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An illustrator who turned from computer game design to fine art has been selected as an artist in residence at a prestigious gallery.
Computer game design graduate Jesse Ajilore, 25, from Bermondsey, is one of three artists chosen for the Royal Collection Trust’s first artist residency at The King’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace.
Mr Ajilore, alongside fellow artists Joshua Pell and Sara Lee Roberts, have been invited to respond to the exhibition Drawing the Italian Renaissance, which opens at the gallery on November 1.
Finding inspiration from the widest-ranging exhibition of Italian Renaissance drawings ever to be held in the UK, the artists will be drawing in the gallery throughout the exhibition.
A selection of their drawings will be displayed in the gallery’s Millar Learning Room until March 2025.
Mr Ajilore said: “I’m looking forward to learning more about how Renaissance artists approached drawing – both literally with their almost mathematical approach of using measurements, but also how they used it to understand the world.
“I’d love to pick the brains of the artists, and having the time and space to explore their work will let me get close to that.”
Mr Ajilore, who was born in Lewisham and later moved to around South London, said he first discovered character design when he was a student at Bacon’s College in Rotherhithe, Southwark.
He said: “It was a dream for someone like me who loved cartoons, games, and movies. I started practicing anatomy drawing at 15 using YouTube tutorials, and bought my first graphics tablet soon after to begin drawing in Photoshop.”
As his interest and skills developed alongside each other, Mr Ajilore embarked on a degree in Games Art at UCA Farnham.
He said: “I quickly realised that, while creating characters for a specific purpose was fun, I had many ideas that went unused or simply didn’t fit industry standard.
“This didn’t stop me from drawing, and in continuing to do what I enjoyed I somehow found myself at the Royal Drawing School being called a Fine Artist!’
Mr Ajilore completed The Drawing Year in 2023 and now mentors young people with special education needs (SEN) with art classes alongside his work as a fine artist.
With a background in designing characters for gaming – often focusing on single character studies – and creating imagined worlds, he has set himself the challenge of creating large studies with multiple figures interacting with each other for his first artist residency.
The artist residency aims to show that drawing is an essential part of today’s creative landscape, just as it was 500 years ago.
It is a collaboration with the Royal Drawing School, the not-for-profit art school founded by His Majesty The King, when Prince of Wales, and artist Catherine Goodman CBE LVO in 2000.
Pictured top: Jesse Ajilore, Artist in Residence (Picture: Courtesy of the artist)
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