Jay Fitzmaurice

I’m kind of obsessed with being fit. It took a long, LONG time for that obsession to create any fruit…because it was just the obsession without the labor - but it’s finally happened, and I’m still a work in progress, but a far cry from the person I once-was.

My goal has always been to get lean-big; drop the fat, and bulk up the muscle. And like everyone else, I’ve always had a slew of excuses that held me back; in particular, I have Osgood-Schlatter, which basically just amounts to having little-to-no cartilage in my knees. As a kid hitting many growth-spurts, I remember crying on the side of the tub, because it hurt too much to stand up and take my shower. I remember hobbling along, stiff-legged with braces, trying to ignore the feel of bone-rubbing-on-bone. And I remember being a fatty-fat McFatterson.

So, needless to say, cardio, aerobics and I were never good friends. Weights, I could do - lifting is easy. Getting the whole vehicle in motion, though, was awful. I was the fat straggler.

While this is a thing of the past, I’m still not the quickest or fittest fella out there, and it is burned into my memory that I am just a fat fuck. Mean, self-depreciating thoughts have been preying on me since I haven’t been going to the gym for about two or three months, as I prepare to graduate. To compensate, I do bodyweight exercises, and I’m still losing weight, but my mind is mean to me and says, “You know, it’s probably not fat, you’re probably losing muscle, because you suck. Fatty.”

(This is much whinier than I intended it to be - it was meant to be funny. Ah, catharsis, you sneaky bastard!)

So, that said, as I got off the subway (I have been couch-surfing in New York this past year), I told myself I would run/jog home. Because of my past, I always expect me running to look and feel like this:

…However, it felt like I took off like a rocket. And instead of stopping in a blubbery-huff half-a-block into the run, I only stopped two blocks later because I couldn’t cross the street without being run over.

So the reality was more like this:

That’s my “What the hell is happening, am I dreaming, do you see this?” face.

Now, I’m not actually the Flash or anything, and I can’t run something insane like 12 miles a day like someone I could mention… But it still made me feel pretty great!

And, hallelujah, no knee-soreness the day after. Feeling good - excited to get back into exercising!

~ J. Fitz

I love writing, and I love character creation - they typically go hand in hand for me. I am also incapable of creating a minor or throwaway character without fleshing them out; it doesn’t matter if they’re a barista that I use once (ha, once - the best part of character creation is getting to use them again, no matter how minor!), I generally figure out quirks, life-story, etc.

That said, I have been working with the group of characters involved in a medical company, and a nighttime security guard wound up popping out of the woodwork for a very small purpose.

Yet, suddenly, he was there. And while he has no bearing on the story…well, everyone has their own story. Everyone is their own main character. So I got to know him, and had to design him.

He’s an English bulldog; meant to be solid and rough around the edges. He works the night shift so that he can be around when his boy, Jackson, is up and about being a kid.

Since, minding his jowls (and belly, though it’s meant to be more heft and less jiggle), I wanted Carl to be a fairly intimidating kind of guy, I tried to cut out some of the softness that was in my previous attempt. Made his head a bit more square, less round. And, naturally, some color for fun.

I might keep messing with him, but it was a fun little break, and for someone so minor I figure I have his general design down pretty good.

Speaking of the night watch… *yawn*

~ J. Fitz

I’m one of those artists that keeps all the art they’ve ever done. Ever. I like looking back, seeing how I’ve improved, yatta ya, the whole schtick.

One of my favorite things to do, though, is to redo an image. What better way to mark progress, right?

So, this is circa 2007; just a sketch of my friend’s (Tyler!) fox character, Marissa, and my odd-hybrid-mostly-canine character, Dorian. I always liked what I wanted to accomplish here, but obviously the execution was…lacking.

Then I had some extra time after my Adobe class today, so I took some time to unwind and do better. For those interested, I also saved two separate versions (because I don’t know which I like best):

Sans shading, aaaand…

Sans color, with shading. This one might be my favorite, but it’s always so hard to decide.

Keep warm, lovebugs!

~ J. Fitz

I just posted this on my Facebook (more people there, it makes sense for response purposes!), but I’ll put the heads up here, too:

I’m doing an interaction project! I want to hear interesting animal species that people want to see (excluding canines/felines/vulpines because I could draw them in my sleep). Whichever is most interesting, or most named/voted/what-have-you, I’ll do! I’ll proceed to show the process of how I character create, and continue asking for input until the character is refined to what people want.

It should be fun, and if it goes well, maybe I’ll do more!

I can’t tell you how many times I get asked the question, “Jay Fitz, what does your workspace look like?” It says a lot about an artist, they tell me, and they just beg to know. “Please, give us some insight into the wonders of your world!” *

Who am I to deny the people what they want?

The magic starts here - well - not quite here, but in-between.Down those dark passages lies a mass of squishy goo that provides me with all my ideas and abilities - without the destination between those fleshy, auditory-flaps, I would be useless as an artist.

