About a week ago I had a bad allergy attack but insisted that I wasn’t actually sick. I’m still pretty sure that I wasn’t, but my I think my immune system has been exhausted enough that… now I am. Ta-dah!

In addition, Matt and I are recovering from the 6 hour drive from Hershy, PA (with a brief and productive stop at the wonderful world of Ikea) so today I’m posting another old, but never before seen drawing! Ta-dah?

This is Froud:

The text reads:

“The Froud

Often found lurking in the shadows of movie sets, the froud is capable of turning a defenseless romantic comedy into a dark and twisted tale starring puppets. Like the basilisk, his gaze is deadly, and an unwary victim caught in the froud’s sight will quickly find himself turned into a faerie or goblin. Should you spot the froud, your best mode of defense is to shade your eyes and begin loudly conversing about the stock market, the fine weather, or the American version of The Office. Cafefully follow these precautions and the froud will be effectively warded off.”

We spent a few weeks in an illustration class on caricatures. My ink drawings were fairly political: I did sarcastic drawings of Bill O’ Riley and Jerry Falwell (he wasn’t dead then, so it wasn’t as tasteless as it sounds). We had to do a full size color caricature though, and I wanted to try something less negative, so I decided to caricature Brian Froud, one of my favorite artists and earliest influence.

Brian Froud is a brilliant artist best known for his book Good Faeries, Bad Faeries and his conceptual work on the movie Labyrinth. I’ve loved his artwork since I was a teenager, particularly his looser, sketch-type drawings, sometimes done in sepia tones. That’s what I was trying to replicate here. I can’t get the colors quite right in Photoshop – someday I’ll actually drag the painting to a Staples to get it scanned (it’s way to big for my scanner) or set up a slide table so I can get a decent photograph. You can click on the image for a larger version.

Like what you see? You can nominate me for best new blog.