After I was invited to participate in the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center’s 2020 exhibition “Obsessed: The Art of Nerd-Dom”, I decided to take this as an opportunity to create blatant, unapologetic fan art. The theme had me daydreaming about the various nerdy things I’ve embraced throughout my lifetime. The X-Men immediately came to mind.

Many children living in the 1990s went through an X-Men phase, but I took things to the next level. My uncle would gift me Marvel trading cards every time that I saw him, and I would sit in my bedroom carefully studying the strength, intelligence, speed, and other abilities of every hero or villain.

I didn’t do anything useful with that information. In fact, I would completely ignore it while playing with the action figures, choosing instead to evade attacks by jumping very high and staying there.

As you might suspect, I was also a fan of the animated series that aired from 1992-1997. Beast was my favorite character by a landslide. Constantly, I would jump into pools imitating the way he jumped in one of the franchise’s many video games. I imagine that my friends found this very annoying.

Despite my love for Beast, I decided to base my piece for “Obsessed” on spunky teen shopping enthusiast Jubilee. I thought the bright colors of her costume would pop in a sea of black and white text, and perhaps more importantly, I needed a safe space to show my appreciation for this line she delivers in the animated series:

“Does a mall babe eat chili fries?”

To complete this piece, I mapped out a bold, stylized Jubilee design in my sketchpad. Once I got the colors and proportions right, I cut out my original drawing and traced it onto an 11 x 14 inch piece of watercolor paper. I penciled in the rest of the design, then filled it in with colored pencil—meticulously layering and blending until the surface of the paper was no longer visible. To prevent smudging, I sprayed the piece with a matte fixative and waited for it to dry.

Then, as usual, I rotated the sheet and filled it in with the phrase above. I tried to vary my lettering choices to provide some extra texture in the background. The entire piece took several days to complete, and despite being the first piece that I started for the show, it wound up being the last one that I finished.

It was then matted, framed, and shipped off to be displayed at the Port Angeles Main Library from January 11 to March 15, 2020.

Is this piece available?

“Jubilee” is available as a print in my Redbubble and Society6 shops.

The original is still available. Please contact me if you’re interested.

In my submissions for the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center’s 2020 exhibition “Obsessed: The Art of Nerd-Dom”, I wanted to include a famous nerd from pop culture. My original list included Steve Urkel, Tina Belcher, Daria Morgendorffer, Velma Dinkley, Squidward Tentacles, and mononymous Peanuts character Marcie.

Then, a friend suggested Milhouse Van Houten from The Simpsons. Though my affinity for this character wasn’t as strong, everything clicked into place when I did some research and uncovered this quote from the season five episode “Burns’ Heir”:

“But my mom says I’m cool.”

With a quote selected, I set out to find a depiction of Milhouse that fit this sentiment. I doodled a few of my own renditions in a sketchpad, and when I finally got it right, I cut out the drawing with an X-Acto knife and traced the outline onto a piece of 9 x 12 watercolor paper.

From there, I copied the outline lightly in pencil, filled it in with layers of colored pencils, and blended until the surface of the paper was no longer showing underneath. I outlined the drawing with a black Micron Sakura ink pen, then sprayed it with a matte fixative to prevent smudging.

Once dry, I rotated the paper and repeated the phrase above until the page was fully covered. Because of the drawing’s bright colors, I took some liberties with varied lettering to provide a more dynamic, textured background.

It was then framed, and shipped off to be displayed at the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center from January 11 to March 15, 2020.

Is this piece available?

“But My Mom Says I'm Cool” is available as a print in my Society6 shop.

The original is still available. Please contact me if you’re interested.