January's Cubebrush Seller of the Month - Anthony Jones

January's Cubebrush Seller of the Month - Anthony Jones

Anthony Jones has been a professional concept artist since 2008 working for the likes of Sony Santa Monica, Blizzard, Paramount, Insomniac Games, Fox, Hasbro and many more. He has been an instructor since 2010 and now runs an online mentorship on his website.

He's been selling some killer tutorials on his Cubebrush Store offering everything from sketching to sculpting to rendering and even concept ideas. It's that versatility coupled with his top notch work that landed him January's Cubebrush Seller of the Month. 


Where did your interest in art come from?

When I was looking into a career for myself, I started with programming then saw that you can do stuff with concept art! So I immediately switched paths and began to do that. Mainly because I've always loved movies and video games and this seemed like a great way to do that :D

How did you begin building your experience?

I painted a lot. Like everyday. I would study and practice whenever I could. I found that just sitting down and working on the fundamentals was vital. I know in the beginning most people want to do more of the glamorous type of training, the ones you see online that look easy to do. But the reality is to get good you have to do the often hard and boring stuff to get as good as your favorite artists. 

How has your style changed since you began?

I studied a lot of traditional artists to get to the style I do now. My influenced are heavily driven by modern black and white photography and high concept fashion design. I'm a fan of sci fi and monster designs as well, since they are mostly driven on forms and detail. 

Why do you think that happened?

My style tends to lead me to more technical skill based designs and I've been slowly trying to develop a style that is more simplistic and has impact. We'll see where I'll be in 10 years. 

Which artists do you admire? Why?

I understand why this question is asked, but the reality is I have way too many artists to count. It would be a lie to say that I admire only a few artists and that those few artists influence me greatly. Many many many artists influence me daily but if I had to pick a few, one would be JC Leyendecker and Jeremy Geddes. Leyendecker because of his confidence, and Geddes for his control of values and realism.

To what do you attribute your success?

Persistence and Patience. 

Most of the time people seek out motivation and inspiration but with a little bit of time and effort continuously applied everyday you can achieve a lot more skill than you think. 

Think of it this way, most people will wait last minute to put in 6-7 hours of sloppy work that is unfocused and unorganized on the last day of the week. Versus, some one who puts 2 hours a day of focused well planned work everyday of a week. If you do the math you put in about double the work with the continuous effort rather than the wait to the last minute effort. This is how I usually succeed, when I don't do this I don't succeed. 

What do you do while making art? Listen to music? Drink coffee?

Have a movie, youtube video, audio book or a podcast playing in the background. 

Where is your favorite place to work?

I work from home now but my favorite studio I have ever worked for was Blizzard Cinematics Team! Was a blast for sure!

What do you like about Cubebrush? What first attracted you?

I've always been a fan of Cubebrush and anything that helps artists, and I know Marc personally and obviously needed to support him when he launched this platforms online store! 

I remember we talked about it in the past and I told him it was going to be very very hard to do. And he was like.. meh I'm going to do it. And I'm happy he doesn't care that things are hard because now many artists can benefit from this. 

What is your favorite feature?

I love the simple fact I can upload and post my created content on there no problems. This is amazingly easy and anyone who has content they want to sell can do it in a snap.

What is your favorite thing to create? Why?

Concept art and illustrations. Because it is one of the fastest ways for me to show an idea in a matter of minutes. It is so fun to see what people think of your ideas when you share them online and also when you do it professionally and see your visual designs come to live on the big screen or on a video game, it's pretty amazing. 

What is your favorite product in your store? Why?

Still one of my best videos is Painting with Confidence. Because it helps demystify the challenge of starting a painting. I know for a fact many beginners have watched this tutorial and have gotten out of painting ruts and built more confidence in painting as the title implies. This makes me happier than you can imagine. 

Any advice for ambitious artists out there?

As I mentioned earlier. Patience. Resilience. These are the things you need to push forward. Don't  be distracted with how things may be hard or how other artists may make it seem easy. Trust me it's hard for everyone. Talent is earned, not given. Good luck. 


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Check out December's Cubebrush Seller of the Month- Viorie