Fear of Math

I've been asked many times how I knew I wanted to do this for a living. I have often replied by saying "Fear of math." You see it was a clear case of math anxiety that would ultimately lead me into a career in communication arts. You see Pythagorus, and his numerical cronies equations never came easy for me, and the thought of college level mathematics kind of freaked me out so when an art school rep came by our class in high school I immediately knew I had found a creative escape route via art.

The style of this piece is basically how I draw when I am just entertaining myself. Most of the time I have no idea up front as to what I will be drawing or how it will come out, I just pick up a pen and let it simply flow out of me onto the paper. I often look at the art and try to figure out what if anything makes any kind of coherent sense on any level. Sometimes I am surprised by what I discover and other times I have no clue why I drew it, I just did. So I guess I enjoy the mystery of this style?

Lately I've been wanting to use it for a paying gig but couldn't find a good fit. That is until I got a call from an agency who was wanting background art created for the next incarnation of Windows Messenger they were developing a special site for. I immediate thought of this style and asked them for direction in terms of content etc. and they literally said the only limitation to the art is "No naked people or guns. Other then that anything goes." I responded "Giddy up!"

Thus 'Fear of Math' was born.

(Click for larger preview)

Super Doodle

As you've probably noticed by now my blog header and footer contains an illustration I created. I've never posted it on this blog but it's one of my all time favorites.

I call this style my doodle style. Most of the heavy lifting creatively speaking is done outside the box (computer) I use a black flair pen and just start drawing. When done I scan it into Photoshop and start painting in colors and textures.

Don't ask me what it means because I don't have a clue. That said, you'll notice desert landscapes, serpents, flames, winged creatures, hands and nebulous shapes are common themes that appear often in this style.

This specific piece I labeled 'Super Doodle'. That is because the original was about 12 inches long. It was a personal piece I did for myself. Up until the time I did this I had never used this style commercially. It's been one of those styles I've kept to myself. But recently I've decided to leverage this style and use it in a current project I am working on. I'll post more on that later.