SHAVE Your FREEDOM for Illustration Friday!

     Yay! It's Illustration Friday... Kinda Sorta. We are celebrating early because, well, Friday (fr those living in the US of A) is Independence Day.  Since everyone will be  almost setting themselves on fire with Fireworks, I figured it best to get this week's submission done early.  This week's topic is BEARD.

     I thought of alot of different ideas for submissions this week, but I kept coming back to this Norman Rockwell-Esque illustrated moment of a boy wanting to be just like his dad and pretend to shave his non existent beard. 

It reminds me so much of the famous bathroom scene in Home Alone where young Macaulay Culkin splashes some after shave on after shaving off his pretend beard and then exclaims because of the burning sensation.  On a personal note I NEVER use aftershave because of that very reason... Even grown men don't like that Hoopty-Lopty-Loop Burning None sense. I use a Shaving Cream that leaves a lotion on the skin after the razor has done its job, then as you rinse and wipe, the lotion soothes. It's a bit "Sissy" I admit, but I have sensitive skin and I hate pain. So there. :0)

     I haven't looked on this week's page yet to see how many other artists are illustrating this very same subject. I expect many.  I'm certain, however, that each piece will have it's own unique qualities that separate it from the next.  Sometimes it's interesting to see how different artists will tackle an identical subject.

 They each approach it from a separate point of view, separate composition and most of the time work in different mediums.  I decided to "frame" my subject in one of those vintage medicine cabinet mirrors that were always in the bathroom of each house my family lived in when I was growing up. My family moved alot when I was young, they still do, but since I don't live with them any longer, I can afford some roots now.  Most every house though, as I recall would have one of these types of mirrors in the bathroom.  They always were rectangular with metal framed rounded corners. As it so happens, there is one in the bathroom of my studio. So they are still around. 

     Also, since I illustrate for children's media, I was concerned about drawing a child holding a razor, even a plastic one, because when your art is already stylized, how would a viewer know the difference? So I toyed with some ideas of what a kid could use in place of a razor that would still show the same effect and that a kid would normally have access to in the bathroom... So I thought,"Toothbrush!"  I playfully like to think in my head that the boy in my illustration is using one of his siblings toothbrushes.  I had 3 siblings growing up and most of the homes we lived in had only one bathroom... It was CHAOS!

Trying to get ready to go ANYWHERE!  Also, my siblings kinda gave me a hard time alot, so I like to think that this young lad is "givin' em one back" by using their tooth brush to shave a pretend beard.  I decided to edit out the father in the illustration because, in all honesty, he isnt' needed to get the point across.  This image already evokes the  sentiment of when children try to be their parents, similar to when little girls raid their mother's closet and make up.  Since BEARD is the focus, I thought having another character in the illustration would distract from that focus.

     Well that pretty much is the icing "shaved" off of this week's Illustration Friday Submission.  I wish you all a Happy Independence Day (to those it applies to).
To everyone else, I wish you all a Happy and Safe Summer Weekend.

until next time...
Keep sketching, keep thinking, keep laughing and most important of all, keep making art. 
Cheers,
LEWIS