Meet Jeb Brack

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jeb Brack.

Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
I like to call myself a modern-day Renaissance man, which means I do lots of different things for not a lot of money. I write: fiction for myself and internet content for other people. I’m a podcaster on a show called All in The Reflexes, about geek culture. I’ve been a radio announcer, a sales rep at an ad agency, a proofreader, and a professional magician. I’ve always liked to draw, and a few years back people started asking me to do pencil portraits of their homes. The more drawing, I did, the more I wanted to do. I fell in with a group of artists in Cincinnati, where I live, and we began meeting all over town to sketch what we saw. We didn’t realize it at the time, but we had formed an Urban Sketchers group. Last year, we became an official chapter of Urban Sketchers, holding regular meetings and teaching classes.

Four years ago, my daughter came home from her freshman year of art school with a summer assignment to fill ten sketchbooks. It made me jealous; I had always wanted homework like that! We decided to do it together, and I wound up drawing eight pages a day to meet the requirements. Between that and the encouragement of my artist friends, I discovered my skills had improved dramatically and grown to include watercolor, gouache, and pen and ink. Nothing like practice to build confidence! I still sketch and teach with Urban Sketchers, and I recently illustrated a book about role playing games. I do house portraits, auto portraits, and the occasional pet portrait on commission. In between, I write, podcast, and spend time with my wife and two daughters.

Please tell us about your art.
My work falls into two categories: sketching and illustration. My sketches are firmly rooted in reality, trying to capture the image of a location or object. I’ll begin with pencils, roughing in the shapes and proportions. Then I add ink lines, and to finish I’ll use watercolor. My favorite subjects are architecture and automobiles, and they couldn’t be more different. I love the straight line and details of buildings, but I’m also fascinated by the curves and reflections of classic cars. My illustrations tend to the fantastic. I enjoy fantasy and science fiction, and I’ve always admired the artwork of role-playing games like D&D, so I do drawings of heroes, monsters, and imagined places. For these I most often work in pen and ink.

What do you think about conditions for artists today? Has life become easier or harder for artists in recent years? What can cities like ours do to encourage and help art and artists thrive?
Making art, especially for a living, has always been a struggle. That hasn’t changed. What’s changed is the way we struggle. Thanks to the internet, it’s easier than ever to meet fellow artists, learn new skills, and show your art to a wide audience. But that also means that more people than ever are putting their work out there, which makes it harder for any one artist to be seen. Artists still have to work hard to find the audience that appreciates their work.
And while people may admire art, the amount available means they often feel that original art is too expensive.

How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
The best place to see my work, both sketches and illustration, is on my Instagram account, @wordspicturesmagic.
I occasionally have pieces in exhibitions, such as the May the Fourth Be with Your art show in Cincinnati, and I post announcements about these on Instagram as well. There’s also my website, wordspicturesmagic.com, where you can see galleries of my work and contact me.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.wordspicturesmagic.com
• Phone: 5137167594
• Email: jebbrack@gmail.com
• Instagram: @wordspicturesmagic

Image Credit:
All photos by Jeb Brack

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