Fan boy

I've been thinking a lot about 'fan art' - fan art being your own interpretation of someone else's characters or art - not just straight copying. The hoity-toity professional in me thinks, 'how sad a thing it is to do fan art?' but then I realised, don't we all start out as fan artists?

As a kid I remember spending hours copying the art of my favourite cartoons and comics until I could draw the characters perfectly from memory. It was a point of pride that I could draw Darkwing Duck flawlessly. Then as I got older I began copying the styles of my favourite comics. It started with anime and the art of Akira Toriyama and then gradually moved back to comic book art. It was the work of Chris Bachalo on Uncanny X-Men #356 in the late 90s that brought me back to Marvel (I remember seeing this issue on the comics rack in Walgreens and just needing to buy it). From there I found inspiration in the likes of Joe Madureira (AoA), Humberto Ramos (Runaways and X-Men), Carlos Pacheco and Salvador Larroca (particularly Xtreme X-Men and his pencil with no inking style) that kept me coming back to Marvel and subsequently some their side projects ('Out There' and 'Battlechasers').

This drawing of Gemmy (before he was even Gemmy) was inspired by/ripped off from X-men #76 cover, 1998.

Ballpoint pen & colour pencil - '98

In particular, it was Bachalo and Pacheco's treatment of Marrow (originally created by Madureira) as a character, and the darker edge she brought to the X-Men that I responded to. Bachalo's cartoony style particularly worked with the exaggerated grotesqueness of her powers as well as some of the other newer X-Men like Maggot.

It was with Marrow that I ventured into my first proper 'fan art' and entered a competition to showcase her new look. I totes should have won but did not. Here's one that was not entered in the competition because it was of her 'old look' before she got control of her powers.

Pencil on paper - '99

Later, it was artists like Tony Diterlizzi (Spiderwick Chronicles, Wondla) and D. M. Cornish (Monster Blood Tattoo) who peaked my interest as author/illustrator and made me see that it's possible to be both (I've found that I don't have the patience or sensibility to draw graphic novels).

So, once I did my Mr Onion drawing it made me think, what other artists and images currently occupy my artistic mind?

At the moment, one of my favourite cartoons is Adventure Time. It reminds me of being a kid (I remember creating characters very similar. I think Pen Ward may have got a hold of my sketch books from middle school). The stories captivate and entertain me as I think most little boys have adventure time in their head, escaping to worlds where you flit between braving dungeons and rescuing princesses. So, I've been playing around sketching and reinterpreting my favourite characters from the show (also I can play some of the songs from the show on my uke). Here are some sketches of Finn and Jake and Princess Bubblegum and Marceline the Vampire Queen (drawn with my bubblegum scented pencil). Might finish them off later on.

Finn and Jake

Bubblegum and Marceline 

Enjoy!
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