I have a confession: probably one of my largest influences for becoming an artist is the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I’m talking the total package: comic, film, and cartoon.
When I was about 9 and living in Puerto Rico, my brother and I were totally obsessed. We wandered around chanting the theme song ( “Heroes in a half shell – turtle power!” ), and I usually wanted to be Donatello. Plus, DUDE, they’re named after ARTISTS, how cool is that??!
The Turtles were like regular teenage boys; they loved pizza and skateboards and spoke like true Cali surf boys with sayings such as “Dude!” and “Cowabunga!”. Their master was a giant rat named Splinter, and their arch-nemesis was a creepy guy named Shredder.
Like most kids, I spent my allowance money on comics: Archie, Betty & Veronica, Cracked, MAD Magazine, Ralph Snart Adventures, and, of course, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
One day, while laying on the floor of a laundromat as my dad did laundry, I was studying one of my TNMT comics and copying the art. I was really struggling with this drawing, because I was trying to copy the sewer lid in the street scene. I kept drawing it over and over, but it remained a simple circle:
Then, suddenly:
Holy crap! I had just taught myself the correct perspective of the sewer lid! It was a total AHA! moment, and I still remember it to this day.
Later, the TMNT film came out. Oh. My. God. My brother and I flipped out. A live-action movie? Our VHS cassette surely almost melted from repeated watching.
There was one scene in particular that really caught my attention: as the Turtles and April O’Neil hide in a woodland farmhouse while Raphael recuperates from an attack (this sentence sounds absolutely ridiculous), she sketches a couple of the Turtles in color pencil.
April is shown sketching this Donatello drawing, which is superimposed over the real scene.
And again, with a drawing of Leonardo. You can see where Leo’s leg has been repositioned.
WHOOOAAAAAAA…..My 9-year-old mind was blown. I remember thinking, I wanna DO THAT. I want to draw, just like that!
And I did. I drew a lot. I drew characters from the Looney Tunes, I drew the Little Mermaid, and yeah, I drew Taz, like a thousand times. Once, a classmate asked me to draw a bunch of Taz fliers for their student campaign promotion. I had drawn the dude so many times that I could draw from memory, and I whipped those fliers out like I was a copy machine (which….uh…would have been easier).
And I drew the Turtles. Because nothing perfects an artist’s hand-eye coordination better than obsessively copying your favorite characters.
So, thanks, TNMT.
Great story. Thanks for sharing.
TMNT was also a big reason for me gaining an interest in art as well. Not just for the cool visuals like you mentioned, but also for the fact that it was the product of 2 artists who took a crazy idea, ran with it, and made it into something that took the whole world by storm. It’s a hugely inspiring story. Now I teach drawing to kids and get to tell them all about how awesome Ninja Turtles are.
Sayonara.
Agreed. I’m sure the creators had no idea just how far-reaching their little comic would go. The unexpected can happen with the craziest of ideas!
i saw this video years ago – but your little post here reminded me it existed…if anything it’s proof of your point above, the creators had NO idea how far their idea would go, true that!
holy turtle!