Art about Jeremy

Here's a collection of all the art about Jeremy Wade Delle I could find.

As you will see, most of these are mine, and that's because I wasn't able to find many other drawings that were about Jeremy as a person and not about the song or what he did on his last day. Descriptions for some these drawings may include some inaccuracies which I corrected in my articles, written at a later time.

Should I find more drawings about Jeremy, I will add them to this list. If you made any kind of art that you would like me to post, feel free to send it to me by e-mail! I will gladly add it :)

To view an image full-size, right click it with your mouse or hold your finger on it and then select 'Open image in new tab'.

Jeremy spoke in class today

Jeremy Wade Delle

A cartoonized version of Jeremy in the style of Phineas and Ferb, made in 2021 with markers and fineliner. To be honest I really like how this turned out, I feel it's one of the few drawings of mine where Jeremy actually resembles his real self. I'll admit I'm not the best when it comes to drawing realistic portraits of people but I keep trying.

Illustration for Chapter 37 - “Young Bluebonnets” of No more “Later Days” - PART 2

This was made in 2022 with colored pencils and fineliner. Featured in the drawing are Jeremy and his sister taking a stroll through a meadow in Forth Worth, TX, in the Summer of 1990. They are dressed elegantly because they are attending a wedding reception of some family friends. To make Jeremy's sister portrait, I referenced an actual picture of hers aged about 18 years old.

Illustration for Chapter 6 - “Crybaby and Sourpuss” of No more “Later Days” - PART 1

"It seemed to me that he was in a bad mood, kinda angry, while his eyes seemed rather sad, almost as if they were on the verge of crying.”

The first version (left, 2020) was a sketch made with pencil and I personally liked it the most. Then unfortunately I tried to color it and it turned into a disaster so I made a second version (right, 2021) with colored pencils and fineliner and Jeremy's expression lost part of its anger. The white coat is supposed to be the one he was described wearing on his last day.

Illustration for Chapter 47 - “Night of the living bad” of No more “Later Days” - PART 3

Made in 2021 with colored pencils and fineliner. This scene takes place during a Halloween party at some kid's house. Jeremy is portrayed wearing a skeleton costume, with some intricate makeup on his face. He is sitting outside of the house where the party is taking place, looking disheartened while holding a bottle of beer and smoking a cigarette. The person next to him is lighting a cigarette as well.

Two trivias about this drawing: the title "Night of the living bad" is a wordplay of Jeremy's low spirits and the 1990 Halloween movie classic Night of the living dead; and his costume was inspired by the Halloween costume worn by Jimmy Hopkins in the video game Bully.

Illustration for Chapter 23 - “Never losing you again” of No more “Later Days” - PART 1

In this scene, made in 2020 with colored pencils and fineliner, Jeremy is portrayed eating some cake sitting on his bed and laughing out loud, after being back home from Timberlawn in summer 1990 (he's now an outpatient). There's a picture of a Texas Bluebonnet, Texas' state flower, hanging on the wall. To be honest it is one of the drawings I like the least, nothing looks right in this but hey, I've tried!

Illustration for Chapter 13 - “Sid and Nancy” of No more “Later Days” - PART 1

Made with pencil in 2020. Jeremy here is portrayed thinking lovingly of Nancy, whom he just met. His facial expression is based on a comment left by Dorie on ssheps.com which said: "[Jeremy] would confide in me about the special girl in his life. His eyes and face would light up when talking about her."

Illustration for Chapter 21 - “If you love him, let him go” of No more “Later Days” - PART 1

This is a portrait of Nancy, made in 2020 with pencil. There's a smoothie in front of her because she's sitting in a cafe and she's crying because she feels guilty about Jeremy having attempted suicide after she broke up with him in April 1990 (this is set in May). Nancy feels like it is her fault and is sorry about what happened to Jeremy because she never wanted to hurt him, but at the same time she knows she wasn't happy in the relationship and wonders what else she could have done or what she could do now. To make her portrait, I referenced an actual picture of hers aged 15-16 years old.

