A Donegal student with a passion for digital art is set to add plenty of special effects to her schoolwork this year.
Jessica Moore, aged 15, is a self-taught digital illustrator and animator who has been building up an impressive profile recently.
As she heads into her Junior Certificate year at Deele College Raphoe, Jessica’s art teacher Mr Gerard McGinchey predicts has a bright and creative future ahead.
Always a creative child, Jessica has been honing her digital art skills by watching others online and her own fan art. She recreates popular animation and anime characters with her own style of drawing. Her work has recently gained attention from some influential figures in the sector.
Artemis Fowl by Jessica Moore @purplelama_art
Irish author Eoin Colfer paid tribute to Jessica’s skills this summer when he spotted her drawing of his famous fantasy character Artemis Fowl. Colfer shared Jessica’s work and described it as “One of my favourite Artemis artworks ever.”
“That was a drawing that took only 40 minutes,” Jessica tells Donegal Daily.
“I’ve been reading his books for a year now and that was my second piece of Artemis fan art. It was a fun little drawing.”
Young artist Jessica Moore, 15
Jessica has developed much of her own style from YouTube, where artists share videos of how to draw anime and other animation characters. Jessica’s work caught the eye of one influential creator, Thomas Sanders, who almost gave her a job on an amination project before they realised she was just 15 years old.
“I nearly got the job until we talked about payments, but it’s exciting that they wanted to work with me,” Jessica said.
Jessica is quickly building up a fanbase for herself on Instagram (@purplelama_art) and on TikTok. Her portfolio is ever-evolving and she hopes to apply her digital skills to the Junior Cert art programme this year.
“I sometimes think maybe I should be working on more traditional art but digital is so much more fun for me. I really want to get into this for my life and I want to learn more about it,” she said.
Jessica’s art teacher at Deele, Mr McGlinchey, has always been a strong champion of her extraordinary work. “Mr McGinchey has given me a lot of confidence,” Jessica said.
Whatever future she designs, it’s going to be creative, said Mr McGlinchey:
“Jessica is an extremely talented student. Since the beginning of her art studies at Deele College, she has shown a very high level of skill within digital illustration and animation. As her art teacher, I have always encouraged and nurtured the development of her digital artwork in class.
“The Visual Art Curriculum at Junior Cert Level lends itself very well to Jessica’s love for digital media. She certainly has a bright and creative future ahead,” Mr McGlinchey said.
