Monday, September 5, 2011

Although he spends most of his days creating digital images via computer, illustrator Michael Zavacky (aka, Uncle Zeke) is careful not to abandon his foundational skills by regularly creating hand-drawn character sketches in his personal time.

As explored in the below dialogue with the artist, the resulting character sketches reveal him to be an astute observer of human nature.

Guerilla: Where do you get the ideas to create these characters?

Zavacky: I always loved drawing people's faces, just doodles … nothing too realistic. And I like to observe folks on the street and imagine about each particular life story. A lot of the stories I come up with are based on people I have met and some are pure fiction.  A lot of it is autobiographical, too … the way I feel about things and experiences I have had.

Are these pieces a kind of commentary on modern life?

Maybe. Not sure if I planned it that way, but I do see them as a glimpse of important episodes that occur in everyone's life at one point or another. Seemingly insignificant experiences that prompt someone to make a major change, break the routine. I love it when people get honest and recount stories of something that really made a difference in their life.

How many of these have you done in total?

I have little sketch books that I try to fill up, doing two new characters a day. I started back in January and must have about two books filled by now. I usually draw the character first and then come up with story that seems appropriate. Some work, some don't.

Do you consider them to be sketches or studies or finished artworks?

I started off by thinking of these as a daily creative exercise with a long range goal of perhaps turning whatever I came up with into a sort of graphic novel. Who knows? The main thing is to just be doing something and we'll see how it ends up.