‘I’M pretty sure no artist wants to be stuck in a box.”
If having multiple Instagram accounts to showcase different styles is any indication, then digital artist JR Eisma certainly means what he says. The young, US-based Filipino-American has gone over, beyond, and through the proverbial box. He shot to Internet fame a few years ago drawing macabre monsters in black and white. Today, he is making big with digital sketches of people in their snug homes, depicted in full color and vibrant life.
Eisma’s sensational cozy home series features snapshots of people’s lives. Clients would supply the artist with details of the scene to be illustrated, reference photos, and even the traits and interests of the subjects. After processing the guidelines, Eisma would proceed to work his magic in “creating an imaginary room combined with some real-life references.”
“I have always loved telling stories,” Eisma writes on the About Me page on his web site www.jarsarts.com. “I try to draw each illustration as though you’re watching the story unfold from above. My favorite part is adding the tiny, story-telling elements, like a stray sock hanging out of a dresser drawer, an anniversary date on a calendar, a moose sipping water in a distant river, or fireflies dancing around a campfire. These are the little things which I think really bring the pieces to life.”
Eisma, 25, works with robots as a mechanical engineer in Michigan during the day. At night and on weekends, he creates art.
He was a one-year-old baby when his family migrated to the States. While the rest of them “has had artistic tendencies,” he was the only one who devoted himself to the practice growing up. At 14, Eisma’s kuya—an “inspiration” to and “promoter” of his passions—gave him his first digital tablet, opening the doors for him to become a digital artist.
Eisma honed his craft working on the virtual canvas. He practiced several styles before receiving his first big break in an online forum for his sketches of a sadistic version of comic-book cat Garfield, called Gorefield. The eldritch monster is described to be obsessed with two things: “lasagna and bloodshed.”
By turning Garfield’s eyes into a menacing gaze and transforming his smirk into a murderous grin using his style, Eisma captured the attention of the members of the subreddit /r/imsorryjon. Such was the reception to his harrowing pieces that he was moved to create a new Instagram account.
“My jars.drawings style is what initially gave my art popularity,” Eisma said during a recent e-mail interview. “People liked my creature drawings so I created a secondary Instagram account which grew very quickly.”
Within weeks, Eisma’s new account, @jars.arts, surpassed the follower count of his first. The new profile featured a more diverse collection of artworks, including charcoal portraits and sketches of a car ride. The account also introduced more colored pieces from Eisma.
The artist drew mostly in black and white for his drawings of hideous creatures under @jars.drawings, not just because the harrowing subject demanded grayscale for effect. At the time, the artist actively avoided using color for being red-green color-blind.
“I used to be really afraid of coloring, but I have found certain methods that work for me, which include using the color wheel and gradients which I know work well together,” he said. “I also have some friends who I share my art with and they act as my second set of non color-blind eyes.”
Aside from a more open use of color, Eisma’s artworks on @jars.arts presented more human subjects. In July 2019, the artist posted a digital sketch of three people, including himself, socializing.
There is nothing particularly stunning from the work, which is a plain and soft drawing of people in poses, performing gestures. Perhaps it is exactly in that picture of simplicity, of a singular moment that managed to convey a story of friendship, that prompted one of Eisma’s followers to reach out.
“Someone from reddit discovered my @jars.arts account and saw that drawing. He asked for a commission. [That] was my first time drawing in that style,” he said. “That was December 2019, and I’ve been drawing those ever since.”
Eisma has fulfilled commissions of couples depicted to be strolling along the park, on the beach with their dog, or in the open fields holding hands. Most of his pieces, however, show people in their living spaces and enjoying their own little world.
“The majority of my ‘cozy home’ pieces are commissioned so each story is unique for every client, but the underlying theme is the same: love—cheesy, I know,” Eisma said. “What really inspires me to put passion into each piece is hearing my clients talk about their partners. Often these are gifts, so I usually get an e-mail from one partner describing their relationship, and I can feel them beaming as they talk about their loved one in great detail. They know all of their partner’s favorite foods, movies, clothes, hairstyle preferences, the way they sit, their tiny habits, etc., and it’s really moving to hear that level of attention and care.”
That people around the world have been cooped up inside their homes for the past year may have also contributed to the rise of Eisma’s art. Either way, the artist is grateful.
“Through this most recent endeavor, I feel my art has been given new meaning,” Eisma writes in his web site’s bio. “It is deeply rewarding for me to help you celebrate life’s moments, big or small, and I’m so grateful to able to use my greatest passion to capture and tell your stories.”