Creating Harold
by
Kevin Waldron
I made a cat first. My wife every now and then considers
getting a cat. I say no, “What will it do all day in our tiny apartment?” So I
made a little picture instead called 24 hrs in the life of a cat that hangs on our wall.
I quite liked how scribbley the drawings were against the
very organised photographic background. So I made another, this time with a
black and white dog. I had drawn a full page of Boston terriers, more than I
could fit on the photo from the magazine, so I made the simplest gif with all
of them in no particular order .
The nice people at Phaidon spotted him and we arranged to meet.
I didn’t have anything else in mind other than showing them
what I had been working on in my studio for my own satisfaction. Like this
collage of 10th street near my home in Manhattan.
All the windows and
doors are antique chairs, tables, dressers, etc. So we had a dog we liked and now
a city. Dogs like slippers and I’ve always thought the Brooklyn Bridge from
afar looks a bit like giant, old wooden pegs.
Here is another unfinished collage I was experimenting with that contributed
the final ingredient- food!
In fact
food appeared quite often in my collages as there were so many advertisements
for it in the magazines I found.
The dog lived in an apartment in the city and was obsessed
with food, let’s make a story around that!
So from then on I looked at everything in the city through a hungry
dog’s eyes!
We just had to
think of a way to get Harold outside on his own so he could show us these new
sights.
When I had enough collages to play with I
started to refine them in a way that would keep the spontaneity of my sketches.
Using a wash colour background suited this and was a good tool for filling the
space that didn’t interest Harold!
Harold’s Hungry Eyes
by Kevin Waldron is published by Phaidon.
www.phaidon.com/Harold
With HUGE thanks to Kevin,
Lorraine and Phaidon
Visit Kevin's fabulous website here
With HUGE thanks to Kevin,
Lorraine and Phaidon
Visit Kevin's fabulous website here
Follow Kevin on Twitter @kevinjwaldron
DOWNLOAD you very own Harold Screensaver HERE
NEXT STOP on Harold's magical mystery tour... MINERVA READS http://www.minervareads.com
