A Cartoon Artist turned Gourd Artist: Meet Billy Gaskill
In From Cartoon Artist to Gourd Artist give us an opportunity to explore what happens when a cartoon artist, who has odd characters talking to him in his head suddenly finds gourds! You get some different-looking gourds that are amazing and so much fun to look at!
Gourd artist Billy Gaskill lives in Punta Gordo, Florida. He draws every day. When he was working, the sketchbook came out on lunch break and all the people in his imagination became visible on paper. These days, they are becoming gourd characters.
In essence, he has moved his humorous approach to life around him as a cartoon artist to his gourd art using just paint and ink.
Taking the cartoon art tools, Billy begins to explore gourds
All the ink work is done with a Radiograph pen. This versatile technical pen is capable of achieving an engraver’s perfection, loose sketching style, or a finely detailed pointillist technique. They come in different tips and usually have permanent ink. Expensive, but once you use them it is hard to go back to just a nice marker. When he moved to gourds, he continued using the pen.
For the most part, viewers mistake the linework with wood-burning or carving. But his work is entirely painting and ink.
All the gourds he works on are painted with white paint. Since he uses to work in Lowes, he says he just buys their primer white, or something that is on sale!
Next, he gives the gourd a coat of Mod Podge and pencils a design and links it. Usually, this is while he is watching TV. Then after 8 hours, he applies another layer of Mod Podge. He says if you smudge something or make a mistake, you can clean it off with ink cleaner and the lines from the last time are not affected. By the way, The Mod Podge acts as a mask when he applies 4 or 5 coats of polyacrylic for the final finish.
His heads are wild! Each has character and personality! Thanks to his skill as a cartoon artist!
“I’m a bit of a weird bird anyway. Ideas are just running around in my head with a lot of other things. All things considered, I am just a child in a man’s body!”
“Sometimes my ideas work out and sometimes not…that is why I keep a lot of white paint. I also like using neon colors…I even use clear neon that only shows up under black light. If you don’t have one you miss some of what’s there.”
Billy looks at each gourd shape with a cartoon artist eye and wonderful things happen!
Billy’s Doodling Gourds
Billy goes beyond the point of being just a cartoon artist when he turns to Doodling. For this technique you need a gourd with a consistent color, If he finds the right shape, but the surface is blotchy, then he has to create a gourd color surface before he starts. He paints the gourd semi-gloss white paint.
To get back a gourd color he mixes 1 part acrylic golden brown paint with 2 parts clear polyacrylic satin. It makes the brown look almost like a very light tan when you paint the gourd again. You can add more paint or more clear to your liking. Billy explains, “It will all come out a little thin in color most times but that’s a good thing because you can get rid of brush marks and blend in darker parts.”
“It’s okay if it turns out a little spotty like real gourd color. I like it a lot and I only have to shop for the right shape, not color. It’s just something you can do when a gourd is too dark to do what you want and still love the shape. I love natural color gourds.”
Now that the gourd is one tone, he pencils in the linework and begins the inking using the Mod Podge at the end of each setting. To create contrast, he uses a brush to paint some areas with black.
He is not limited to just the gourd color. Any light color will work. Like this technique done in mint green. And if you look close, the cartoon artist has suddenly appeared again!
“We all have to work with the shape of the gourd. Most times I buy gourds that I already see what I want to make of it . And other times I just have to wing it.”
“The cat gourd had collapsed sitting in the Florida sun so it took me time to see it sitting there.
I just make it up as I go.”
Creating Bumps and Noses
“Bumps on heads and noses are done with a fix-it stick I get at Lowes in the plumbing department. It’s a two-part puddy that gets hard in 5 minutes, so you have to work fast. I put small nails in the gourd first then I shape the puddy. After it gets hard, I paint it!”
A Cartoon artist’s approach to yard Art-
Bird heads Outside
“Where I live, the sun takes its toll on the paint job. A newly painted gourd will last about a year, then I bring it in. I sand it, paint it white and start all over again. Then I cover it again with marine varnish.”
“I don’t like throwing gourds away. I pull out the white and just start over on them like I did with this gourd.”
“I always kind of hate coming to the end of painting a gourd. I feel a little lost until I think of something else to make.”
Billy has all of his work on Facebook. Not only gourds but other weird and funny photo montages. If you decide to follow him, you will be assured a glimpse at an unusually funny gourd to make you smile. Plus, you will begin to see the world from a cartoon artist view point!
Have you tried your luck at creating “funny character gourds?
Which part of the project is the most difficult?
Please, share your thoughts here in the comment box or share them with all the gourd artists on our Facebook Group Page.
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