1st Art of 2023, 100 First Artworks and a Look Back (Number 19)
19. Pound Puppy
That's an interesting one. As I mentioned earlier, I had been searching for new ideas to draw. I was still new to Instagram, didn't exactly know what to upload, bounced between characters, landscapes and various scenes, I'd draw something to get my mind off things. It was a different time. And a few months before my Instagram account, I discovered an internet cult classic, Bart the General, an extremely surreal parody of the Simpsons spanning over four wonderful episodes.
I was exceptionally amazed and fell in love. It was made by Famicon, a UK art collective founded by Leomi Sadler, Stef Sadler, Kitty Clark and GHXYK2. Having checked out their other creations (mainly videos) and being further inspired by them, one of the ideas was to praise Famicon in some artistic way. Unfortunately, my skills and confidence weren't enough to make a full-scale Bart the General homage, a project like this would anger them if I botched it, so I went with something light, choosing a scene from their cartoon Pound Puppy (video below).
Artwork-wise, it's not perfect by any means, although I made him look more gnarly than he originally appears. Never thought I would get some feedback, but I got it! Famicon co-founder, Leomi Sadler discovered my account and it was a new beginning. As time went on, she liked more pieces I put out, which made me incredibly happy, one of them was even shared in her instastory. With Leomi's eye on me, I became more eager to make art and have fun, and I can't thank her enough. She's an amazing artist herself and I recommend you checking out her work (instagram.com/leomi_sadler/ and instagram.com/tydrax618/) and the work of Famicon (famiconexpress.co.uk/ and instagram.com/famiconexpress/). What they do is terrific, I wish I would have found about them earlier.
Puppy being held by an Animal Crossing bootleg character, more likely also a puppy at some point in life.