Faux super heroes 2

Just because they're so fun and funky to draw.

Faux super heroes

As a person who grew up loving and adoring comic books, I can't help but look back at some of the more offbeat creations that the comic companies have come up with. One has to wonder their motivation, inspiration and creativity. How realistic is it for someone (good or evil) to don a mask and sometimes a cape- and to live a separate life outside of their daily grind? It isn't but I think it's also representative of a simpler, less complicated time in the business. And using that as an inspiration, I've drawn plenty a totally ridiculous hero/ villain in my sketchbooks. This is just one of them.

Silly archived art

I do a lot of topical art. If I see or hear of a friend doing something silly or odd, I've occasionally taken to making fun of them with a cartoon sketch. We all have a cheap laugh. And rather than just tossing the art into the garbage, I toss them into a folder on my hard drive. Every now and then I'll go through that folder and find some of the oddest things that I look back at and have no idea what the joke was about. I'd like to think it was funny at the time, but now? I'm not even sure what we were talking about or what the context was.

Prime example is this owl illustration for a colleague. I know I was making fun of her daughter but why the giant owl??

Digital sketching

A few weeks back I did a lecture as to what I do for a living. I had one of the students in the audience ask if I did traditional or digital art. I did straddle both of those eras but to me, it's still drawing. Whether I use paper & pen or stylus and tablet- it really doesn't matter. My clients don't care. Is there something more genuine about one over the other? I'm not sure. I'd also like to think as things progress and evolve, digital will become folded into the traditional realm. I've often wondered what the old masters back in the day what they thought of this new medium "acrylic paint" when that medium made its debut. I'm sure back then it was looked down upon or scoffed at but a few generations later, it too has joined the traditional realm.

The lesser view

The other day I had to crawl underneath my desk to reset the modem. I literally had to sit underneath my desk while fending off dust bunnies, untangling various cords, finding loose crumbs of food, and all manner of things most of us have totally forgotten about. This is a view I probably hadn't consciously thought about since I was probably a toddler and that view was my entire world.

Harkening back to dishwashing

This was a sketch that recalled my teenage days when I washed dishes for a living. It wasn't the tidiest of jobs. It surely wasn't the most noble of professions but for a fifteen year old kid, it wasn't a bad way to make a few bucks. I never wore the paper hat because it was always a sweaty, sticky mess. I look back fondly to this job as it was the last time when I left work- work stayed there. When that apron was taken off at the end of the night and deposited in the dirty linen basket, work ceased. Now being employed as an artist I'm constantly aware of the visuals around me; I don't turn it off, nor can I turn it off. It was a much simpler, albeit greasier time.