Draw Jerel Draw

From the sketchbook: RATS

So I’m adding a new little bit to keep you folks updated on what’s going on in my creative endeavors. Just a chance for me to show off things that are still far from completion, and share some idea’s that I might be having. This week, RATS. I’ve long been into drawing them. One of my first illustration projects waaay back in undergrad featured them, I drew a few in the first comic project I did. And come to think of it, I drew them again in my comic poster project. I think maybe it all comes from watching “The Secret of Nimh” over and over and over and over when I was a kid. Yes, I was one of those kids, though I think “Secret of Nimh” and maybe “Follow that Bird” were the only two that I clearly remember. As an aside, I saw “Follow that Bird” sometime in the past year, and I have to say, unlike most childhood movies, that one thoroughly charmed me once again.

Anyway, on to the rats. I’ve been training myself to do them in ink because they are a major feature in the current chapter of “One Android”, so without further delay.

So after doing these I was looking at them and thinking, hey they look kinda familiar… Where have I seen this before? Who am I emulating? I pondered this briefly but then… The answer: Banksy, that quirky, hilarious, brilliant, street artist, who has had a thing for rats in the past, and who’s work I’ve totally been looking at in the last couple of months. Great drawing skill, great sense of humor, mild touch of politics, if he were a comic artist I would be all about it. Anyway, I admit his are better than mine, but maybe it’s because he does them in the street… You know so they are more raw… and urban… street…

I wish I could say this isn’t photoshop.