Today we’d like to introduce you to Jason Stout.
Hi Jason, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, let’s briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today.
I started doing graphic design work in college – I worked in the Production department of the daily student newspaper at the University of Oklahoma. It was a much better education than in school, with real-world design challenges like technological limitations (pre-desktop computers), job parameters, printing capabilities, and new professional tools. I majored in painting, basically “go paint, and we’ll have a critique in six weeks.” There are no techniques or groundwork in using the tools at all. I got my first job doing design at a t-shirt company after graduating, and only the skills I learned at the paper got me the job! I left Oklahoma in 1993 with my now-wife and spent a year in Providence, RI making music with friends that also moved there. After that, we wanted to join forces with another friend and his brother in Austin to fill out the band. Austin was like heaven compared to Providence! Warm, friendly opportunities for my band to play and put out records – and design work. After another t-shirt shop job, I started freelancing in 1997, exactly one year after my daughter Sophia was born.
I got a $2000 illustration gig from 3M, which seemed like a million dollars. It seems crazy now to think I would get started going solo with so little to start with! But it worked out; I got illustration work with the Austin Chronicle, which led to word-of-mouth opportunities to do ad design work, illustration work – whatever I could get! I kept up the feast-or-famine freelance lifestyle for years until I got my first long-term job I’d had in 2004 – being an animator on Richard Linklater’s “A Scanner Darkly.” It was amazingly fun work, learning custom drawing software and meeting people I’m still friends with today. After that, a couple of Flash animation gigs, and then in 2007, the opportunity to become Art Director at the Austin Chronicle came along. It was the only “joe job” I ever wanted – design work at an ad agency never appealed to me, but working for an independent institution like the Chronicle was a perfect fit. I spent 13 happy years there. But eventually, going through the cycle of special events and other annual stories, I got tapped out from repeating that work and decided to leap back into freelancing in late 2020, focusing on my favorite kind of work – illustration. So here I am, back to the feast-or-famine life as a freelancer, but with more experience, available work, and loving it.
Would it have been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Heck no! The life of an artist is not often conducive to steady work. You can find work in agencies as a designer, but I needed a better fit. I was best at illustration, and that work is a constant hustle. One month you can’t keep up with the work; the next month, it’s just not there. So, there were times when work wasn’t coming, and we struggled to make ends meet. The biggest challenge is getting the work – you not only have to be an artist, but you must also learn to hustle and market yourself and stand up for your own talent. That has been the most difficult part for me because I don’t naturally have the confidence to toot my horn in the way it sometimes takes to hustle up work. But now I have such a wide range of professional art experience, I feel better about selling myself. So, consistency of work and confidence has been my biggest struggles. Fortunately, I’ve slowly gotten to a place where I have more of both and will keep working on letting that grow.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I specialize in illustration, particularly editorial illustration. I love getting a story from a publication and finding an image that evokes it without telling it. I work mostly digitally these days, drawing in various apps. I feel very fortunate to have cut my teeth doing so much editorial illustration for the Austin Chronicle – art directors often either know me from that or recognize my work once they know I did it. I get a lot of repeat clients because of my experience – I know how to come up with concepts, make deadlines and work to specifications, which Art Directors love! Less back and forth, and the safety of knowing a job will be done correctly and on time. It took a while to develop, but I also have a style that is uniquely mine. It may be that I’m most proud of, rather than a particular piece of work. Just staying in the game with an open mind, doing lots of different kinds of work (graphic design of all kinds, illustration, web design, animation), and developing an illustration style that is my own, that “feels right.” Ultimately, art is subjective – people like different things. It takes stamina, willpower, and self-compassion to deal with both the success and failure of an artistic career, where so much of the result comes down to someone else’s personal taste. I go through periods of doubt, negativity, elation, success, and positivity – I keep learning to stay balanced and try to ensure that my work comes from the best place. In this place, I feel I’ve done the best I can, so I can let the work go and live its life out of my hands, no matter how it’s received on the other end. Luckily, it’s often received well!
When I think of specific work I’m proud of, it may be my Inktober series. Each year I draw a small, quick drawing of musicians for fun each day in October. A few years ago, I started selling them and donating money to various charities. That’s a really satisfying feeling. I also often do portraits that I give to friends or family members of people close to them that have passed. I’ve also done it for people I don’t know – my wife is an oncology nurse working with people at the end of their lives. I’ve done portraits for some of those people. Suppose I could get a charity to keep me alive while I did memorial portraits for folks to remember people they’ve lost, especially people who could never afford to buy a portrait of a loved one. In that case, I could happily spend the rest of my days doing that.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://jasonstout.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jasonstout_/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jason.stout.771
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-stout-b6b600/
Image Credits
All images ©Jason Stout
