Here’s my series of artwork featuring hip-hop artist MF Doom.
From Wikipedia:
“Daniel Dumile; 1971 – 2020), best known by his stage name MF Doom or simply Doom , was a British-American rapper and record producer. Noted for his intricate wordplay, signature metal mask, and "supervillain" stage persona, Dumile became a major figure of underground hip hop and alternative hip hop in the 2000s.After his death, Variety described him as one of the scene's "most celebrated, unpredictable and enigmatic figures.”
Doom’s persona was based, at least in part, on Marvel’s Doctor Doom. Many of his tracks include sound clips from the 1960’s Fantastic Four Saturday morning cartoon.
Not content with one alias, Doom also recorded as “King Geedorah”, based on Godzilla’s King Ghidorah.
Doom had his own Clarks Wallabees…
…annnnd Nikes.
Between his aliases, guest spots, and proper albums, Doom’s discography can be…daunting. If you only go with one album, make it Madvillainy, his highly acclaimed collaboration with legendary producer Madlib.
Anyway, enough with the massively influential talent who died too young. Let’s talk about me. Starting with this series, I’ve changed up my process.
Originally, creating a new piece went something like:
blind sketch the subject
scan the sketch
paint a piece of heavy paper, usually 11” x 14”
transfer the sketch to the paper with a carbon tracing sheet
ink and color the transferred sketch
color and add accents with markers, oil crayons, etc.
scan the thing (at FedEx/Kinko$ since I don’t have and can’t justify buying a large format scanner)
The new process breaks down like this:
blind sketch and ink the subject
scan the drawing
remove the background from the scan
paste the drawing into a scan of a hand painted solid background
digitally color and add accents
Some advantages of the new process:
less mess-the nearest thing that I have to a studio is a couple of TV trays, a tackle box, and supply “organizers” upcycled from six pack cartons
less expense-I work fast and art supplies aren’t cheap
once the drawing is scanned, I can work anywhere (often at my day job-like Doom, I am also a villain. Moo. Ha. Ha.)
working semi-digitally makes correcting mistakes much easier-resulting in less mess and wasted supplies and less frustration which lowers the odds of me throwing my hands up in the air and just watching Con Air for the 57th time
Downsides of the new process:
No original art
Working semi-digitally can feel like “cheating”, which is ridiculous. I considered not making the changes to my process known for fear of looking like a hack (whatever that would have meant). Reminding myself that the only person who determines that my work is cheap or stiff looking is me isn’t easy, but this system is the best way for me to not get bored or frustrated and keep making art.
Here’s Doom’s frequent collaborator Madlib, technically the first drawing made with the new process.
