A Boy and His Bike

A Boy and His Bike

I was feeling pretty inspired after that last post, so I made a new illustrated-photography piece. Pretty rare for me to do self-portraits, and even rarer to do two in a row, but this one is special in a couple ways. First, it’s me, way back when I was seven or eight, at Christmas, receiving my first bicycle. I was playing it cool for the camera, but I was totally stoked! This is also unique in that it’s the first illustrated-photo where I’ve used a photo taken by someone else, in this case, my mom. (Thanks mom!) It was really neat to work on this, because it felt like time traveling 30 years back in time. I still remember that day clearly. That gleaming blue and silver bike. That Garfield reflector. It being a frigid Michigan winter day, but me riding the heck out of my new wheels. Sadly, that bike got hacked up in high school by a friend who wanted to experiment with BMX customization (and he kind of mangled it in the process). I gave it, in its current form, to another friend of mine last year, so he could use it for something. I trust him to put it to better use, and even though I have fond feelings for it, it’s not that usable in its current state, thanks to high school dude. After doing this piece, I feel a bit wistful, and miss the bike. I can’t use it myself, obviously, but now that my wife and I are thinking of expanding our family to three in the future, it would be neat to see if it could be fixed up and given to future kid someday. Oh well, you can’t go backwards…

 

Fun fact, this is my 50th illustrated-photo done on computer, and 76th overall. The first one I’ve done with the combination of CG/Wacom and film photo, and (as mentioned) the first one done using someone else’s photo. Here’s to another 50!

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