Illustration for Chapter 18 - “I am” of No more “Later Days” - PART 1

This was made on June 25, 2020 with pencil. It depicts Jeremy in a hospital bed after his suicide attempt in April 1990, which happened a few days after Nancy broke up with him. Here's the part of the story that this drawing illustrates:

I couldn’t help myself: I burst into tears.

"I’m so sorry... I’m so sorry..." I murmured with difficulty, sobbing. "I should have known... I should have known..."

I wiped my tears and looked back at him: he was now looking down. I could only read one sentence in his eyes: "I shouldn’t be here". I saw defeat in him. The disappointment of waking up and discovering he was still in this world. It was a pain no one should ever feel, especially at that age.

At just fifteen.

Jeremy - Pearl Jam (2020 remake)

Alternate title: Much more than a sad story.

This was made (finished!) on October 3, 2020 with colored pencils and fineliner.

THE CURIOSITIES BEHIND EVERY DETAIL

Please keep in mind that all this info SHOULD be correct, but of course I cannot know for certain if it is 100%. These info come from jeremywadedelle.com, ssheps.com, thejeremystory and screenshots of conversations some friends of mine had with people who actually knew Jeremy.

The drawings: Jeremy was an incredibly talented artist. The elephant drawing, made with chalk, is a reproduction of a real drawing he did in 1982, when he was only seven years old. You can easily find it on Google, it appeared in a short documentary called “Jeremy: The tragedy behind the Pearl Jam song” which you can find on Youtube.

The other drawing, the one with the birds, is another reproduction of a real painting he did in 1985, at only 10 years old. That painting is full of shades, details and lighting and it’s incredible to think that a ten-year-old could know so much about lighting and shades already. A friend of his once shared that, when they were teenagers, she watched him draw a devil on his chest with a Sharpie!

He won best of show ribbons at the Texas State Fair quite a few times before he was even twelve.

The cassettes: in the time Jeremy lived in, the radio, records and cassettes/mixtapes were basically all kids had to listen to music. The four ones resting on the bookcase are, in order: Pretty Hate Machine by Nine Inch Nails, Mother’s Milk by Red Hot Chili Peppers, Thirteen Songs by Fugazi and Pet Sematary by Ramones. These were all albums of groups that Jeremy actually liked a lot.

The Star Wars “The Empire Strikes Back” VHS: I do not know if Jeremy still liked Star Wars as a teenager, but it seems he did as a child. The picture of him as a child wearing a cowboy hat, seen in the same documentary mentioned earlier, and of which I also made a drawing (see below), shows a peculiar box right next to him: that’s the 1981 Star Wars “The Empire Strikes Back” Dagobah action playset he received one year for Christmas - I talked about it in this post.

The letter on the ground: Jeremy was notoriously sweet and affectionate towards the people he was close to. He was famous for having his eyes light up when he’d speak of his current crush. He was very well-spoken and articulate and his handwriting was described as neat. He would also send articulate letters to people and its contents and drawings would vary on how he felt towards them.

The flower: that’s a Texas bluebonnet, Texas’s national symbol. A theory suggests one of his painting featured a field of bluebonnets.

The skateboard: he loved skateboarding. The underside of this skateboard is decorated with stickers of his favorite bands (you can see some badly-drawn stickers of Fugazi, Nine Inch Nails, Red Hot Chili Peppers and something that is supposed to be the Ramones logo); and stickers associated to the punk culture such as skulls and anarchy symbols. There’s one more set of stickers on his skate: a letter J, a symbol for infinite and a heart. It’s my personal addition, is signifies that if you love a person, that person is never really gone.

The drumsticks: Jeremy is said to have been a fantastic drummer (source).

Jewelry: he wore a gold chain and two gold earring in his left ear (but he eventually only wore one), or at least that’s what he was wearing last. In a picture (aged 14 years old) he had a metal ball chain bracelet and a grey friendship-style cloth bracelet around his left wrist.

