This Monster Mania drawing is part of a series within the series that I call “Monster Buddies.” Several Monster Mania drawings feature two monsters. Sometimes a monster needs a buddy.
Over a decade ago, I was a freelance illustrator for Grantland, a now-defunct sports and pop-culture blog owned and operated by ESPN. Working for Grantland was fun because I got paid to draw Kenny Powers, Walter White and Johnny Utah. The downside to working for Grantland was the extremely tight deadlines. It was common to receive an assignment on a Thursday afternoon that was due Friday morning. When you are working under a super tight deadline, you don’t have time to brainstorm or incubate ideas. You don’t have time to explore or experiment. You don’t have time to make refinements or fix mistakes. You do the best you can with the time you are given. When It comes to the Monster Mania series, I serve no master, and I have no deadlines. I’m not in a rush to finish a drawing. I’m allowed to enjoy the process. I’m allowed to play and experiment. I’m allowed to explore multiple paths. I’m allowed to have a deeper conversation with the drawing. I can redraw somethin...
I'm a serious artist that draws silly things. I draw vomit and snot and warts and pimples and poo. I’m amused by the idea of spending untold hours painstakingly drawing anthropomorphic turd creatures and other ridiculous things. I could drip paint like Jackson Pollock or cut paper like Kara Walker or paint portraits like Alice Neel, but instead of doing any of those things, I choose to draw an angry turd monster fighting a horde of vicious corn kernels. I draw silly things because it is fun to draw silly things. Creating art should be a joyous experience.
In October 2016, Brad Ruder invited me to be the guest artist for a Print Session at Tilt Union. The Print Sessions were a series of screen printing classes where the students hand-screen-printed artwork created by the guest artist. For my print session, I created illustrations of the Bride of Frankenstein and Frankenstein's Monster. My version of the Bride was heavily influenced by Tim Burton. My Bride is a mix of the Martian Girl, Sally Shock and Emily the Corpse Bride. The colors were inspired by Beetlejuice. I gave my Bride the traditional beehive hairstyle with the white lightning bolt streaks, but I also added a Tim Burton spiral to break up the black space. The hair takes up a third of the image, and I wanted to make that space a little more fun and interesting. I ended up repeating the spiral shapes throughout the drawing. I also made the hair really frazzled like an electrocuted cartoon character. I also added some lightning in the background. The treatment is similar to ...