About

JESSICA

Jessica is a freelance illustrator that lives and works in Toronto, Canada. She graduated from the Ontario College of Art and Design in 2007, with a degree in fine arts.

Jessica creates her illustrations by fabricating environments and characters out of polymer clay and other materials that she finds. After staging them they are photographed.

WORK

Jessica Fortner creates unique one of a kind sculpted illustrations. She combines her knowledge of design, sculpture, photography and digital post-production in her illustration process.

Jessica is one of the few illustrators whose process involves hand-sculpting key elements in the illustration. Her unique sense of visual and conceptual problem-solving creates a one of a kind aesthetic, sense of humor and approach to storytelling.

Jessica’s illustrations are memorable in that they combine the textures and palette of the real world with the surreal possibilities of painterly illustration. She is known for her interesting characters and distinctive style.

PROCESS

Jessica always begins by sketching out the illustration to refine the concept and composition. The preliminary sketch is also useful for communicating the vision to the client, and for securing approval to proceed to the construction of the characters and set.

She sculpts the main characters, props and sets. After the pieces are sculpted they’re then baked and painted. Characters are constructed using aluminium armature wire. Clothing is hand stitched. Sets and props are built form a variety of materials.

To get the final illustration Jessica sets up the sculpted elements in a scene and then photographs them.

After the scene has been photographed, the image is brought into photoshop to add final touches. The final illustration is a high-rise digital file.

CLIENTS:

Brighter Books
The New York TImes

SKILLS:

Illustration
Sculpting
Character design
Stop-motion character production
Graphic design
Mouldmaking
Toy Design

AWARDS:

Applied Arts Illustration Awards Annual 2010
Merit-Creative Quarterly, 2008.
Winner of The Airmiles Rewards Program Printmaking Competition , 2007.

PUBLICATIONS:

2010    Applied Arts
2009    The New York Times
2008    Fèfe Magazine
2008    Creative Quarterly
2007    Social Klub
2006    Thing Zine
2004    Cut’n’Print

FEATURED SITES:

2010    Sooner Than Now
2010    Ape On The Moon
2009    Toycyte
2009    Lytearts
2008    Illustrophile
2008    Lost At E Minor
2008    Surfstation
2008    Daily Art Muse
2007    Spraygraphic