Today’s work of art is by Rob Sheridan, who is the art director for the band Nine Inch Nails. But in his spare time, Sheridan maintains a wonderfully weird sketchblog. That’s where this week’s artwork, Cereal Mascot Reunion comes from, a digital work featuring a number of cereal box characters having a reunion, and drinking a few Budweiser cans in the process.
Here’s how Sheridan describes the work:
For some reason this image has been swimming around in my head for a few years now, and finally – after chipping away at it bit by bit over the last couple months – I’ve brought it to life as a large, absurdly detailed print. It’s kind of about the strange, uncomfortable feeling of reuniting with old friends only to find that the magic just isn’t there anymore – and in turn, about the melancholy “nothing will ever be as good as it used to be” type of nostalgia, of which I am increasingly fond. And of course, a tribute to the late, great, wood-paneled, shag-carpeted 1970’s rec room.
If you want to see how he created the work, there’s an incredible detailed step-by-step account called Anatomy of a Digital Painting.
And here’s what he has to say about himself at the Sketchblog’s ABout Me pge:
My name is Rob. I’m 29 years old, I live in Los Angeles, and I’m a professional art director. While I work mostly with graphic design and video, illustration has always been my favorite means of expression. I grew up an only child of a single mother, so my sketchbook and my imagination were often my best childhood friends. My brain was raised on a hearty diet of comic books, toy robots, Saturday morning cartoons, Star Wars, and Nintendo. And not a whole lot has changed since then, really, except that my sketchbook has gone digital.
I originally made this SketchBlog as an exercise in creative discipline – an attempt to get myself to draw more and play around with images and ideas that wouldn’t fit in my professional work. A playground for the side of my brain that never really grew up, I suppose. It’s proved to be a tremendous motivational tool, and I’m really pleased with some of the art that’s come out of it so far.
In addition to his Wikipedia page, Rob Sheridan also has an online portfolio, the sketchblog and a flickr gallery of his illustrations.