James Yuill
Instagram: @jmsyllart
What is your story of fascination with football?
Growing up working class in Edinburgh, pretty much everyone is into football. My dad is a big Hearts fan and my older brother, too. We grew up really close to Tynecastle and he would take us down there from a pretty young age. I remember he surprised us with our first season tickets before the 96/97 season. We kept that up until I left for Berlin in 2011.
Do you create football art professionally or is it a hobby?
I’ve always enjoyed drawing but decided to start sharing some of my digital art shortly after the pandemic kicked in. What was, and still is, a hobby has, since then, become professional. I’ve been lucky enough to have done work for the SFA, Nutmeg, Futbolista, Pog Mo Goal, We Were Promised Jetpacks, Fatherson and Big City Club and been featured by 11Freunde, These Football Times and Copa90.
What football event or story has made an unforgettable impression on you?
Tough to decide, as I could have easily gone for Hearts 5-1 demolition of hibs in the 2012 Scottish Cup Final, but I have gone for Hearts 1998 Scottish Cup win against Rangers. We beat them 2-1, that was their last chance to win something that season and it was the final appearance of Ally McCoist and Walter Smith’s last game in charge (in his first spell as boss of Rangers, at least). Rangers had beaten us in two cup finals in the previous two seasons and Hearts hadn’t won a major tournament since the early 60s. It felt like a huge relief for 12 year old me and it must have been even better for my dad, who wouldn’t have been old enough to remember Hearts previous silverware and had to live through the 70s and the heartbreak of 1986 (Hearts lost the league on goal difference on the final day and lost the Scottish Cup final a week later to Aberdeen).
Do you attend the stadium, and if so, which team’s matches do you try to get to?
I tried to get out to the Olympiastadion to see Hertha as often as possible. This slowed down significantly when my son was born in 2017. Now he’s just turned five, so he’s a good age to test it out. We’ve been a few times and he loves it, so we will be going more often again in the future. He’s still to see a Herta win though but I’m sure we will remedy that this year.
What are your interests besides football and art?
I’ve always been into music. I played in bands for years and try to get along to gigs as much as possible. I like hanging out with my wee family and we are always up to something of interest. We are off to Miami and Mexico in November, so I’m looking forward to watching the Mexico v Argentina World Cup game with them and some Mexican atmosphere, whilst eating some tacos and drinking some margaritas.
Could you highlight a few of your works that make you especially proud and explain why?
So I think it’s normal for me to really enjoy what I am doing currently so I’ll start off with a piece that I’ve done recently, which I really like. This Erling Haaland piece.
My first ever cover was really cool. I did this Johan Cruyff portrait for the cover of Futbolista.
The piece I have been most proud of to date is the Scottish Cup Final programme cover from last season. The request came out of the blue whilst I was on holiday with my fiancée and son in the Scottish Highlands and I was absolutely buzzing, to put it mildly. Shame about the result!
Who are your favourite football artists?
The online football art community is actually a really cool place. This list could be really long but I am going to limit myself to three four, who I really love right now, including Instagram handles: Dan Evans (@danxdraws), Charles Drawin (@charlesdrawin), Marcello Martinelli (@marcello.martinelli) and Giorgio Mozzorecchia (@giommoz). I easily could have listed 20 names here.
Share a funny story that happened to you personally or that you witnessed (not necessarily related to football).
In my early 20s I played Sunday League football in Edinburgh and that experience was full of amusing anecdotes. I remember there was one guy iin the opposing team who was really mouthy. He was a bit older than the guys in our team, well into his 30s I would guess. There was a guy who played up top for us who had a brother who was a reasonably successful boxer at the time and I think they trained or had trained together at one point. Anyway, mouthy older guy gives our boxer’s brother a bit and, keen to display his own boxing prowess, our man goes for him. Rather than fighting back, the older mouthy boy runs. Our boxer gives chase, chasing him all over the park, across other games. One of the wildest sights I’ve ever seen. Our game just stopped and watched them run back and forth the Gyle park for a few minutes. Boxer shouting at him, describing what sort of pain he’s going to put him through when he catches him, a wee bit shadow boxing for effect. In the end, I don’t think there was even a punch landed. A couple of cards were brandished and we carried on. Pure mayhem that Sunday League. We actually won it one year.