Monsters: Developing Style
If you’ve followed me on any platform for anytime, you may know that I love to make monsters. I guess this began early as a kid as I drew endlessly. I’m sure that I drew monsters, but I don’t recall anything in particular, though I loved watching the Godzilla movies. It wasn’t until the fall of 2015 that I really developed a love for them.
I was teaching at a local public elementary school, and since I teach a choice-based curriculum, students were allowed to make the art they chose. One fourth grade girl chose to draw a monster one day. I looked at it and thought, “That looks like fun.” And since it was right before Halloween, monsters were everywhere at the time. So, I thought I’d give it a go and try my own monsters. And I’ve been making monsters ever since. I don’t make scary monsters. Mine are usually cute monsters who are a bit grumpy, confused, or in some way bewildered, and I’ve drawn inspiration from Minions and Monsters Inc, as well as from a variety of artists who also make monsters.
The thing is, when you want to get into something, there’s always so much to figure out. Even though drawing monsters seemed pretty straight forward. I had to figure out how I wanted to make them. There were so many examples of monsters out there, and a quick search online brought up a seemingly endless supply of examples. It was rather all overwhelming, so I grabbed some small pieces of drawing paper and began sketching. I drew quite a few quick sketches at the time trying to figure out what worked for me, and it’s amazing how different those first monsters were from what I do now. Those first monsters drew a lot of inspiration from other sources and often resembled those sources. Over time however, I began to settle in a certain way of drawing and making monsters that I now have a very distinctive style.
And that’s the thing, it takes a lot of work to figure out what works for us and to develop our style. When we first begin exploring something, we may feel like we are only mimicking someone else and like we’re all over the place, and we may feel like we’re not getting anywhere. However, we have to keep going, and after lots of trial and error, we will develop our own unique way of doing things. I’ve drawn, collaged, and sculpted hundreds, if not thousands of monsters over the last ten and a half years, and though I constantly try pushing my monsters in new directions, I have a style and a confidence in them. I can use that confidence not only create them with ease, but to also go deeper with them and imbue them with personality and character. They’re not just cute monsters. They suggest feelings, emotions, and possible stories.
It was a lot of work, a lot of drawing and making, a lot of inspiration from outside sources, and that’s why my monsters are the way they are. It wasn’t something that happened right from the get go. It developed over time, and I am excited to see where they go from here.
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Happy Creating!
Eric