Let me be your sidekick

I'm not really into mushy, overly romantic things, rose bouquets or heart shaped boxes of chocolate, but I do like to take the advantage of Valentine's day to have another a bit more special day in a year. This time, I wanted to give something small to my boyfriend and decided to draw him a card. The idea was actually inspired by him; when he doesn't use different variations of my name or call me "dude", he usually calls me his sidekick.

I made two different versions and ended up choosing the more simple option (on the left). The illustration was also part of the Valentine's day Illustration Rally and got featured with a selection of other sweetly illustrated Valentine's greetings.

 

Since I started roaming about the heart-shaped boxes of chocolate, I would like to add that even if I think they are mushy, I don't have anything against them (or their contents). In fact, I don't think chocolate can ever be a bad idea, no matter what kind of package it came in. Actually, my boyfriend has also surprised me with chocolate once by leaving a collection of M&M's and Kinder Buenos behind my door. They were wrapped inside a plastic bag with an anonymous note saying "don't eat them all at once" (which I of course did). I'm sure they couldn't have tasted any better even if they came in a fancy box.

Leopard-skin pill-box hat

My dad is very much into music. When he started playing guitar an odd ten years ago, he was playing every day, all the time until he would get abrasion on his finger nails. When we are listening to the radio on the car, he always challenges us to recognize artists and their songs with a music quiz. It was my dad who took us to Madonna's concert, but nonetheless, he doesn't listen to Lady Gaga or Top 40. Instead, he listens to the "legends of rock", prefers blues over electronic music and is the number one fan of Bob Dylan's.

This week, my dad turned 50 and I wanted to give him something a bit more original as a present. He has been trying to talk me and my sister (who studies art) into producing some Bob Dylan-related artwork for quite some years already, so I took the hint and decided to illustrate something inspired by Bob Dylan's lyrics. I ended up choosing a song from "Blonde On Blonde", one of my dad's favourite albums, and picked the brilliantly sarcastic lyrics of a song called "Leopard-skin Pill-box Hat". (Before grabbing my pencil, I read through some analysis on the meaning of the song. Apparently it's about Edie Sedgwick and her lifestyle after becoming the muse of Andy Warhol.)

So, here's what came out of it: an illustration featuring the first lines of the song. The style is pretty feminine, but I thought it would be okay - my mom doesn't really like Bob Dylan's music, but she's probably going to be okay with displaying a piece of it in the house if it's concealed within a cutesy package. A win-win situation!