Outside Reading: Joe Ledbetter

Bio
Joe Ledbetter is an artist(painter) from L.A. He is inspired by classic animation, graphic design and everyday life. His art combines cute and cuddly characters with humorous situations. The situations often take on common events and question whether we take these situations too seriously or not.

In 2001 Joe got his start as an apparel artist and started to make his way into the L.A. Art scene. After doing many group shows, the began to hone his style and make a name for himself. His style is defined by his very detailed line work and vibrant colors. The art really has a refined systematic quality to it.

In addition to his paintings, he also has built a cult following in the Designer Vinyl Toy industry. His characters create a perfect platform for Vinyl toys. He has over 100 different vinyl toy concepts out in the world. Each of these toys have a certain amount made off of that 1 concept...making them highly collectible.


Paintings
I love his paintings. I think the main reason, is the simple communication of the idea. It's straight forward and right there for you to enjoy. What reinforces this, is the simplicity of his style and how he crafts them. I love the clean lines and the subtle shift in colors to create the hilights, shadows and different color planes on the figure. Also, the backgrounds are often simple and have a nice subtle texture to them. I especially like it when he creates them on would or paneling and you can see the wood grains through the paint.

Toys
Below are a few samples of his diverse range of toys. He collaborates with many different toy companies in the industry, companies such as The Loyal Subjects, Kidrobot, Wheaty Wheat, Munkey King and many more.

My JLed Collection
I started collecting JLed in 2003. I initially didn't get the designer toy collecting thing and laughed at my friend for collecting "dollies". Little did I know how addicting it would actually be. I bought one and got hooked. I now have over 80 pieces in my collection.
In addition to JLed creating manufactured vinyl toy, he also does custom hand painted creations. These are normally one offs and have a hefty price tag associated with them. These are wonderful because it's taking his painting and bringing them to life in 3D form.