A Little About Me

Hi, my name is Charles Wilson. I have been an artist for the past couple of decades, commissioning pieces to clients here and there, but now I am looking to make it a full time career. Currently I have no published work but I believe that I can deliver professional quality art for your project, or even if you just want something to hang on a wall.

Drawing has always been a big part of my life. I used to get in trouble for doodling all the time in school, but my family always supported my hobby. Once Youtube started getting to be the instructional powerhouse it has become, I started watching some of my personal art heroes and learning from their work. Big shout out to James Raiz "The Box Office Artist" for his videos leading me down the rabbithole that taught me so much of what I know.

And now I have two wonderful kids who see Daddy drawing and have devoloped a love for it as well. So here I am, trying to show them that you can do what you love in life and make a living doing it too.

I have so many ideas of things to put on paper, and would love to draw your ideas too. TBH I would love if this lead to a comic book career, that's been my dream since I was a kid, but I won't pidgeonhole myself to any one artform or style. So please, browse my gallery. If you see anything you like, be it a picture or talent, contact me. Let's work together.

A little about my process

So... the short explanation is that I am mainly a traditional pen and paper artist. I can do some digital art, but I don't have a whole lot of experience with programs like illustrator. I am working on that though. However, I can color digitally.

Back on topic now, my method is pretty simple: absolute eraser slaughter. I lightly draw basic shapes to map out the figures of the scene and start setting up my composition. From there I add some detail such as anatomy or objects and lightly erase until the new layer is barely visible. With the new faded drawing, I build up more and more detail until I am sufficiently satisfied with the level of detail. Of course, I don't freehand everything, I have tools at my disposal like compasses, straight edges, french curves, etc.

This is where my lightboard comes in, what an absolutely amazing piece of equipment that is. I first put the drawing over the lightboard to make sure that the image isn't wonky. If I like how it looks I move on to the inking. If it's bad, more eraser carnage. Seriously, I think I go through erasers more than anything else.

Inking can be done in many ways but my preferred method is a dip pen, but if pressed for time I will use fine liner pens. For larger areas I use a paint brush and india ink, its fast and efficient. I use white acryllic ink for corrections or starscapes and effects. And soooo much crosshatching. Not that I'm complaining, I love the depth of detail that it gives the piece, and it seems to go over well with clients.

From there I wait. Ink's gotta dry. And once it does, it gets scanned for archiving and portfolios. If desired I can color the picture as well, I mentioned digital coloring earlier, that is an option, but I also keep alcohol markers and color pencils handy.

And thats the process. Nothing spectacular but it works like a charm.

Future Project Ideas

A pet project of mine is a comic series. I have been wanting to make it for so long but never felt the writing was quite right. So with all the constant rewrites getting in the way, I am very behind on starting it, but hoping to change that this year. After spending a decade writing it, I can only hope it's well received.

I also have a few ideas for coloring books, both for kids and adults. One is a bunch of scenes that I think are pretty interesting to look at, and one is my interpretation of the interactions between various ips in the public domain.

Another plan I have for the future is to maybe set up a channel on Youtube and/or Twitch. Not for the main aspect of the career, but to supplement any income and maybe to ensure authenticity of my work and to show no AI is being used. If it is a commissioned piece, I will absolutely make sure the client is okay with it being posted (sometimes commissioned artwork depicts lost loved ones)