Jon Arton, an accomplished photorealism artist from Birmingham, England, is winning acclaim for his hilarious portraits of customers who didn’t want to pay for their commissions.
Jon has, nonetheless, made art his full-time vocation.
He has loved drawing since he was a child, saying it’s all he has ever wanted to do. In the school classroom, the budding artist would pass the time doodling “insulting images of the teachers” to the sheer delight of his classmates.
“It got me in trouble a few times,” he admitted, “but was worth it for making people laugh.”
Over the years, Jon honed his craft, and the work he produces today has earned him a dedicated fanbase. However, Jon admitted feeling a little affronted when people expect him to fulfill commissions free of charge.
The good-natured artist thought outside the box and came up with a way to deal with the many requests he receives for free work. Ironically, what started out as a gag has ended up earning him a supplementary income.
“Sadly the requests kept coming, so there was only one thing to do,” Jon continued. “I would post these silly drawings online to raise awareness of my plight ... The response to this was huge!”
“My ‘free art’ doodles were overwhelmingly popular, receiving tens of thousands of likes online,” the young artist reflected. “Far more than my actual art that I'd dedicated so much time to!”
Jon’s “free art” takes the form of childish, crudely drawn figures in black ballpoint pen. The artist takes creative license with many of the finer details and humorous speech bubbles; doodles like the ones that used to exasperate his teachers have been happily resurrected.
The talented photorealist sorely wishes that he could fulfill every genuine commission without having to charge. But for the small fraction of people who don’t fully appreciate his livelihood, Jon’s sarcastic doodles are the perfect comeback.
As Jon’s humorous side-project started to gather fans from far and wide, people started offering to pay for his funny sketches as well. However, thinking of others, Jon decided to “trade the cool hard cash for karma points” and donate the proceeds to charity.
