Rob Sheridan

Rob Sheridan is a graphic designer and a majority of his work is done for promoting the American industrial band Nine Inch Nails. He is the art director for the band and is in charge of photography, designing CD’s, DVD’s, websites, their iPhone application and merchandise design. I am very fond of his work not only because he designs for my favorite band, but for the work he does as sideline projects. He frequently posts artwork and releases prints on his Sketchblog, which he describes 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.

This artwork titled “Cereal Mascot Reunion” is one of his more complex artworks in his folio. To begin this, Sheridan hand paints the initial design using a pen tablet then using Photoshop and Coral Painter to add detail. Sheridan generally tends to avoid using too much photoshop, as using it too liberally can quickly take the organic quality out of the hand drawn image; however there are a few places in this artwork that I think he felt it was appropriate to use. I think he likes to use an insane amount of detail in all of works as they are usually large prints, this artwork in particular is 22” x 17” full size. He goes to great lengths with his attention to detail, even using Budweiser labels around the bear can, David Bowie and KISS album covers on the floor, a retro space invaders game cartridge on the floor and a picture of the late Farrah Fawcett in the background.

I feel he is very concerned with getting his characterizations just right, on his sketchblog, it shows how he did nearly three rough sketches until he was happy enough to import it into photoshop. He wanted the mascots to look depressed, kind of representing old friends who are having a reunion but then come to the realization that after many years, they don’t have anything in common and are bored. Except for the character Cap’n Crunch, who is reading an erotic magazine and is slightly aroused. This artwork certainly portrays the melancholy “nothing will ever be as good as it used to be” type of nostalgia that the artist seems to be fond of.

Yeah, I just love his work and felt I need to share it with you all. Here is a link to his sketchblog:

http://www.rob-sheridan.com/sketchblog/

And a video that he did with Nine Inch Nails that I adore:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErUUynThycw


And another, fast forward to 1:40 and watch for at least 40 seconds:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AOJLtJJsRA