To welcome November I created these simple Fall themed patterns that would be a lovely addition to any clients who would be interested in purchasing these for fabric/textile designs, paper products, or packaging designs. They are in a rich Fall color pallete and feature beautiful Autumn leaves, mushrooms, and pumpkins. Contact my reps at Those3reps.com if interested in licensing these or any of the other designs in my surface pattern gallery. Happy Fall!
©James Nelson all rights reserved
I’m exited to add a collection of new surface pattern designs to my portfolio that are available for purchase and licensing for use on fabric designs, paper products, package design, home products, tabletop item or anything else you might want to use them on. All work is created by me and © James Nelson and all rights reserved. Please contact my agents at www.those3reps.com if you are interested in purchase for usage and licensing .
Rosé Pattern
Margarita Time pattern
Martini Time pattern
February is the Month of Love so I created this new Valentine’s Day inspired personal piece that would be perfect as a fun package design for food, chocolates, wine, liquor, or all kinds of adorable paper products. Or even as an editorial for a magazine advertisement.
It’s finally October! This glamorous witch is ready to party with her spooky cocktail and festive vintage lanterns…or are they purses? With a cast of her spell they could be either one! Cheers!!!
I recently added a new personal piece to welcome the new Spring season with an optimistic editorial vibe. Spring is the time for renewal and this illustration attempts to plant the “seeds” of hope during these often negative and challenging times. As the saying goes “what you reap, you sow”. Planting seeds of Love, Prosperity, Success, and Good Health will grow and nurture into actual results when you take your time, talents, and energy to achieve what you desire.
It’s hard to believe that it’s been 20 years ago today that I started being represented by Those 3 Reps agency in Dallas ,Texas! It’s been a wonderful journey creating all the amazing illustrations and fun projects throughout my career with SO many different clients and creative professionals along the way! From the very beginning, it was a joy to start with Carol Considine, Debbie Bozeman, and Sheila Mullin to embark on the best creative adventure an artist can have! I’m so honored to continue to be repped by Sheila and now Courtney Williams as they keep growing their agency into such a dynamic and diverse team of talented artists. I am so thrilled to still be a part of their awesome group of artists! My first assignment in 2001 was creating these hip, fashionable urban people for Hotel Derek when they opened in Houston, Tx. The illustrations were used in combination with photographs for a promotional campaign that included print magazine ads, newspapers, and online on the cusp of social media and smart phones. This was when Facebook and Twitter were brand new and way before Instagram or other platforms even existed!
I wanted to create a map-like scene that is like a "Fun things to do in the City in the Summer" type of illustration that might be for an editorial, or city guide, or map. With things opening up and people wanting to get out and do outdoor things again this Summer after everyone was staying in quarantine, this is a fun piece giving off good vibes to get out and be social in an urban environment. Maybe the lady on the bike is joining her friends in the park to have a picnic or enjoy some wine, or they are meeting to go to the museum or stroll around the botanical gardens. Cheers to getting out and exploring a new city, or going downtown to enjoy the city wherever you live!
I’m so excited to share this updated illustration of my “Coffee origins” editorial piece that has now been animated! I love how it turned out and creates a scene that shows the origins of how we get our coffee from being picked from beans and shipped overseas to end up being poured in our cups in our neighborhood coffee shop by our favorite barista!
Happy New Year ! I’m a little late getting this posted from the Holidays. I was commissioned by my agents at Those 3 Reps to create this illustration and design this animated card they used to send all their clients.. I loved how it turned out and wanted to share it.
I’m excited to announce the debut of my animated illustration celebrating “Dia de Los Muertos” or Day of the Dead!
I added this fun black crow to celebrate the Fall season and also Halloween. They are all available as prints in my shop! Fall is my favorite time of year when I get to see all the beautiful leaves change colors and enjoy the cooler sweater weather. I’ve always loved seeing all the Halloween decorations through the season and always sad to see it go away in November. it comes and goes so fast! It must be the fun childhood memories of getting to dress up in costumes and all the candy we would get trick or treating , as to why I miss it so much when it’s over…. I especially love the nostalgic vintage Halloween decorations and memorabilia. Enjoy it while you can!
When it comes to new personal pieces for my portfolio, one of the perks is the freedom to be able to illustrate and design any image i feel like working on. Depending upon the season, my mood, or inspiration from something I’ve observed in nature, or read about, or seen online scanning social media or a book. I’m always inspired by each season and the beauty of nature, or a current style of fashion I see online, or a magazine, both new and vintage. I’ve always loved experiementing and evolving my illustration style over the years. There are so many artistic styles that I have admired and been inspired by over the decades, that it can sometimes be hard to settle and land on just one distinct style for myself that I want to keep working in. I used to love loose, brushstrokes in bold lines in watercolor or gouache and did that style for several years.
