Layron DeJarnette is an Emmy nominated, award winning artist who designs for several giants in the entertainment industry including one of our favorites – Garbage Pail Kids! Today, Layron chats with us about the inspirations, history and beyond during his award-winning career.
Over to you, Layron!
Both of my parents were artistically inclined and they saw the penchant I had for the arts as a young child. I would watch kids shows and cartoons on the television then draw my favorite characters with crayons on scrap papers and napkins. My mother noticed all my cool drawings and bought me some watercolor paints then my father got me an art easel at the age of four for my birthday. When it came to art, my parents spared no expense. As I continued to creatively grow, my father enrolled me in youth art classes and bought me many art books and supplies. I started entering art competitions and winning some of them. After high school I enrolled into the College of Creative Studies and studied illustration.While in college I acquired more knowledge, skills and discipline to produce professional work. I took on many freelance illustration and animation jobs through networking and gained more experience. I later interned at The Walt Disney Studios Feature Animation department in California and in Florida. The Disney experience opened many doors for me as an artist. I moved to California and started getting more illustration and animation work. Each job and contact led to another and my career as an artist grew. I also surrounded myself with many people who’ve supported and pushed me to become better. I became part of a nucleus of peers being accountable to one another and we encouraged each other to follow our dreams.
When I’m working on Garbage Pail Kids illustrations, John Pound is the inspiration. If I’m painting Mars Attacks cards, Norman Saunders is the inspiration. I love many styles of art, illustration and animation from the great classical artists such as Michelangelo and Raphael or the painting styles of Rembrandt and Sargent; caricature artists such as Jack Davis, Mort Drucker and Kruger; comic book artists like John Buscema and Jack Kirby; animation artists like Ron Myrick, Bruce W. Smith, Larry Houston; illustrators like Frank Frazetta, Boris Vallejo, Drew Struzan and others. I also have many friends who are artists and I’m constantly being inspired by their work as well. Being surrounded by creative energy motivates and impacts my work. I have “tons” of illustration art books and a huge library of animated films. Many times I’ll put on a good movie or motivating music while I’m working to get into that creative flow.
My first trading card I painted was for 2006 Garbage Pail Kids: All New Series 5.I met the Art Director at the time, Jeff Zapata at San Diego Comic Con, showed him my art portfolio and he sent me a GPK illustration test. I had to do an illustration painting based on a sketch gag by artist Mark Pingitore. Jeff liked the final illustration and it got printed as card #15 ARMLESS AARON/UNARMED ADRIAN.
My favorite trading cards to work on were the 2014 Garbage Pail Kids Series 2 Superhero Illustrations. They were the best of both my love for GPK and comic books.
I’ve pretty much worked with many companies and studios. Here are some of the things that I worked on:
How long is the process? A good design first requires a good idea or a rough idea that’s later fleshed out. Sometimes it might take many drawings to actually achieve it or you might “hit a home run on the first pitch”. The process for doing Garbage Pail Kids and Mars Attacks base trading cards, is to first come up with rough concept sketches based on the script or gag.
On left the thumbnail by Brent Engstorm, on the right the pencil rough
One artist or many artists might work on concept sketches. When the roughs are approved, it gets passed on to the base card illustrator who would do a tight pencil drawing for approval. When that gets approved, the base card illustrator would do a color rough of the illustration for approval then paint the final illustration. The timeframe for start to completion depends on the amount of illustration details, the approval process or if the art had any notes or revisions to address.
I love being able to create from the imagination! I love working on jobs that push my artistic growth. I love working with and meeting other talented artists. I love being surrounded by creative energy. I love seeing the final art results in print, film and various forms of transmedia… It’s euphoric!
From left to right: Rough, Acyclic Color Rough, Acrylic Final Painting and Final Card
Yes! Growing up I was a fan of Garbage Pail Kids, and a huge fan of Wacky Packages. I also collected sci-fi trading card series of Star Wars, Star Trek, Close Encounters Of the Third Kind, The Six Million Dollar Man and many more. Too bad I took all of my stickers and stuck them onto my grade school notebooks when I was a kid that I no longer have. This was way before the revelation of ‘collectable assets’ came into existence. So many stickers gone forever…D’OH!!!
I’d like to design more preschool art. I haven’t done a lot in a while. Most of my current job designs involve lots of details or intricate drawing and painting styles. It would be cool to switch it up with more simplistic Pre-K designs.
Thank you for the opportunity to share my artistic journey. Here are some links if folks would like to follow me:
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