Jim Kurring

Remember at the end of Magnolia when Jim is talking to Claudia but you can´t make out his words and you´re wondering, What´s he saying?!!! What´s he saying?!!!

Well, here´s what he says –

“I can’t let this go. I can’t let you go. Now, you… you listen to me now. You’re a good person. You’re a good and beautiful person and I won’t let you walk out on me. And I won’t let you say those things – those things about how stupid you are and this and that. I won’t stand for that. You want to be with me… then you be with me. You see?”

I adore this character (no. 9 on the Magnolia Meter. See https://3wishstudios.com/2018/01/12/former-quiz-kid-donnie-smith-illustration-and-the-magnolia-meter-project/) so much I´m almost jealous of Claudia. He may not be conventionally handsome but I´ll take a good, decent man over a handsome jerk anyday.

So, with this illustration, I wanted to do something different than the previous two I did. And I´ve always loved the simpler, cartoony styles of artists like Pascal Campion, Mary Blair, Rob Scotton (Russel the Sheep!!! ❤️❤️❤️❤️) and Brittney Lee. But, I´ve never worked in that style professionally which, when I have a tight dealine, is something I deeply regret, haha!

John C. Reilly, by the way, with such a distinctive face, was more challenging to cartoonize than I would have thought. I mean, he kept looking like other rather beefy, mustached men. The secret, I think, was getting that amazing brow right. Not sure I did. But, I tried.