Reaper frog

Digital - 297x210mm - 2019

There isn’t much of a story behind this drawing. I was smoking a cigarette and watching my housemate try and draw an executioner mask which then turned into a cutesy octopus. As I was giggling at it my housemate commented how hard it is to draw an executioner mask. I then went to my room to give it a crack. I ended up trying to draw a frog with an executioner mask type pattern in its skin, after getting into the drawing I realised my housemate was right. So I shelved the drawing. A year later I was having trouble getting back into drawing after a period of not doing it, and I was looking at unfinished pieces to ink. The hardest part for me starting a drawing is doing the initial outline before inking, I procrastinate a lot during that phase. I opened the executioner frog file, which at this time I completely forgot existed and thought I’d give it another go and ended up with the drawing you see here. It was pure joy to ink and build it, and reminded me why I love drawing so much. This drawing is now one of my favourite dark art pieces.

Definitely channeled a lot of Zdzislaw Beksinski for the frog while listening to a healthy amount of Bolt Thrower. In the Bolt Thrower - Realms of Chaos booklet, there are these trippy borders with faces, skulls and demons all morphing into each other, I essentially tried to have my own crack at drawing that style for the shaft for the scythe and failed completely. I still dig how it looks though. If I strive to create a drawing in the vein of far superior artwork than I am capable of producing, I find I end up with something that definitely falls short, but still satisfies me. The best part is someone might actually think I have an original dark art style, when in actuality I’m too shit of a drawer to actually reproduce what I aspire to. So shit that most people can’t even tell what I’m trying to rip off. Throw in some In Battle There Is No Law and you get the above frog.