I regret to say that I am actually not bi-color in nature, because that would make doing self-portraits far more fun for me (read: incredibly frustrating at the beginning of this artistic journey).

This is just one of many makeshift workspaces that I frequent. Let me break it down for you:

1 -The extension of the brain matter upstairs, I’d be - oh wait, that’s the left hand. Worthless.

2 -When “BRIGHT” was still slated to be an animation, I decided to take a Piano class to fulfill an art elective, as well as to maybe learn enough to make some jams for the piece. Now that it’s a comic book, this Piano book now keeps me on my toes with different artistic expression…buuut mostly mocks me, because I am music illiterate.

3 - The ink brush! I love this thing. I should probably rely on brushes and an ink well, but I just can’t give this thing up.

4 - Bristol! In this particular case, the remaining blanks that will make up “BRIGHT”, just waiting to be etched upon.

5 - Trusty laptop, courtesy of my dear friend Tyler Starling, giver of reference, music, and other forms of procrastination. At this moment, Kristen Chenoweth on “Ellen” is my poison.

6 - Pencil! Pencil, oh pencil, where would I be without you? Beneath pencil is a page in-progress!

7 -The lab I reside over. It grants me occasional company, and otherwise a space where-in I can dance around and shake out the ol’ body bag.

You’re welcome, frothing questioners! There you have it.

~ J. Fitz

* I actually can tell you how many times I’ve been asked that question: never. I’m just nice enough to head off the mad rush of questions preemptively.

I don’t know about anyone else, but the artistic process is easily my favorite thing to witness. Yes - final products are great to see (else why even make them?), but nothing gets me jazzed up like getting to see how someone works. Where does the magic start?

This is a fairly old piece, but it still catches people’s eye - and it’s currently the most well-documented piece I have, so I have plenty of steps to show! My process is still fairly similar, so, here we go:

This was a couple’s commission, and the direction I was given boiled down to: both characters together, relaxed, happy, in love, and with the Blue Ridge mountains behind them.

I don’t always start quite this simple, but if I’m REALLY stuck for how to start something (poses in particular), I’ll go real rough and simple. It’s kind of comical, really.

From there, I move on to a more substantial sketch. I almost always draw the body first, sans clothes…it gave my commissioner quite the start (“It’s not that kind of picture..!”), until I explained it’s just how I work. It helps me figure out exactly where the clothes should go, instead of just wing-dingin’ it.

The sketch gets a bit refined, and the clothes get added.

I don’t have the line-art stage saved on its own, but I usually do my backgrounds first, so that left the characters blank enough to show the line-art stage in part. I was taught early on in my career to always render my backgrounds first, and I find it works for me…so when I can help it, I make sure to.

How I render my backgrounds is always changing, but here in particular I wanted to paint kind of rough and wild - sort of post-impressionist, which I love for outdoor styling.

And, naturally, referencing comes into play… Hey there, Blue Ridge mountains.

This is the final product, and I’m sorry to say I don’t have more in-betweens! I never make quite so large a jump. I always color the characters completely flat, and from there I start by laying on shadows (and shadows, and shadows…the more I grow, the more I find I don’t utilize my darks enough), and wrap up with my highlights.

For sketching, I will always prefer going at it with a real pencil in my hand…but for finished products, I am an absolute sucker for digital painting. Layers are my friend! This piece was done in Open Canvas, quite some time ago, and I still rather like the painterly effect I can get with that program… But, it’s old and out of date, and I’m forcing myself to try new things.

My current passion is Painter! I can’t wait to play around in it some more.

So there you go. That’s how I do!

~ J. Fitz

Anyone who knows me (hell, not even me personally but just my art) knows that the Anthropomorphic scene is where I party. I’m the face painter, slapping whiskers and ears and antlers on people.

That said, I don’t forget about people. I’m a Chronic Character Creator and constantly writing - and believe it or not, my little written world has both Anthros and the fleshier Humans commingling.

To combat what I consider to be a less-than-where-I-want-to-be skill, I’ve started keeping a sketchbook where I no longer draw a thing BUT humans. Amongst generic doodles to get further along, I like practicing with normally-anthro characters.

Something else I have a hard time with (regardless of race/species/fur/flesh) is kids…so why not practice that, too, right? Nick’s usually my rough-and-tumble bigcatman, but we were all kids, once.

You can see where I got angry at myself. *ahem*

Ktaju’s usually a wolf, but…well, today he’s just not.

Roderick, a mechanic, is typically a snow leopard - and Tarquel is a panther. I’m happiest with Tarquel, but as far as character design goes, he came out a littletoopretty…which is a recurring “problem” I find I have when conquering artistic frontiers! What can ya do?

And of course, I’m getting my lady practice in, too. …But another time.

~ J. Fitz