Gasmasks are a great subject for artwork, reflecting an impersonal human quality and reflecting feelings of fear and aggression - plus they just look cool as steam-punk, retro-modern contraptions. A collaboration themed issue of DLA (Dead Letter Art - art collective) was the impetus for this drawing. Four separate gasmask creations were stitched together to form a drawing, similar in style to the Dadaist “exquisite corpse” recipe.

The original drawing was done after perusing the Internet for inspiring examples, although the photos were used only as a rough guideline - once the Sharpie ink starts spilling out on the paper, my imagination gets the best of me. What are the tubes in the helmet? Nobody knows - you go ask him!

After the image was used for the DLA zine cover, I felt like developing it a little further with some digital enhancements. First step, as it usually is, was making a selection (saving it!) and getting the image to its own layer. Experiments in color flow in after that.

The final image was composited of several separate layers:

• Background with base colors and texture.
• Image layer of of drawings blend together to form an ‘army’.
• Copy of image layer colorized as a duotone.
• Copy of image layer blurred and masked to form a chemical haze.

A mob of seemingly apathetic soldiers stares ominously from behind a cloud of poisonous gas, apparently unaffected and their crowded, looming presence seems to imply they are coming to get you, after all…