Haunted Nonsense and Childhood Fears

I had planned on theming all of my October posts to darker imagery than normal. Unfortunately I just don't have it in me. I grew up drawing Disney and Garfield, and consequently my outlook is pretty sunny, if a bit sarcastic. So while I've occasionally created some pieces that are darker in tone, I haven't been able to produce enough scary stuff to post for a whole month. However I did discover a beautiful blog called Haunted Nonsense by artist Jesse E. Larson. To the cynical viewer, Mr. Larson's work may seem like just more gothic doodles from a Tim Burton wannabe (or an Edward Gorey wannabe, for the more mature cynical viewer). But there's a super slick sophistication to Mr. Larson's pieces that is really beautiful- the black and white pen and ink style reminds one of these other artists, but Larson's work is definately his own.

After looking at his blog, it really made me want to do something in that style. This was done really quickly (I'm sure Larson spends hours on his) and I intend no real comparison between his work and mine. Far from being some random doodle, this one sketch has been trying to come out for years! When I was a kid growing up in Southern California, I had a huge fear of wolves. I don't know what started it, but I was convinced that the creature pictured above was prowling around my backyard just waiting for the night when my parents forgot to lock the door. I had dozens of wolf nightmares, everything from being chased through my house by them, to being in an out of control shopping cart (how's that for a distinctly kid-oriented worry?) headed towards a back alley full of them , to being made to go out into our screen enclosed patio at night only to find that it was swarming with ravenous wolves. Anyway, as an adult I've vowed to myself to one day illustrate some of the mental imagery that so frightened me as a child- so far I've been unsuccessful at capturing the intensity of those fears. Funny that this 2 minute doodle does it so well.

If you'd like a peek at something that furthered this little phobia of mine, stroll on over to Kindertrauma, and check out the email I sent them a while ago.