Creating art has been an interesting journey. The last few years, shifting careers from film to marketing and, in my personal time, returning to more traditional drawing has been fun. I wouldn't have seen this four years ago, but I think that changed with lockdown. I was at home, decided to get an iPad Pro and Pencil, which, sorry Steve Jobs, is one of the best things Apple ever created, well, at least the V2 one.
It got me back to drawing, and I had limitless options for pencils, pens, and brushes; it was like breathing life into me again. Something I wanted to be as a kid was a comic artist and illustrator. I was kept from that due to finance, options, and even people who told a 16-year-old kid, "that's a bad idea."
Maybe they were right. It was 2001. Another life-changing event took place, but my world changed from illustrations to film. I was able to tell stories because, at the heart of it all, I believe I'm a storyteller.
Well, twenty years go by, life happens. I got sick at a young age, which started to slow my film dreams down. But I pivoted into editing. That led to commercial work and marketing, which I really enjoy, but I missed drawing.
Jump to 2020, discovering art had been a huge revelation to me. We have so much access these days to historical information. I think YouTube algorithms first started showing Bob Ross videos, which led to the video "The Comic Book Greats With Jim Lee," which I remember seeing in my comic book store on a shelf for a premium price. Watching it for the first time gave me so much insight into how Jim Lee put together a figure so quickly. It reminded me of my younger self; drawing came easy, I just saw it in shapes and fit it all together.
After several years of drawing at night, I started illustrating more, doing prompts for fun that got artists excited on social media, like Inktober, and refining my skills over the last couple of years until I felt comfortable again. Pin-ups and commissions started happening. It was thrilling; people wanted my work. Like I never expected it. In the summer of 2023, I attended Heroescon in Charlotte, NC. The last time I attended was in 2002, the year before college. It was pretty grim, not many artists, but a lot of bootleg VHS and DVDs.
2023 was the opposite. It gave me so much hope for the medium to see it thriving. My family was shocked, and they had fun attending, too. But it was like a pilgrimage for me. Artists I had discovered in the past few years, like Zoe Thorogood, Daniel Warren Johnson, and Maria Wolf attended. It was a very impactful day for me. It was the first time in a long time I didn't feel pain from my health issues. Call it whatever you want; it was euphoric to be around talented people that I followed.
Then, there was a Marvel comic art exhibit that was in Charlotte, which was illuminating. Seeing all this originial art work was intense. I thought I would never see this stuff up so close.
Pictured: My family and Daniel Warren Johnson, Me next to Barry Windsor-Smith Wolverine Art piece.
The energy I felt after that show was luminous. One week after, I just happened to be scrolling Instagram and I saw a brand post from BoxLunch, the retail store for anime, Disney, and other properties, like Hot Topic but cuter, (I find out later that Hot Topic and Box Lunch are partner brands). They were holding a contest for a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle design. It piqued my curiosity; I'm a huge turtle fan since forever. I knew the new animated film, Mutant Mayhem, was coming out, and the 40th Anniversary was next year. It was going to be a good time to be a turtle fan.
I explored the contest details; they wanted the classic 1987 cartoon turtles. I read the details thoroughly, then noticed one of the judges. Besides the head of design for Box Lunch and Viacom, it was the man himself, Kevin Eastman, co-creator of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. This was the deciding factor for me.
I mean, if the guy who helped mold my interests and childhood would see my art, that might mean a great deal to me. So off I went to the races.
The Process
So I knew right away what I wanted to do; I wanted to converge the idea into the cartoon meets the four-player arcade cabinet gameplay. Chaos, but like on a moving stage. So I started with an extremely loose sketch, with a pen on paper. I usually start that way. You'll see that the idea is pretty close, but things changed like adding more characters, dropping what would have been a Foot Clan member for Rocksteady.
Next, I did a little tighter version of the work in blue on the iPad. You can still see the ninja. I was pretty excited with the direction, so I started to refine it.
The line art got tighter, and more characters came in; I knew I wanted Baxter Stockman just because I felt he was underused in media and products. But once I got Rocksteady in, I knew I could get Bebop in there, and it started to really flesh out.
I do my shading in grays first. Once I have the gray layer done, I do my color treatment on top so it looks shaded once done. I wanted it to have a feel of color markers or something that you would have gotten on a lunch box back in the 1990s.
Finished. Having the final piece in hand was really exciting. I started to see other artists join in, and many of them were nicely illustrated but also felt familiar to what they already had. I wanted to be different. Months go by, then suddenly, I get an email saying, "Hey, you won." I was floored! I was stunned! After 300+ submissions, they picked me, and at first, I didn't notice it was for first place. What a feeling.
Of course, I couldn't tell anyone for about five months, but it was something to work towards. I had renewed passion and legitimacy, what I was doing late at night while my family slept, with no drawing desk, watching movies to pass the time (thanks, Interstellar), it was worth it.
So now, it's in stores. You can buy it! And it's a wonderful feeling. Something I grew up close to, I'm a part of now. I blame the ninja turtles for my favorite color; Orange. My kids love the new turtles movie. My mom still finds old toys and brings them to me. So I'm thankful for them to be in my life. So being a licensed TMNT artist feels really good.
So I hope you enjoyed this journey of how I got my groove back, and if you're an old artist like me or even a young person, I want you to see what is possible. I had to relearn how to draw after not drawing for nearly 20 years. The digital tools have helped rekindle that ability, and I hope to do more illustrations, comics, and more. Cowabunga!
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