Jacob McAlister is a freelance Illustrator, Teacher, Actor and Singer (no, seriously). He has become most known for his geek culture artwork, drawing from pop cult favourites like Star Wars, Disney, and Studio Ghibli.
McAlister is a Orlando, Florida native. He studied illustration at the Ringling College of Art and Design, then Graphic Design at Brevard Community College. Nowadays he teaches illustration and design at Full Sail University. Working as a full-time lab instructor and lecturing about everything from illustration to screen printing to acting.
Working as a part-time performer at Disney World. He has portrayed The Monkey King at Epcot’s Holidays Around The World and is currently Crush in the stage production of Finding Nemo The Musical At Disney’s Animal Kingdom.
In spite of teaching and acting commitments, McAlister still finds time to work as a freelance illustrator. He has helped developed rides and attractions at Universal Orlando. Creating illustrations for Harry Potter, Diagon Alley and Halloween Horror Nights.
McAlister draws his inspiration from (or as he puts it “geeks out over”) movies, cartoons, comics, and video games. However, his pool of inspiration does not stop there. Catholic iconography, the Pre-Raphaelites, Aestheticism, Art Nouveau, Pop Art, photography, and antique malls have all made there mark on his work. Some other artist he has cited as influences are Will Pigg, Adam Hughes, Eric Tan, Phil Noto, Brittney Lee and Dan Hipp.
You can find more of Jacob McAlister’s work on his website, Tumblr and Instagram. You can follow him on Twitter and Facebook. Buy his prints on Etsy and support him on Patreon.
