#story in a picture

“Uh…Hello…I’m Elwood!…El-Wooooood! What’s your name? What are you?”

Oh! Guys! I’m gunna be at CTNX. Come swing by table T119 and say hello!

And here he is an all his glory. I loved how slinky Hobbes was from those unforgettable Calvin & Hobbes strips so I took inspiration from sloths and ferrets to give him stretchy, elongated proportions.

Speaking of nuclear, here’s the idea I was playing with. In this early iteration of Bigfoot I thought it would be rad if Bigfoot harnessed nuclear energy. He’d get so mad, he’d loose his hair and the crevasses around his body would start to glow with radioactive energy.  He’s a cute and cuddly creature…. but you really shouldn’t mess with him!

If you didn’t figure it out by the hints on my instagram stories or my cryptic posts, my personal project is about bigfoot. 

In fact, it’s called Bigfoot.

In my story, Bigfoot was a secret lab project that escaped the clutches of his evil creators. They designed him to be a weapon capable of decimating cities in a heartbeat. What they didn’t expect was their creation’s ability for love and compassion.

Having Bigfoot be a failed science experiment really helped break out of that hairy seven foot Chewbacca stereotype that’s expected. I was thinkin’ stuff like…Wouldn’t it be cool if he still had lab harnesses stuck on him? Or what if he had a metal mask on? Oh, what if he had one of those lab tags on one of his ears? 

And my favorite….

What if he was nuclear? 

I’m not going lie. This was very, very, very FUN.

I wasn’t born in the 80s but I was raised on Spielberg, John Hughes, Devo, the Cars, and Duran Duran. I think I have good a good handle on the source material.

Despite that, I did do my share of research for making Elwood’s room look like an authentic 80s boy’s bedroom. That meant looking up screencaps of kid’s bedrooms from E.T., Close Encounters, Adventures in Babysitting, The Goonies, and the opening of Princess Bride (That kid’s room is packed with great material!). Not to mention the crazy research on 80s toys using forums and ebay (You won’t believe how much people are selling those things for!)

So yea, blah blah blah I did the research. 

BUT the most exciting part about designing this room was how much of myselfI put in this thing. When I was a kid born in 91, I never had all the cool crap that kids in the movies had. I mostly had cheap 99 cent knockoffs and a few lucky finds from Goodwill. The spirit of this piece involved harnessing my inner kid to discover what Elwood and I would have in our dream room. We both share an interest in sci-fi, music, junk food, and airplanes. I’d imagine we’d both have the same room upkeep. 

So here’s to bringing out your inner child and letting him or her inspire your work. *raises imaginary glass of rootbeer*