Joel Kimmel

Joel Kimmel, Illustrator Ottawa, Ontario www.joelkimmel.com “Welcome to my studio! I work out of my apartment in downtown Ottawa as a freelance illustrator. I spend most of my days in this part of my apartment drawing, sketching and painting my newest pieces. "I have huge windows to the left of my drafting table that provide more than enough natural light. It gets incredibly sunny in the mid-afternoon but thankfully I have some awesome curtains that my girlfriend Chantal (www.chantalbennett.com) made. You can see how cold it is here in the winter.” “I have most of my supplies close at hand on a nice shelving unit I found in my building’s basement. I regularly get cool stuff for free out of the garbage. I keep all my ink and watercolor necessities on this shelf, as well as some basketball figurines, baby Jordan shoes (I’m planning ahead), and some soapstone that I haven’t gotten around to carving yet. You can see a few framed paintings and things on the walls around my table. There’s a Stephanie Pui-Mun Law print I got for Chantal for her birthday, my Jack Bauer painting and my Madman painting. Then there’s a Norman Rockwell calendar, and some old pieces by my friends Martin Wittfooth and Sam Weber. That handsome chap in the photograph is my grandfather (many years ago, of course).” “I found the wooden John Labatt box in my apartment’s basement which is helpful to store my portfolios, labels, and lots of promotional supplies. Below that I also have a sweet stash of Letraset dry transfer sheets that are always fun to use. You can also see my Marshall Bravestarr toy standing guard on a box of Cohibas. “I work on a nice and big Leonar drafting table that my parents got for free about 20 years ago. I stretch my watercolor paper on a 24”x32” gator board so it’s nice to have a table to easily maneuver all my supplies on without feeling too cramped. I sit on a tall bar stool that isn’t very comfortable. I used to work at an art supply store so I’ve got a lot of great brushes and a nice collection of paints. I use an old Toulouse-Lautrec dry-erase calendar to mix and water down my inks on. It works perfectly.” “I always cut a full sheet of watercolor paper in half and stretch both sides. It gives me two large sheets of paper to work on and I usually get 2 paintings on each one so I often have a few paintings going at one time.” “Every now and then I like to make ink swirls in my water jar. The little pen to the right of the jar is the greatest pen ever invented, the Pelikan Grafos. One dip of that thing in the ink well and I can draw for a good 15-20 minutes straight. You can only find them on eBay these days and they come with a nice selection of fine nibs. I highly recommend it to anyone who uses nibs for inking or making swirls in their water jar. Thanks for visiting my studio!" -Joel