Monday, November 30, 2009

Statues and Trees

Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. After regaining consciousness from my pie induced coma I finished coloring this odd fellow above. What's the significance? I dunno, I think it's about the nature of conformity or something.

10 comments:

David Martingale said...

Very cool! Has a bit of a Jim Flora vibe.

WIL BRANCA said...

Another masterpiece!

Jason Curtis said...

I generally never have a clue what the meaning of your illustrations are, but I think that's one of the main reasons why I love them so much. They're weird and wonderful, and I find myself spending quite a bit of time lingering on your images, taking in all the odd details and unique characters. What you do is very original, and in this cookie-cutter world I find your style and content refreshing.

Great work.

David DeGrand said...

Hey David, thanks! Jim Flora has been a big influence since I discovered his work, cool you noticed :)

Thanks Wil, you're waaay too kind!

Hey Jason, thanks so much for your comments. I agree that so much of our culture is a retread of what we've seen before. Although I feel my influences are pretty apparent in my work my hope is that I'm able to combine them all into something original, it means a lot to me that you feel it is :) As for what it all means, I still can't really tell you. I just draw images based on my observations of our crazy society, so take from that what you will. Thanks again man!

Jason Curtis said...

Mission accomplished David. Sure, you've been influenced (we've all been in one way or another) but you take it to the next level by creating original content.

As much as I hate this expression, you've made it your own. That's not an easy thing to achieve, so well done.

David DeGrand said...

It's really nice to hear you say that. I pretty much stopped doing conventions because all I would mainly hear when people looked at my work would be "Looks like Ren and Stimpy". That show was one of many influences and it just got to where I couldn't take it any more after trying so hard to not simply copy that style. After looking at a bunch of different artist blogs I came to realize that you could say that 90% of cartoony artwork looks like Ren and Stimpy, and finally came to accept it. Thanks again for your kind words.

Jason Curtis said...

We all develop a natural style that we enjoy working in, and our influences obviously play a role in shaping the way we draw, and what we draw. I think it becomes a problem when people simply copy the work of others, without putting any creativity or original thought into the work. I don't see that in your work at all David.

Recently I was flipping through a Calvin & Hobbes book and it was very apparent (to me anyway) that Watterson was heavily influenced by Schulz. There was a panel showing a close up of Calvin in profile with his mouth open, and the resemblance to Charlie Brown was unmistakable. In another panel Calvin was walking in profile, and it was drawn in a very similar way to how Schulz drew his characters walking.

My point...everyone has influences, and thats not a bad thing if you create original content and you're drawing from your heart (rather then drawing simply to copy the style of another artist).

Anyway, interesting conversation. I'm going to go trace some Far Side comics and post them on my blog now.

(joking)

Gina said...

You are such an inovative artist! Love the color. Happy holidays friend.

David DeGrand said...

Thanks Gina! Happy holidays to you as well!

Brad said...

awesome style! so original! love your work