Physical aspect: Jeremy was white, yet tanned, had subtle freckles, beautiful (according to the people who met him) green eyes and light brown/blondish hair. It seemed it was shaved on the left side of his head and on the back, maybe even on the right side (pictures are unclear). The number 13 on his left hand was one of his three tattoos (which he all had on the left side of his body), even though I get the feeling it was much smaller than that. The cigarette is there because he was notably a smoker.

Clothes: these were the clothes Jeremy was wearing on his last day, minus the shoes: sneakers, typically worn by skaters.

The words on the books: the words you can find on several books are adjectives with which Jeremy has been described. There are also a series of numbers: 10-02-1975. That’s his date of birth. The most important words are on the books on the top right: “That day that he died did not define his life”. It is a quote from Wanda Crane, Jeremy’s mother.

The bookcase… and the roses: finally, the bookcase is what closes the circle. The bookcase is actually the object that was behind Jeremy the moment he left. Most people believe he was in front of the blackboard because of the song, but that’s actually false.

The roses here, on a first look, remember very much of splatters of blood. But if one looks carefully, on a second glance they will notice that those are actually roses. Flowers stuck between the books, which symbolize that before being a song, before being “that famous kid who committed suicide”, Jeremy was life. A whole living being.

And he deserves to be remembered in a more humane way.

Portrait of Jeremy Wade Delle

This (made on December 2, 2019) was the second drawing I ever made of him and it was made with watercolors and fineliner. Below you will find the 'before' version.

Portrait of Jeremy Wade Delle - sketch version

This (made on December 2, 2019), made with pencil, is how the above drawing looked like before being painted with watercolors. I do prefer this version as I believe it looked more like him. But things aren’t meant to be perfect, right?

Illustration for Chapter 14 - “The astronauts” of No more “Later Days” - PART 1

Finished on July 23, 2020, made with colored pencils and fineliner. It depicts Jeremy laying on some grass with his head on his backpack (which in the story is supposed to be some darker, unspecified color), resting peacefully near a pond. It's a sunny day in March 1990 and every worry seems distant. There's silence and calm. There's happiness. There's peace.

Illustration for Chapter 7 - “Green gems” of No more “Later Days” - PART 1

This drawing was made on June 9, 2020 with pencil and colored pencils. It's a portrait of Jeremy (with too many freckles, as Jeremy had less) and it was supposed to illustrate the color of his eyes. Everybody who knew him described them as stunning, but no information about their exact shade was given. My personal theory, judging by the only two colored pictures of teenage Jeremy I've seen, is that they were light green and not darker like in this drawing, but mine is just a supposition. Anyway, this was also made before I discovered that @137-point-five-other-problems (now offline) had posted a picture of how Jeremy looked like in late 1989/early 1990: he had his hair partially shaved.

Here’s another drawing of Jeremy I’ve made :) This was made on February 11, 2020 with watercolors, colored pencils and fineliner. This is a reproduction of the picture of him as a child.

Illustration for Chapter 5 - “A summer storm” of No more “Later Days” - PART 1

This was made in 2020 with pencil. It portrays Jeremy looking angrily at the person who just accidentally bumped into him at school. He's also not having a great day so he's additionally angry.

This was the first drawing of Jeremy Wade Delle that I made. It was made on May 21, 2020 with pencil as an attempt to cartoonize him. I later saw a picture of him that showed he actually had his hair partially shaved (see below).

I guess I also have this one. This is a small portion of a wider drawing which was partially Jeremy-related, I made it in 2021. The materials used were colored pencils and fineliner. It's supposed to be a replica of the already-mentioned Jeremy picture, aged 14, in which he had his hair partially shaved. If you see that picture, just know it was not meant to be posted: it was actually stolen by a family member's social media in early 2020 and shared all over the internet. That's the reason why, out of respect, you won't see me posting that picture.