Philly the Kid and all he stands for to me

So this past year has been one of enlightenment. I have had so many artists and styles brought to my attention that interest me way more than the traditional realist style I've been trying to perfect. I'm ok at realism when it comes to figure drawing; I would go as far as to say that the human body is my best and favorite subject. But real is real and unless I want to put some story behind my characters (which is always necessary) they all stay pretty much the same. So I figured out I wanted to create a style that was a bit more than just realistic. I wanted to put realism into the unreal, and fantastic. Not to shock or amaze my audience but to just show them what I wanted to have as my own style. Not that it's different or not influenced by other artists and art I see and like but just to say- hey this is what I do, this is what I like, take it or leave it.

Anyway Some really big influences on my artistic direction have been professionals that work constantly and have a unique style that catches my brain! Lesean Thomas- for one- is an American animator/ illustrator working in Korea in animation (the first ever by the way) he's also working on a creator owned graphic novel called Cannon Busters and his main character "Philly the Kid" has been plastered all over the internet and my walls and my mind since I saw the first concepts of em when my buddy Anton showed them to me. So I finally did a fan pic of him and put him up on D.A. and wouldn't you know it he saw it and liked it and I feeeaaakked oouuutt a bit. So ya this post is basically me bragging and confessing my fanboy-dom for his work. It is such an honor to even be noticed by a professional in my preferred career choice let alone one I think so highly of. Anywho here's the pic of his original character.

Philly the Kid

I took reference from Lesean Thomas' stuff on his blog and D.A. gallery plus I have the only issue of Cannon Busters 0' that I've seen which has some pretty sweet concepts from an artist named Corey(yy) Lewis- who has also had a huge impact on me.

check out Lesean's blog to the right