An emerging artist’s journey

IF you’ve ever pondered the trials and tribulations of being an artist, then emerging Greendale illustrator Jonny Hall has a tale for you.

He’ll be presenting the latest artist talk at Lerderderg Library on Saturday 29 March about the challenges he’s faced in his short career so far, as well as his successes, and how he strives to make his art “a gift to society”.

Hall’s work depicts caricatures such as dungeons and dragons characters, as well as designs utilising the Zentangle art practice, a method of drawing structured patterns to create images.

Hall said his journey to becoming an illustrator began in his school days on the bus to St. Pat’s in Ballarat and back every day.

“It was a decent little hike each way, and from there I was always really passionate about creating characters and worlds,” he said.

Since then, the challenges that have come his way have been a combination of personal and professional.

“I was going to do animation and then my mum got quite sick,” he said.

“I moved in a different direction because I wanted to spend more time at home, I didn’t want to spend lots of time working, so it was working through and figuring out my path while dealing with mum’s illness.”

On the flipside, his work storyboarding for a feature film has been a definite highlight.

“I can’t give a lot of details, but I (created) about 450 storyboards,” Hall said.

“It was very exciting as a project, being able to work on (something) like that so closely with the director.”

To hear Hall fill in the gaps, Artist Talk: Art searching value with Jonny Hall takes place at Lerderderg Library on Saturday 29 March from 11am to midday.

To find out more, please visit Jonny’s website.