Christmas Sockeye

Gyotaku is an ancient Japanese art form of, well, taxidermy I guess. When Japanese fishermen would want to preserve their trophy they would cover the fish in ink and lay paper over, thus making a "print" of the catch. I have been doing these since I was about 12, but only recently got back into the swing of things again and picked up the medium. The process is tedious and there's definitely technique involved to get a respectable print, but every detail - scales, scars, fins, teeth, etc. shows up right there on paper. I take it a little further and add watercolor in just for some realism. Plus it allows me to paint, which I thoroughly enjoy and rarely get time to do anymore. Oh by the way, these are spawning Sockeye Salmon. During fall and winter they travel upstream in a river near my home and turn a beautiful deep red with green heads and tails. The color I've added here doesn't do them justice. Enjoy!

CITYgames launches

I took an extended weekend today (monday) and was home doing holiday decorating, both fun and a royal pain in the butt, when holy cr@p look what showed up at my door! This is a board game I created for a company three years ago. As much of a challenge it was to complete (you have no idea the amount of copyrights, logo usage fees and legalities that exist within a city) it was a fantastic learning experience. Everyone was happy with the final product so no complaints here. Next time around, however, there'll be a million things done differently in it's inception.

The game is all facets of trivia about Seattle and here's my shameless plug - Makes a great gift for parties, birthdays and holidays (say like, Christmas). Job relocators will have fun learning about The Emerald City or play at home with the fam! Look for it in stores in the coming months or buy online now at www.citygamesseattle.com.

Current projects

Hola Kiddies!

Thought I'd share some of the latest from yours truly. Like a seventh-grader losing his glasses on the tilt-a-whirl, this ride is gearing up to be one big blur for a while. I've been hip deep in a TON of new stuff including a brand spankin new project for an art gallery. I also decided to pull the trigger and return to design school FINALLY! It should've taken place eight years ago, but well, hey I got sidetracked. As long as there's nothing shiny around I can usually stay focused. But say if I jiggled my watch under the lamp like so...HA! Hey look at my watch! It's so sparkly! I'm just like Liberache! Well hellooooooo Dolly, yes helloooo...wait, where was I? Ahhh yes new stuff.

So theres design school applications, updating my old decrepid drooling age-spotted design portfolio, getting submission pieces ready for galleries and festivals this summer, finding financial aid (anyone interested?) and completing two pieces for the gallery in January. Whatever close facsimile of a social life I had has now been neatly folded and placed below a large stack of "you're too old for school shit" books. Anyhow, here's the beginning stages of my first piece entitled "The Motherlode". It's a long horizontal set consisting of three parts (I think). First- the miners striking their riches. Third- the trio of sinister looking outlaws (they'll be even nastier when finsihed) ready to do some badness. And in the middle I want a transition piece but no clue as to what yet. Guess you have to stay tuned my minions.

A Delectable Feast

This is truly one of my favorites. Not sure why, but I have always been fascinated by wolves and their history within the United States and have done a ton of research on them over the years. For this piece everything worked visually - color, space, balance, anatomy and story. Rarely does it happen, but if I can finish a piece of artwork and survey it with minimal criticism then I know I've done a good job. There are some little things I'd fix here and there, but any artist would probably say the same. As I've said before, we're the worst critics when it comes to our own work. Why do you think George Lucas redid all the Star Wars movies a few years ago?

Vino De Alpaca

A couple years ago I was commissioned to do this fun little job for an Alpaca farm. They were building their house and wanted a custom design as the entrance into their wine/tasting room. Did someone say wine and Alpaca in the same sentence?? Though I sincerely hope one has nothing to do with the other, Alpaca farms have begun creating their own wine labels and vice versa. You just may begin seeing these up-scale camelids as standard feature in your area's wine country.

But I digress - back to the illustration Jensen!

This pen&ink piece had to be kept simple as the manufacturer could only sandblast to a certain degree of precision. Overall, I was happy with the finished product. Enjoy!

The Wendigo

Another pseudo-dark n'spooky for ya. These settlers probably should've turned back when they had the chance. Not that there's anything wrong with being led by a preacher per-se, there is something wrong with being led by a preacher with no sense of direction. And fyi, if you're with a group lost in the mountains never go uphill. You will almost surely find a 9-foot dancing Wendigo happily awaiting your cannibalistic demise. Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

We're down to a week and a half so I'm unvailing the finished "werewolf on campus" illustration. Sorry kiddies I don't think this sorority girls' gonna make it. As always I spent waaay too much time on this piece that could have been spent being more counter-productive like um, err...going for a walk? But whatever I ain't training for the Olympics! Besides, it gave me a chance listen to Warren Zevon songs and get amped up for the big nite. Hope it does the same for you. Ooowwww!

Commissioned art

A short and sweet one today. Fake advertisements based on actual locations popular during the Yukon goldrush. Fun and right up my alley for a subject! These are proofs hence the blue tones. I believe these are going to be available for retail as framed bathroom/rustic decor. Enjoy but fyi - the copyrights are client-owned so if you get caught poaching my artwork don't come whinin' to me.

TTFN little campers,

TJ

Let it go, the drawing is fine.

Yeah Yeah I hear it all the time. Unfortunately, in the end, I cannot. Ever the perfectionist when it comes to my art (as artists usually are), there were so many things I wanted to tweak, change, and just plain redo on the image below that I figured now is a good time to do so. And lucky for you kids out there I had a few hours last night to make the werewolf and distressed sorority damsel look the way I always envisioned. Color and detail to follow so check back soon.

Bloomin Wolfbane

Hola kiddies! It's October! And in the vien of my all-time favorite holidays I'm posting a little something to get us into the Halloween spirit. This gargantuan pencil drawing is based on a screenplay I did a few years ago called, The Wolves of Brighton, about a werewolf that attacks a small town college in the Northwest. Your typical Friday-nite,easy-to-write horror flick, it was actually pretty good (at least I thought so) and in fact went to the third round of the Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting Competition(www.oscars.org/awards/nicholl/index.html). I may post the screenplay later just for the helluvit, but for now, enjoy the visual...

Tis the season

Several years ago I found some original pulp fiction novels in my grandma's basement. With titles like Reno Tramp and Divorce Bait the last place you want to find novels like these are in your grandma's basement. None the less, I was captivated by the fantastic cover art. French fashion influences on a post WWII America in the 1950s created a style all it's own. Sultry and seductive, the artwork tells it all. Here is my version I played around with. If some spare time opens up it'd be fun to do an original Tyler Jensen cover. But for now...enjoy!

The beginning...sort of.

Let's start off with some old school. This was a fun little design I did for an independent film running around the festival circuit waaaay back in 2001. I worked for a creative media firm right out of college and we were in charge of the film's advertising. I was asked to do some prop designs and this was the main character's favorite drink. Entitled, Shag Carpet Sunset, I'm sure it's still floating around the internet somewhere...enjoy!

Aaaaaaand we're off

Hey there kiddies! I decided to join the 21st century and hop aboard the bloggin bandwagon. My website (http://www.tylerj.net/) is steadily becoming out of date as less time and $ are available for adding new work. But this just might be what daddy ordered! Unlike your Aunt Peggy's blog and her painfully long updates on little cousin Kevin's new job at Arby's, mine is brimming with less word and more visual! This way you boys and girls can keep entertained with the latest sprout from the greenhouse of it's germination (aka my brain).
More to come so stay tuned...