TeeFury was able to poke and prod into the brilliant and off-kilter mind of BeastPop (aka Jared Moraitis) to find out his creative process for today’s TwoFury “Ronald McDonald Duck” and “Flying Spaghoofy Monster”. This master of lowbrow art with influences ranging from gig-posters to vinyl toys, often cause people to pause upon viewing his outlandish designs. His ability to melt together various pop-culture icons in an unexpected way have conjured up some of TeeFury’s most beloved tees. Past notable designs like “Zombama Returns” and “Mickthulhu Mouse” have been well-received by fans, showcasing his capacity for oddity and playfulness, yet explore corporate identities and how they’ve encompassed our lives, akin to fictional deities and convenience. Today’s TwoFury tees follow suit, and perfectly illustrate BeastPop’s gumption to tackle seemingly illogical mash-ups, and seamlessly making them blend perfectly together.
TF: Tell us a bit about these designs and the process you use to create them.
BP: I’d originally intended to do a series of these similarly-themed “mascot desecration” designs, and “Mickthulhu Mouse” happened to be the first. It’s something that’s been on my huge list of ideas for quite a while, so it felt good to finally get around to finishing it, and I was happy enough with the final design that I decided to continue with a few of the other characters on my list. I also figured that because these sorts of illustrations feature less elaborate detail and coloring than is usually present in most of my designs, they would give me something a bit lighter and more fun to work on in between more meaty projects. As my previous subject matter, Cthulhu, is a fictional deity of sorts, I was still in that mode while I was brainstorming ideas for what became the Flying Spaghoofy Monster.
If you’ve ever read about the origins and meaning behind The Flying Spaghetti Monster, they’re just as ridiculous and clumsy as the goofy cartoon dog I ended up pairing together, so it seemed a perfect match, and (an important factor in my designs) it allowed for a somewhat clever play on words for the name/title. Wanting to veer away from the quasi-religious angle for the next design, I took a bit of a silly dip into the word-association pool and came up with “Ronald McDonald Duck”. Old MacDonald had already been done before in association with this duck character, and if was truly going to desecrate some mascots, what better place to turn than the most famous clown mascot of the largest fast food chain in the world! Nothing sinister or meaningful there, however — just good clean, silly fun and some play on names resulting in … a cartoon clown-duck with ketchup all over his face.
Both of these designs were roughed out on sketch paper, scanned in and blown up, then redrawn (in a more polished fashion) in red pencil onto Strathmore bristol paper. I then inked directly over the pencils using mostly watercolor brushes and india ink (with a bit of pen for touchups). The inks were then scanned, cleaned up a bit, and then colored and layered in Photoshop. I usually work at about 130% of the final reproduced size so any rough bits and choppiness are lessened when it’s reduced for final printing. And that’s how the sausage is made… more or less.
Thanks so much for these unique insights into the creative process!
BeastPop has been churning out illustrious designs for TeeFury since 2009. We are as pleased as punch as BeastPop’s classics act in titular style as “Zombama Returns” and “Not Cool” comes crashing back into our Gallery.
Already legendary “Coldest in the Galaxy” comes out it’s short spell in carbon freeze into our Gallery— And while there you can also check out BeastPop’s other infamous designs already previously available like “Mickthulhu Mouse”, “Cthul-Aid” and “Bounty Hunter”. Whatever your fandom, these unique designs will strike a unique chord when worn– be warned! :]