Taylor Sexton
Assistant A&F Editor
[email protected]
Ramsey Library’s usually quiet atmosphere fills with soft chatter from students taking shelter from the cold.
A warm body occupies nearly every seat while others search desperately for a place to reside. In the midst of it all sits Jacob Rosier, lost in his own world, with his iPad and pen in hand.
A sophomore new media student, he specializes in concept art and character designs through a digital medium. Rosier said he has created art for as long as he can remember, starting off as many of us did, drawing stick figures.
“A big influence on me was my dad because he sketched and painted a lot. I always loved flipping through his sketchbooks and I was like, ‘Oh, I want to be like my dad,’ so I started sketching and then I got carried away,” Rosier said.
Rosier has come a long way since his stick figure days. Over time, he dabbled in many mediums of art, such as watercolor, pen, pencil, ink, acrylic and digital. He said he often leans toward digital art simply because of the convenience, as it requires only his iPad and pen.
Although Rosier said he initially found inspiration in creating art from his father, he now draws inspiration from a multitude of artists. Some of those artists include Bobby Chiu, who works with concept and character design and Craig Mullins, a digital painter and leading concept artist.
“I want to go into concept art and his concept art is insane. He’s a big inspiration to me,” Rosier said. “He does schoolism classes, like that’s the name of the school they do and he’s an award-winning artist. He’s really cool, I would love to take some of his courses.”
Rosier’s art draws inspiration from the intricacy and details of engines to people and the nature of them.
“Things from the world inspire me, like people and the simplicity of how they act regarding different things, but also how they dress and things like that. It just kind of goes everywhere,” Rosier said.
Christopher Oakley, new media professor at UNCA, said Rosier took three classes from him.
“He’s an interesting person,” Oakley said. “He’s been doing a thing on Instagram where he would do a drawing a day and he challenges himself that way and it’s interesting because, while I’m blown away by his artwork, he’s never happy with it.”
Ross Woods, a sophomore mechatronics student, is one of Rosier’s many followers on Instagram.
“Jacob is an immensely talented artist. He is really good at drawing animals like crocodiles and mice and making them look more human. I’ve been following him for a little over a year and I think he has grown as an artist over time,” Woods said.
Rosier’s Instagram, @thinkinginscribbles, features many of his works, both completed and in progress. This platform allows his followers to really be a part of his journey and see how his mind works during the creative process.
“For a while, I focused so hard on style instead of just letting it happen and I was becoming so conscious of it that it was affecting what I could do,” Rosier said.
This, paired with the feeling of falling into a rut, caused Rosier to take a break from posting a drawing a day on Instagram.
“I feel like it’s common for a lot of artists to kind of get down on their work and a lot of people quit because of it,” Rosier said. “Since art is so personal to you, it can be really demoralizing whenever something doesn’t end up right.”
Rosier went on to explain how even big artists struggle with their work sometimes and how he can get frustrated. He said the creating process is a love-hate relationship for artists and they just have to keep going.
“I want him to enjoy what he’s doing, but he always feels like it could be better, I mean, all of our artists think we can do better. But he’s just got such a unique style and it just flows right out of him. And that’s very him, it’s very specific to him, the kind of art he does,” Oakley said.
Oakley said he watched Rosier grow as an artist. His style did not necessarily change, but his subject matter, or rather the fantasy Rosier himself comes up with, grew. Sometimes Rosier’s drawings will be directly representational and other times they will be very surrealistic.
“I think what really has changed for him is his understanding of where it’s coming from, the challenges that an artist faces to be creative. If you’re doing a drawing a day, you know, where does that inspiration come from? And, so, I think that’s where I’m seeing changing,” Oakley said.
Oakley compared Rosier’s style to Gerald Scarfe, who created art for Pink Floyd’s The Wall.
“It’s very line-based and almost like smoke in a way. I don’t want to use the word scribble, because that would demean it, but he can say a lot in a very small amount of lines,” Oakley said.
As for the future, Rosier hopes to end up in character design for games or film, or animation, or maybe even a mix of the two.
“I love character design, but I want to do more environmental stuff. Where I see myself in the future, or where I want to see myself, is working for a studio or something and doing what I love every day, like my job would be to create different things. That’s where I want to be eventually,” Rosier said.
