Let us all come to terms with the nineteen-sixties.
It will take me a little while to figure out firstly what I am doing with the Beach Boys, and secondly how to draw the Beach Boys better. But I am going to try and get my teeth into them as it were, because well, why not the Beach Boys, and I need to get my teeth into something instead of flitting from thing to thing... I need to get into stuff with depth and intent in order to get satisfying results.
The move back to Beach Boys is a return to something with soul-meaning for me, and I hope to be able to apply the body-meaning I learned from the wrestlers.
And to do it with some kind of dynamic humour, but also truth-depth, so I'm asking quite a lot of my self-taught little skills.
So obviously Dennis is a good place to start.
I had a dream about arm wrestling Dennis. And winning! I think my dreams were trying to give me picture ideas lately. I'm too ashamed of being an artist by day.
If you are not familiar with Beach Boys lore, I think it would be fair to say that Dennis was the Sex Beach Boy. I don't think any of the others would try to dispute that. Though in fairness, I am fairly sure that Brian would have been the Beach Boy I would have been crushing on. In fairness. Not just saying that because of hindsight. Dennis didn't sit down much. I couldn't have been doing with that. To be fair.
(Thought that paragraph could do with a couple more 'fairs'.)
On a kind of related note, I also drew Nelson Bragg from Brian Wilson's current band. Because he has been very nice to me. Oh and he's a talented chap.
He looks slightly worried and slightly like a wuzzle-farmer in this drawing.
Here is a tiger of the old school.
10 comments:
Very nice! The cat's a nice touch, too!
Well, Ringo's outside now which means I can listen to Nina Simone in peace, and your wonderful drawings have inspired me again to pick up the pencil and get to work.
Hasta la bye bye!
- trevor.
It's nice when you can shoehorn in a cat without it looking jarring.
There's this breed of cat that is almost like a sphinx except it has a really soft thin layer of fur, a bit like felt. I can't remember what they're called, but they have very characterful shapes. Some would say they're ugly, but I might get one just to draw it.
Have you ever considered offering your services to a children's book publishing company? Kids need art that inspires the imagination, not dumb it down, and you're ripe for that.
I read many, many children's books when I was young, and the only ones I remember today are the ones that had interesting illustration:
The Polar Express
Where The Wild Things Are
Winnie The Pooh
Goodnight Moon
The B.F.G.
You're in England, see if Terry Jones or Michael Palin are still interested in writing children's books. Lord knows they can't get Terry Gilliam anymore.
Seriously. Your style inspires and encourages imagination because it is precise lunacy; it's like if you were to look at a caricature of someone first, and then look at them and all the unusual shapes in the caricature were real.
Does that make sense? I think kids would love that.
Give Random House a call. They'd love you! After two books, they'd put you on fucking speed dial.
- trevor.
PS: You're not thinking about the Siamese cat, are you? That's the only cat I can think of with a super velvety coat with those Sphinx ears and whatnot.
They're expensive.
Also, there's several versions of Sphinx, and only one that's hairless. Maybe it is a Sphinx wot you're thinking of.
The cats I was thinking of are called Peterbald cats.
some of them are bald...
some of them have a bit of hair..
they do their best to be cute, they can't help looking weird.
Yeah, maybe I oughta give Jones or Palin a ring.
My sister is trying to get into Children's book illustration and is finding it hard. If I were to try it at all, maybe thinking laterally would be the thing.
I think to have a strong pitch is good.
I'm probably not a jillion miles away from Gilliam at times. Though I'm probably more square and less irreverent. And I have made less feature films.
J.K. Rowling could use you. Her stories are boring, so I think the covers should be interesting.... which they're not.
Predictable and imitatable describes those covers, but not what you do.
But no one's paid to listen to me. Sadly.
- trevor.
Well... I have a big soft Spot for Potter, but agreed about the covers being kind of by numbers garish illustration illustration. Although we might not even be talking about the same covers, because they seem to have different artwork in every country.
In the UK we also had alternate 'adult edition' covers with a moody photo of a dark train or something, so grownups need not feel embarrassed reading it in public. Though that's a bit pretentious, I found some of those covers less aesthetically bothersome, given the choice.
But yeah I could have a field day with Grindelwald and Dumbledore gay wand love.
Jeez, we need our own chat show.
- trevor.
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