Chickenfoot

This piece was inspired by Gallery1988’s ‘Smorgasbord’ group show, loosely themed around food, and the mascots many companies use to peddle them, as well as those from film and television that may not actually exist in the real world.

Initially, I had a hard time determining what, or who I was going to depict for my piece.

This show had been scheduled as part of their original line-up, but also happened to land on the same day as their newly introduced ‘Masters’ show, which had me pressed on time. I also had little to no idea about what I was going to create. I flirted with doing a piece utilizing the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man from the ‘Ghostbusters’ franchise, but ultimately another idea fell into my lap.

 

First pass at Chickenfoot, which was just...boring.

 

I recalled my love for the franchise ‘Invader Zim’, and felt that this particular project would fulfill that need for a Jhonen Vasquez inspired piece. I typically steer clear of animation for my inspirations since their identifiability revolves primarily around the design or style of the series. For me, this means it needs to look close enough like the original to be recognizable without being outright plagiarism…not sure I succeeded there, but I did draw the whole thing by hand, so…it’s at least a testament to my skills in following a style….?

I digress…in the show, Vasquez creates a wildly creative vision that borders on the ludicrous. There are several fast food franchises in the series, one of which is prominently showcased in the episode “The Sad, Sad, Tale of Chickenfoot” (S1,EP18). In the episode, one of the characters seeks to expose a ‘cryptid’ sighting as a fraudulent hoax, which haunts the local ‘Chicky Licky’ fast food chain.

 

I was energized by the concept, and quickly set to sketching some images for the piece.

I thought I could take a simpler approach here, do maybe just a character study similar to the sketch cards I’ve done,  or a cryptid like image poster. The problem was I had a hard time finding any reference for what I had in mind. I wanted something similar in style to those sasquatch images with a full moon I know I’ve seen somewhere.

I’m guessing it was really just a search term issue, but I also didn’t want the design to be too influenced either.

I decided instead to merge my concept, and typical design workflow.

I watched the episode closely, and took note of how I could incorporate my ideas.

I gathered some reference for the piece, along with potential Easter eggs I wanted to add later if time allowed.

Then I set to sketching the establishment our ‘cryptid’ haunts, followed by a few scenarios from the episode including the hospital, and apartment complex. I then added a few extra elements including the ‘Baby’, from the previous half of the episode (“Abducted”), ‘Turkey Neck’, and a floating screen with ‘Professor Membrane’. Both characters have cameos in the episode themselves, but were utilized for their design and placement to keep the image a bit more interesting.

My final task was one I was dreading.

‘Chickenfoot’.

In the episode, ‘Chickenfoot’ is created during a freak accident which results in smoke pouring out of the establishment, which as anyone familiar with my work, is the PERFECT vehicle for creating things out of, or housing a new image within.

That said, I had to find several images to create the pose I had in mind for my main attraction. I wanted it look almost like he was howling in pain or at the moon like some wild creature (contrary to the truth). It wasn’t easy, but I think I eventually worked it out.

Final layout for Chickenfoot.

 

My original plan was I wanted to take these sketches and ‘ink’ them digitally, but I felt it was unnecessary, and it would take entirely too much time, time I was running short on, primarily because this was a two-show deadline, in addition to whatever commission work I have taken on.

Instead, I cleaned up my sketch lines, while retaining their looseness. I felt it complimented the style I was inspired by.

Happy with the images, I exported them into Adobe Photoshop to do some editing, primarily scaling to retain image quality. I also needed to move some stuff around and play with the layout a bit.  

 

My next step was the color process. This is usually the longest step of illustrating a piece for me as I do a lot of guessing in terms of shadows/light/color/etc. Thankfully I had a lot of very applicable image references that worked splendidly. I wanted to set the scene at night so I could utilize the moon as a framing device for ‘Chickenfoot’ like a proverbial spotlight. With all my items in play, I began digitally painting the difference pieces of the illustration, starting with the more complex buildings of the hospital, and apartment complex, before moving on to the smaller images working from back to front. The only exception here being, I did paint the ‘Chicky Licky’ store first before ‘Chickenfoot’, as I knew the limited palette for my main image would be easier to navigate.

 

Final colored image.

 

Upon completing the painting process I took the image back into Photoshop, this time to make some slight adjustments on the colors to get them to all work within a reasonable range of tones. I wasted more time then necessary on one part (‘Chickenfoot’), when all I really needed to do was drop the saturation in order to make it work. Overall, the process really didn’t take too long, primarily because I had such good reference material (IMO).

 

My last step was to get the image proofed so I knew how it was going to look when printed before I send it off to the gallery. Thankfully the image didn’t need any adjusting which is always a relief.

 

I started the piece on April 18^th, 2024 and completed it on May 14^th, 2024. I spent approximately fifty-four (54) hours, and twenty-eight (28) minutes working on the piece. Twenty-nine (29) hours, and forty-three (43) minutes were spent sketching out the assets for the piece. I then spent another twenty-three (23) hours, and seventeen (17) minutes painting the images. Finally I spent around one (1) hour and thirty (30) minutes in Photoshop editing the piece.

 

Final 10" X 10" image on White Pearl Linen.

 

The 10” x 10” image (printed on white pearl linen, thank you SGX), was made for Gallery1988’s ‘Smorgasbord’, a group show that spotlights many popular foods and their beloved mascots from film and television, which opened  June 7^th, 2024. At this time the prints are exclusively available via the gallery, so please check their website for all remaining works related to the show including mine.

 

For more information, or to see a catalog of my other work, please visit my online store here.

You can also find me on various social media platforms below doing a multitude of other artistic things that include hand lettering, and the occasional sculpting, crafting or painting.

 

Website: www.michaelstiles.com

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