Early Beginnings/Influences
Courtesy of the Lettering Book by Noelene Morris
Here is a quick shout-out to what I think were some early artistic-influences, before high school.
The lettering book I purchased from our school book club in fourth grade:
I remember being in awe of this book. I’d never seen anything like it before. Oh the memories of tracing the letters with tracing paper and arranging them to make designs, so much fun, and I still have the book, amazing! I’ll post some photos of it, if I can find it. Oh the days of design before computer-aided graphic design software. Drafting tables, paper, pens, pencils, rulers, and late nights. I must give props to those talented designers!
Footrot Flats comic by Murray Ball and also Garfield, by Jim Davis:
I don’t know how I discovered Footrot Flats, but it sort of captured what it was like living in rural Australia, (not that I lived in a similar setting), but it’s probably what most people used to think living in Australia was like, at least at the time. It chronicles the daily adventures of the sheep dog and his owner and Aussie rural living.
Another big influence were the Garfield comic books. This was before it was called Garfield and friends, and it was simply known as Garfield. I also remember tracing the drawings and being in awe of Davis’s style of animation. I just loved Garfield’s and Odie’s playful antics too! Why was Garfield so hungry all the time anyway? And why Lasagna? Don’t get me wrong I do enjoy a good lasagna; it is random for a cat though, but I digress.
The giant art book about the French Impressionist movement and artists:
Ok, I know I said before high school, but I think this may have been during, but it was a giant art book all about the famous impressionist artists and all about the movement in general. Although Impressionism is not my favorite art movement, it was a pivotal time in Art history, and a break-away from the traditional art galleries A.K.A. “Salon’s,” who more or less controlled the art market in Europe at the time. In many ways, Impressionism marks the beginnings and very early stages of “modern art.” More importantly the movement represented a different way of seeing and capturing light, and how light shifts throughout the day, and depicting it in a direct, immediate manner, “en plein-air,” outside in the open air, instead of in their studios. There you go, a little bonus art history lesson, that you didn’t ask for, but hey, now you know right?
I remember buying this book at the mall, (shout-out to B. Dalton Booksellers, I think it was). Unfortunately, I don’t own the book anymore, but I remember it being a great book, full of wonderful images. If I can find an image of the book cover, I’ll post it with this blog. Ah yes, those were the days!
There were undoubtedly other things along the way I’ve drawn inspiration from, but these were a few highlights that stood out to me at the time of writing, and I thought were worth mentioning. I hope you enjoyed the blog. Thanks for your support!
Also, stay tuned for something new! A new, updated series, (without giving too much away), is in the works, but I don’t have a release date at this time. In the meantime, I’ll post more of these bonus blogs, when I can, and the schedules will be random, so check my website, Facebook, and Instagram everyday!
Go check out the previous bonus blog I published, which was a tribute to the animation legacy of Walt Disney and the sketches I did while in Disneyland! You can find them in the blog section and scroll back to previous/older blogs.
#ShoutOut #TheLetteringBook #FootrotFlats #MurrayBall #EarlyArtisticInspiration #ArtisticInspiration #Garfield #Odie #GarfieldAndFriends #JimDavis #Impressionism #BDaltonBookseller #WaltDisney #WaltDisneyStudios #Disneyland
Copyright Tim Bovey 2025.
The sheep dog from Footrot Flats, by Murray Ball. What a great likeness! My kind of graffiti!
A shout-out to the vintage version of the Garfield comic, before my time.
“A Bar at the Folies-Bergère,” Édouard Manet, 1882
“Impression, Sunrise,” Claude Monet, 1872. Fun fact: this is painting that the Impressionism movement was named after.