We’ve made it to the final chapter! If you haven’t read the rest of the story, get caught up with Part I, Part II, and Part III. And, if you want to print, color, and build your own characters, vehicles, and buildings, you can download my files here.
Raccoon just needs to ride his bike for one thousand miles without complaining for the Golden Chainring to work its magic…
Before I had the rest of the story, I had this ending in my head. Raccoon is (not so subtly) me, and I’m constantly torn between the reality that the best way to get better at riding bikes is to ride them a bunch, and the promise of shiny new parts and gear.
Art Talk Part Three: Inspirations
Last week @lonverh01 asked about inspirations, which is a great segue to this week’s bonus article. As a youngster, I never would have imagined that someone could make a living drawing the stuff they loved to do. So it took a series of revelations and inspirations to put me on this path. Here’s a loose, free-flowing list of shoutouts to folks whose work gives me a kick in the pants.
In high school I read an article about Ryan Schmies that made me realize you could draw on skis for a living. There’s a lot to love about Ryan’s work, and he’s made some of the most iconic skis of all time, but for me, the important part is how all of his elements and characters feel grounded in a story that he knows, and we can guess at. They feel intentional, which I love.
Around the same time Eric Pollard was making some of the most recognizable and beautiful ski art, and ski movies. I drew so many little Bacon trees in the margins of my notebooks.
And then I found Adam Haynes. This guy saw the world in the same way I wanted to. I love his clean line work, and smooth colors. I forced myself to learn to color digitally because I knew it was a tool he used. When the old Asymbol gallery was still open in Jackson, I walked in and just stared at the original painting of “Runnels” for half an hour. That piece still haunts my dreams.
As I mentioned earlier, I spend a lot of time on Muddy Colors. Lauren Panepinto is one of my favorite writers there. She does a great job of getting into the how and why of commercial illustration. I especially like this piece, but all of her work is great.
I have done my best to cull my Instagram to folks I’m actually friends with, and artists whose work I love. Here’s a bunch of fast and dirty recommendations: Dan McCarthy: mood, colors, subject. It’s all aspirational. Chris Austin’s surreal sharks are so rad. He makes me want to use gouache better. Calder Moore: those palettes, that light! Public Domain Review: humans have made so much cool stuff, this page does a good job of collecting some of it. Too Many Skulls: Texture baby! Valoreun: weird in the best way. Retro SciFi Art: great reminders of folks you may have been influenced by, but forgotten. Becky Cloonan: such a rad aesthetic, and impressive resume. Emily Poole: the best critters! Abigale West: the piece I linked captures how running in WNC feels in such a visceral way. Gilang Saharaa: texxxxxxture. Wylie Beckert makes me want to learn graphite. Pavlov Pulus: such a cool way to use these tools. Sunday Nobody: just what I need in these stupid times. Jason Anderson: color, texture, suggestion. Micah Ulrich: reminds me of my favorite kind of old woodcut. Matt Stikker: Damn. The color, the texture, the whole thang. Sarah Finger: Rad art, rad person, rad process. Eliza Carver: perfect simplicity. Al Benbow: such a cool style and important stories. Alex Dakos: Texture, dynamic range, mood, all of it! Ride Ritual: If you’re on this site and not already following them, what are you doing?
Thanks for coming along for this series. It’s been a whole bunch of fun, and I’ll have more paper experiments later this year!