Since the digital age took over,I have evolved from that style to a combination of loose brushwork, into ink blot type of line work with layers of colors with more texture and a screen printed look to it, verses a watercolor wash style. I’ve created my own hand made textures on paper over the years that I still love and use now, after scanning and saving them digitally. I pull from those to create most of my textures and build them up like collages in layers and color and edit them in mostly photoshop now. My current style in more graphic and clean and stylized than in the past with a little less line work and more color block and collaged looking with lots of layered colors and textures with both a slight vintage mid century vibe yet modern style.
While I still love creating stylish people, products, and scenerios with a more fashion illustration edge to them, sometimes the real world and news takes over, and it’s important to add a few more editorial type of pieces that reflect the current news. I was very hesitant to add anything in my portfolio about the covid 19 crisis and people wearing cloth masks and adding that type of imagery to my book. I had expected this terrible global epidemic to have subsided by mid Summer and we would all be going back to work and our pre covid lives and lifestyles by now. But in order to be a balanced illustrator, I embraced the subject matter and added a new piece that combines my illustration style with the current inescapable news and focuses on the medical and science fields that are racing to find a vaccine and new medicines to treat, and hopefully cure this virus that has hijacked our lives and affected everyone all over the world.
I have always loved the world of fashion illustration and design and been fascintated with the limitless design possiblitlies of high heel shoes…both stilletos and boots. I added a couple of new illustrations for my series of prints I am offering in my new online shop. i loved designing and illustrating these shoes and the juxtaposition of the bold black images with the colorful modern flowers and butterlies and insects. These would be beautiful matted in white and framed in a thick white frame.
I’m now offering prints from original art that I created and added to my new online shop! These are all printed by me with high quality epson ink on heavy archival Red River 100% cotton paper. Please check them out. I will be adding more soon..so stay tuned!
As the Winter blues melt away, this newly illustrated peacock is proud to show off his Spring green and blue color palette displayed throughout his festive feathers. While it’s still cold and February, he dreams of Spring and frolicking with his butterfly and ladybug friends in a field of mid-century shapes and patterns.
With the Holidays here, this Foodie type is in his element indulging in all the sweets, fresh baked breads, and gooey desserts he loves! This chocoholic never counts calories and there has never been a carb he has said no to. The scent of fresh baked breads and cookies sends him to the bakery section of any food store. The more pies, cakes, chocolates, donuts, and pastries, the merrier! Bring it on!
What type of “Foodie” are you? This dude is a protein loving, grill meister carnivore who welcomes the fat content allowed in his Keto and Paleo based diet. Both he and his canine companion have never said no to adding bacon on it!
Posted 11/05/2019 by Workbook
We know that this girl is a yoga loving, cat friendly, green smoothie fanatic because illustrator James Nelson took all these elements and arranges them into a beautiful narrative portrait that makes sophisticated use of repeated texture, shape and color. He also goes on to tell us that, “…being organic and vegan aware, she’s not obsessive about being totally gluten free or strictly vegetarian. Eating lean and clean with her smoothie and trying to perfect her yoga poses makes her feel less guilty when she slips up and indulges on a little bacon or dessert every now and then.”
Do you ever wonder about the long journey your daily cup of coffee originated from before it reaches your favorite coffee mug? Before it’s roasted in processing plants, and then sent to your favorite coffee shop or store, it makes a very long journey. It might be from the mountains of South American countries like Peru or Brazil, or from the deep forests of Africa. Beginning as red arabica berries from coffee plants, they are hand picked and gathered, and then shipped by freight carriers across the seas to end up in processing plants across the USA, and then finally end up being ordered and shipped by truck to your favorite neighborhood coffee shop or store. I created this new illustration to capture the long journey and finally end up as pour-over or packaged coffee. Perhaps this barista ponders the long and arduous journey his coffee had to make and imagines the mountains and jungles the beans had to have come from across the Atlantic ocean as he pours over your cup to serve you.
Spring into the season with these fashion and beauty accessories to brighten your world and add a lot of “extra” color to your wardrobe. Exploring the luscious color story of pinks, magentas, fuchsia, lavenders, melon, and raspberry. This new personal piece continues experimenting with mid century geometric shapes and layers mixed with a 70’s vibe and script style hand lettering with current styles of shoes and handbags.
