Radiating Color with Jon Hanlan
“I want to inspire people to see our world as one that has the potential to be happy, cooperative, and amusing.”
Remember the feeling of cracking open a brand new coloring book? The world of opportunity that awaits you. A blank canvas of empty shapes and spaces waiting to be filled with imagination. Now imagine feeling this all the time. Canadian illustrator Jon Hanlan can. Jon shapes his reality through a nostalgic lens. He lives in a forest of color as an arborist of optimism, shared by bright, jovial characters who spring to life with a personality their own. He’s an explorer finding joy in coloring between the lines.
Where are you from?
Ontario, Canada.
We like to take a deep dive into what makes creatives tick. What specifically drives your desire to create, and how did that lead you to illustration?
I've always been a huge lover of all sorts of art and have been obsessed, ever since I can remember, with wanting to try and twist the creations that I am amused by into something new. It lead into illustration after spending a while as a painter earlier in my career. I began traveling periodically, which gave me the idea to make my image-making practice more applicable to my new on-the-go lifestyle. Now today it is my creative focus and takes up the majority of my time!
Your graphics are vibrant, jovial, and upbeat from bright colors to smiling faces, and even uplifting phrases. What stimulates you to maintain eternal happiness and joy in work? Walk us through your process.
Creating artwork that uplifts people is something I am super passionate about. I want to inspire people to see our world as one that has the potential to be happy, cooperative, and amusing. And it translates into my everyday life because if you spend time creating colourful and happy imagery it inevitably will make you more animated and cheerful as well! Although I do want to help continue cultivating happiness and joy for myself and others, it is greatly important to talk about things that aren't so beautiful as well. But I believe that it is possible to do so in a brighter, optimistic manner.
You incorporate bright and colorful organic shapes in your illustrations - what do you want people to feel when they view or interact with your work?
What I hope people feel when they view my work is a sense of joy, that is on the surface easy to look at and amusing. However, upon closer inspection, they can see that there is a little more than what you see at first glance. I've always appreciated artwork that is masterful at providing you a sense of relief by being seemingly organized, but when you look further you realize that the creator embedded more complexities than what meets the eye. I've always loved walking into someone's house or opening up a magazine and being taken away by the beauty of an image. One that is just so aesthetically pleasing it gives you pleasure to simply look at it; that's what I wish to invoke through the pictures I create. And hopefully that pleasure gives people a smile, inspiration, hope, or all of the above.
How do the objects, people, and animals you personify represent you or your personality? Are they iterations of people you know?
The objects, people, and animals that are in my work represent my direct relation to the world. The people I choose to be closest to in my personal life are among my biggest inspirations. And inside of the world that my work exists in, there's a direct correlation with the vibrant colours and organic shapes and the lightheartedness that the characters seem to be experiencing. Sort-of similar to when you watch a Pixar movie, it's a little more of a glamourized world, where people do give people the benefit of the doubt and things work out the way you'd like them to. The world I am creating is maybe somewhere between that and the actual world that we are in.
“The objects, people, and animals that are in my work represent my direct relation to the world.”
You've created a set of fun summer gifs in collaboration with Giphy - tell us more about the project and the creative process.
I was greatly missing the typical Summer I'm used to, being with friends on the beach and all the other fun activities that the summertime brings. When I was deciding which project to work on next I knew it had to be about missing the usual Summer, as I figured it would probably be a great therapy for me to at least feel like I was enjoying the sun with my friends! The creative process was really enjoyable, as I didn't have any restrictions really, so I decided to do all types of characters expressing their summer moods, and even some crazy sunglasses for a filter on Instagram Stories. I figured since maybe we're indoors these days it would feel a little refreshing to at least pretend you're on some vacation somewhere, ha! It is definitely one of my favourite projects I've ever done thus far!
Growing up, what were some of your favorite cartoons to watch? Did any of these have any influence on your style?
Growing up I spent some time in front of my Dad's old black-and-white TV set on the carpet of our living room, watching Looney Tunes and vintage Disney VHS tapes he had found from garage sales around town. I'm not even exaggerating when I say I really do think they got branded into my brain as a kid, because we only had about six different VHS tapes, and I must have rewatched them until they broke basically. So that influenced me quite heavily, and also he had bought me a subscription to some children's magazine that featured Keith Haring's activity sheets every so often. I've always loved his dog drawings, and everything he did really.
And lastly, my Aunt has always been a huge fan of Disney movies, and she'd put on the new releases for my siblings and me, and I immediately became a fan. She'd also go around the house painting the various characters on our dressers and walls, which also was wildly influential for me as a kid. I loved seeing them take on a life of their own, even out of the movies I became so interested in.
NAME Some SONGS YOU'RE LISTENING TO AT THE MOMENT.
Stayaway - MUNA (Now, Now Remix) (I just love MUNA and this remix is amazing)
Let Me Love You Like A Woman - Lana Del Rey (she's just so good)
Wonder - Shawn Mendes (he's from my area in Canada and I have a man crush, forsure)
How do you like to challenge yourself creatively?
Every gap in my schedule where I'm not doing client work I have a list of exciting self-initiated projects I'd love to accomplish. I work on those as much as possibly without driving myself crazy, ha! I also love to dabble into other mediums. For instance, I'm currently working on a screenplay of a 1960s gay love story. And I am also passionate about maintaining a poetry practice and try to write in the quietness of mornings or before bedtime. I'm open to pursuing other art-forms to challenge myself, but there's only so much time in a day, unfortunately!
Name a musical artist whom you would love to be commissioned for creating their album art.
If I had to choose one musician in particular that I believe my work could jive very well with would be Bleachers. I'm a humungous fan of Jack Antonoff and think I could come up with something really spectacular.
What are some things you do when you aren't illustrating?
I love to make healthy meals with friends, and play some sort of board-game or old movie together. I love bringing my Pennyboard in my little carry-on bag wherever I travel to, and go exploring the city on that thing. It's a great way to discover a new environment, honestly. And I sometimes play a cinematic soundtrack in one ear while I'm moving around, and practice some street photography for fun. Also, I've grown pretty fond of working out because it's the one physical activity I've found best to destress me. And of course that helps with every area of life, including creativity.
Who are some creatives/artists you admire and how does their work speak to you?
There are so many inspirations to name, but I'll try to stick to just a few, ha! I have always admired Jim Morrison because although he was such a wild soul, his poetry permeated the consciousness of a generation and it is so fascinating to see someone of such a young age be so deeply spirited in his own kind of way. He's what originally got me into poetry because my Uncle showed me his book "Wilderness" and I have since been obsessed with poetry.
As far as other inspirations go I've always been a huge admirer of Keith Haring, Jean Michel-Basquiat, and Picasso. I know those are very typical inspirations, but they've forever spoken to me deeply. It's not only their work but the stories that were their lives. Some other inspirations include Dr.Seuss, Olle Eksell, Anthony Lister, Dana Schutz, and way too many others to name off the top of my head, ha!
In general, I am a big fan of so many talented people, and I believe it's why I choose to be a creator myself. It's this, almost childish, desire to want to emulate the people you look up to. As humans, we naturally give immense value to things we deem important, and as artists, we perhaps take it a step further by not only seeing them as important but wanting to make new meaning from them for others as well as ourselves.