Raised On The Street

A Sesame Street kind of week!

Sesame Street was such a major part of life for me growing up in the 80’s. Throw in the Muppet Show, Muppet movies, and later Muppet Babies, Jim Henson and company played a huge part in inspiring creativity and embracing my imagination as a kid who loved drawing.

My dad was an artist as well. He didn’t create a lot of things but he was great at looking at something and recreating it. On the walls of my first bedroom that I can remember were a few of those recreations. He painted Bozo The Clown on one wall, and Bert and Ernie on the others.

Thanks to my brother Landon and step-mom Becky Young for digging around and finding photos of that room! Clearly my Dad bought Black, White, Blue and Red paint for Bozo and just decided to throw Bert And Ernie up too…using those same colors instead of their traditional ones. hahaha. That part I DID NOT remember. haha

They were a part of my day to day life until 3rd grade when we moved into town and left that old country house behind. I wondered if the next kid to have that room would love them as much as I did.

We threw some Sesame Street/Henson documentaries on at the studio and I started sketching. Oscar The Grouch is my favorite member of the gang so he was up first. And then I had to pay tribute to my old roommates from 40+ years ago.

When I got home that night, I kept watching the documentaries and looked at my Oscar sketch from earlier. I liked it. But I felt like I could push it a bit more and have a bit more of an idea for composition. So I grabbed a piece of 11x14 Bristol board instead of the 9x12 most of my Daily Sketches are drawn on, and went at it again. Sometimes when just sketching I dive in too fast and don’t take time to think out the space and composition. I liked my first pass at Oscar, but I knew once I got into it I didn’t have as much of a plan as I wanted. The second swing has much stronger composition and I pushed the shapes and hair much further. And it’s BIGGER! I liked being able to have a little more room.

The docs were still on and I thought I’d keep the sketches coming. So I dove in and did Cookie Monster, then Big Bird, and finally the Martians with their weird mouths and YIPS and NOPES. I was really happy with how these came out. I think they capture their character getting a little extra with them. The puppets are restricted by what can be done by a puppeteer but I’m not. I wanted to lean into the MONSTER part of Cookie Monster and make him bigger. I pushed the variation of proportions on Big Bird to give him even more of bouncy, swinging feel. And the Martians…well, let’s face it, they’re about as weird and pushed as you can get already. I didn’t do much to them. haha.

I couldn’t have predicted that a billion years later that I’d be a dad watching Sesame Street with my kids and perfecting my Appy Cadabby voice as I tried my best to be a good puppeteer. They raised this kid and then became a part of me raising my kids. Life is pretty weird and awesome.

Once I wrote this newsletter, I had some extra time at the end of the work day so I put on another doc and added a few more. I mean, how could I not do Mr. Snuffleupagus? Also, let’s not pretend that he wasn’t Big Bird’s complete acid trip vision. I know they called him his “imaginary friend” but I mean… we’re talking about a show that was created by bunch of arthouse weirdos in the 70’s. That Wooly Mammoth looking beast was the result of a ton of drugs! I couldn’t leave out The Count so I threw him in too.

That will probably wrap up my Sesame Street series for now. Maybe I’ll do some Muppets next. We’ll see.

Alright, get outta here!