© Jason Brown

I thought for once I'd design my own card for Father's Day and came up with this. The brief was to create a card as quickly as possible. I had thought of originally sticking some leaves on from bushes outside. I don't know why I came up with this, I thought the 3D/nature quality would mean something more than a painting. Then I thought of Green Men and the whole Pagan theme. My dad's a Pagan (shock horror to all your Christians and those ignorant of persecuted minority religions).

I decided to design him as a stump. I didn't plan the pic, just drew a sketch as quickly as I could and came out with this:

Not bad for a quickie and to be honest this is the first drawing/painting I've done for a year or two.

I hate it when I make idiotic mistakes. In this case I put 'fundamental' instead of fundamentalist.

I think I still prefer to paint on paper, though I have the tools now to do what I do on computer. I have nothing against digital media, and would probably do all my illustrations on the computer if I felt fully comfortable with it, but there's that something extra for me when doing it on paper. It's less throw away, like the difference between receiving a letter and an email. It's perhaps a silly emotional thing, the computer offers more control after all, so it would be as well to grow out of anything that's holding my back. But to get the lines and paint right on paper is just so much more satisfying. Knowing if you make a mistake that's it, you'll probably have to start again, rather than hitting Undo, which in some ways can offer too much control. I end up playing around too much and never get anything done.

One of the things I'd like to "learn" is to paint. I don't feel like I can do it properly. I love the buttery texture of oils, but don't think I'd have the patience for them. That's why I started with watercolours, so I could get a painting done quickly. That's why I started doing my portraits in sepia, so I wouldn't have to mess around getting the colours exactly right. I'm in my element doodling, which is usually with a pen or pencil. I'm still figuring out how best to "colour these in" and be happy with the results. I use Painter 7 and a graphics tab, which gets me the airbrushed results I'd have to spend many years perfecting if I were to do them on paper. I will sometimes sit down and try to develop my technique, my style, to see what combination of sketch/paper/computer I can use to best express myself.

For more of my work click here.