with a variety of clients, had 3 solo shows in London, Dublin and Porto, taken part in many group shows worldwide and had his first comic 'Jeff Job Hunter' released by Nobrow Press.

Jack Collects old action figures and watches too many old b-movie science fiction movies. He is currently working on his second nobrow Press comic about a wrestling circuit in Britain.

Q & A with Jack

Your drawing style appears very established, how so at such an early stage in your creative lifetime (ie, did you always draw this good)?

I was always drawing as a kid. Not very well, but always drawing. This carried on as a teenager too. I drew horrible manga drawings and trolls and barbarians and stuff. I really sucked. At school I was 'the best drawer' which doesn't really mean that much, but I thought it was great. It convinced me to carry on with art and go through with a foundation degree because I really enjoyed it. It was at this stage I realised how bad I was at drawing. I did my first life drawing lessons and everyone else was kicking ass. From around age 19, I went crazy keeping sketchbooks, I was inspired heavily by Robert Crumb's books. I just drew and drew and drew, and through this I've got better.

Being around so many other people who were great at design, drawing and illustration really pushed me to work harder.

There seem to be recurring themes that pop up from time to time in your work – who are they and what are they to you?

I tend to work with fantasy and real life, and mixing the two together. I love to combine the fantastic with the mundane. Mythical creatures doing the shopping. Luchadore wrestlers making a sandwich, aliens waiting for a bus. We all have to do these things, so why should these weird characters be any different?

I think the work also says a lot about growing up. These are the type of characters that used to exist in my mind when I was a child, but they'd do very different things, go on adventures and get into all sorts of mischief. When I came back to using characters a lot as an adult, I really wanted to show them in a realistic light, showing them having to get on with real life.

You’ve very kindly drawn all this for us to make music to this year, what’s your soundtrack to illustrate or animate to?

It's a real mix of things. First off with this project, I had a Big Chill Compilation knocking about, so I put that on to get into the swing.

I've been listening to a lot of Galaxie 500, Spiritualized, Flaming Lips, Smog, Chad VanGaalen, The Breeders, Nick Drake, Sun Kil Moon, Silver Jews, and Zwan.

Is it hard to make a living out of your illustrative work alone?

It was really hard getting off to a good start, but over the last year it has been getting progressively better. I think a lot of it has to do with learning from my mistakes and just getting the experience I need. Word of mouth has spread about my work, so that really helps to get jobs too.

I've just been working as much as possible to get seen. Displaying work in art shows, distributing comics I've made, huge send outs to art directors, etc. I think it's getting there now, I'm doing it less and less, and having clients approach me with work instead of having to chase as much.

What advice would you give to little 15 yr old Jack Teagle in getting started in the big wide world of illustration?

Draw more! Get off that internet and stop trying to draw manga! Stop worrying about things so much, you're only 15! Just be yourself, have fun and don't let people get you down, take a few risks.

Do you feel your style might change significantly in future or do you feel you’ve found your artistic ‘voice’ now?

After looking back on things from as little as a year ago I can still see big changes. I think there is a lot of room for change. I'm really happy with my painting technique and how I work digitally, I think I have found my voice. However, you can stumble across a new process or way of thinking that totally turns everything you've ever known upside down that takes you in a new direction. It's happened before, so I'll wait and see what the future holds.

Given unlimited budget (!) what would you spend your time on?

The most insane film I could ever think of. I don't know what it would be yet. Maybe a collection of different things that all link but are stretched across different media. I'd love to pull a load of people together to work on something incredible. Music, comics, books, film, sculptures.

I loved the idea behind Fort Thunder, I'd love to legitimately start something up like that.

Were you a graphic novel/comic-loving kid growing up or was it something else that got you into all this?

I've read the Beano and Dandy since I could read, and my uncle gave me all of his old annuals, but other than some cheap laughs, I never really got that into them.

I read a lot of comics, but it was real teenage stuff like Tank Girl, 2000AD and Appleseed. It wasn't until I was in my late teens that I found all of these crazy comics aimed at adults with a lot more depth. I think it was when I first started to read Daniel Clowes' and Chris Ware's comics that I was hooked, they were amazing. Also reading Ghost World as an angst ridden teenager hit a few chords with me. I realised how much power and poignancy believable stories could have, and I think it helped to ground my own artwork and stories.

Are there any other illustrators and artists that inspire you now?

Definitely. There are too many to list, but my biggest inspirations are Gary Panter, Gary Baseman, Bruce Bickford, Reg Mombasa, Hieronymus Bosch, Howard Finster, Johnathan Rosen, Christian Northeast and Laurie J. Proud. They create insanely good work, it's all packed with detail, they're extremely prolific and are all totally unique.

Big-Chill-2011-Illustrator-in-Residence aside, what have been your most memorable or enjoyable commissions over the years?

I designed the trailers for the food chain Daddy Donkey Mexican Grill in London. The designs I made were chock full of crazy wrestlers and 3d typography. That's one of my favourite projects so far. It was really rewarding to see my work plastered all over the trailers.

If you could draw a picture of yourself as you’d like to be in 20 yrs time, where would you be?

I would love to be doing what I'm still doing, but with a lot less stress. Just being fully established as an artist and an illustrator and having a steady reliable income. I think the lack of stress would let me keep me from going bald, and I'd be really happy. Just having more exhibitions, things getting published, more advertising work.

I'd like to wear the same stuff and still feel pretty young. I'd wear tinted glasses so people wouldn't know I needed glasses, and be cool.

I think what will acutally happen is that I'll freak out about stuff too much, and/or become a bit of a hermit.

I'll have to wait and see!