Cover Story: Goin' Berzerk with Eminem

Article Transcript

A lot of people ask me…. where the f@#% my head’s at when I create my artwork. Sh**, ... I don’t know. Sometimes I wonder where these thoughts spawn from. But I DO know… I’m here now to show you my process.

Eminem is a true artist who isn’t afraid to speak his mind or do whatever he feels like doing in his music. His voice changes a lot with every album, he’s a fan and student of the art of rap, and he has mastered so many different styles that it’s just ridiculously redonkadonk. As difficult as his voice is to mimic (I’ve been trying for years), his face is just as tough to capture, as it’s also always changing and morphing (into an immortal) and is just as expressive. He’s now sharper, leaner, and starting to show his age as a jowly ol’ fellow. But he’s still got lots of energy and intensity, especially in his eyes. And for someone as loud and aggressive as he is, he’s got a pretty small mouth. Eminem is like devil’s fire with an angel’s golden glow. With the brain of a poet and the tongue of a snake. With the nose of a ski jump and the cheekbones of a.... um, sharp-cheekbone-ed man.

I was able to finally do some video chats with Em, aka Marshall Mathers, and took these screencaps on my Eyefone! Wow! Before that, he never got back to me from all those letters and that cassette I sent him, even though I know I wrote the addresses on ‘em perfect. Oh well, I tried. He said he just never got around to checking the mail. Get it, checking the male? I spent a few hours sketching Em. I sketched enough quick sketches to make you retch and belch till you’re frickin’ sick, so I picked just six. I went with sharp, angular shapes to show his sharpness and a few curved shapes to show some of his remaining baby youthfulness. I gave him angry eyebrows that double as horny devil horns that are being pushed down by forehead wrinkles. In the final finished drawing, I don’t feel like I totally got him or drew him that cray cray, but I’m decently happy with it, knowing that it was just one attempt at him. That’s what I love about caricatures; you can always try drawing someone again and try to capture them better and different-er-ly the next time. Wow! What a fun life we have :DDD ! Check out Eminem’s music on iTunes or youtube or your local Betamax and 8-track shop if you’re not an obsessive fan Stan like me so you can follow my stupid reinterpretations of some of his lyrics along the way on this journey of epic proportions :D

Page 11 text

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s show time! Hurry, hurry, read this up! So without further ado, I bring to you… Marshall! f (in the style of Eminem’s “Business”)
“So... let’s start off with business, I got lots of space to show my art, what is this? Must be a rainbow in hand, help you understand, what I can, can I get a quick sketch? HELL NO!”

This took many hours: a quick sketch it was not. For this magic trick I’ll be using just those colors above for now until I realize later on that I’ll need black as well (SPOILER!). I start drawing with one color at a time, keeping those lines loosey-goosey to give my shapes some life and human error.
f (like from Em’s “Rap God”) “They said I draw like a robot, so call me DrawBot.”

Page 12 text

When it comes to the puckered mouth and pink eyes, I make them vibrant and start to fill up the paper grain.
ARRGGHGHHGHRRGGHH!!!
You gotta press hard to infuse that beautiful color into the paper! Here you can see a man that is me clearly exaggerating how hard that man needed to press the artstix. MUST.
PRESSSS.
HARDERRRR!!!
(think like a “Rap God”) “uh, suma lama duma lama you assumin’ I’m a human, what I gotta draw to get it through to you I’m super human, innovative and I draw with color so that any jaw I saw is getting stretched and sketched ‘cause that’s just what i do to you”