For those of you who have been following my Monster Month drawings, you will have noticed that I tend to lean toward the cartoony and humorous style of beastie. That’s my nature – a glimpse into my inner core if you will. Last week I was issued a challenge by an artist whom I deeply respect as he is quite an original himself. Ralph Steadman wrote “As a rule, monsters have got to be almost so obscene they need to be scary – too scary to look at. Avoid the cartoon monster- smell the sweat!!!”
After giving Mr. Steadman’s mandate some thought, I came up with this toothy monster. What is scarier than an otherworldly creature who preys on sweet innocent little kitty cats? (Yeah, I know – I had to get something cartoony and humorous into the picture, too.) Ralph, this one’s for you.
Well, I know the above monster doesn’t necessarily smell of sweat, but it’s a step in the right direction. In order to make my drawings more sweat worthy, perhaps I’ll have to think of scarier things to get in the right mindset. My current mental scare tactics aren’t working – tactics like what if you have to squelch a burp in church, or getting up to the register at the grocery store only to realize you left your coupons at home.
Then again, for some of us, those thoughts can be pretty hard core scary.