Uniform Differences

It's been interesting to note the differing responses from Marines and Army Infantry, when they encounter my military drawings for the first time. Their reactions are consistent, and by now predictable: 

Uncommon Valor

Marines are fascinated by the intricacies of the Uncommon Valor picture. They immediately start picking out individual images that they can relate to: Tun Tavern. Dan Daly. The Root. This is a picture that was, quite literally, made for them.

They want to know how they can own one. When they learn that half of the purchase price goes to the USMC Wounded Warrior Regiment, they want to buy a bigger, more expensive one. It’s an expression of their culture, of their pride in being Marines.

Army Infantry are just as proud, just as cohesive, perhaps even more exclusive in their group identity. They seem to approach the Follow Me drawing of their own Iron Mike with a measure of skepticism, wary that it was produced by an outsider, not one of their own – someone who could not possibly understand the level of sacrifice and earned camaraderie it takes to be 11-Bravo, and who might just be trying to take advantage of their traditions, for personal gain.

Follow Me

They would, of course, be correct – in all three assumptions.

Bravos tend not to buy my artwork, even when they learn that a large portion of each sale goes directly to the Army’s AW2 Warrior Transition Command. WTC functions somewhere behind the battle lines; 11-B’s face toward it.

Fortunately for me (and more important for the Wounded Warriors), sales of Follow Me are starting to pick up. Just over a year after its release, infantry soldiers still have little interest in supporting a non-military artist, but the picture is gaining ground in the marketplace nonetheless. People are buying them as gifts.

Wives, mothers, sweethearts, and sisters have embraced the Army drawing, and in so doing have created a necessary buffer between artist and infantryman. Many times I have witnessed Bravos being led reluctantly to my art display, my pictures forced into their hands by an enthusiastic loved one. At that point the soldiers are obligated to look once, but then they look again at the drawing, a little more closely this time, and their expressions begin to change. They see the historic head covers, the edged weapons, the firearms arranged in chronological order from musket to SAW.

Then it doesn't matter who made this drawing. They know it honors them.

I wonder, now that a third Air Force design has been completed and added to the series, whether Airmen will react with enthusiasm or reluctance to the latest drawing, Aiming High. 

After Valentine’s Day, we should have a pretty good idea.

 

Aiming High

Now In Paperback! Celebrating a Quarter Century of Silly Art

A while back we decided to put together a coffee table book, celebrating the first twenty years of composite drawings to emerge from the DS Art Studio. What a fun idea: fifty-six of our most popular pictures, tucked neatly into a single 80-page volume.

At the time we were advised that publishing a hardbound art book was a fool’s errand. Nobody buys art books, we were told, by several big-name publishers (some of which are still in business). You do good work, but you’re unknown artist. There’s no market for unknowns. No need to rub it in. My kids think I’m famous, and that’s a start, right?

So, we decided to self-publish. Plenty of unsolicited advice followed that consideration, too. Better start small. Print on demand. Otherwise, how will you ever get rid of a thousand copies? Well, we weren’t sure. It was an academic problem, anyway, since we didn’t really have the money to get that many books printed at all, much less have them distributed to book stores all across the country.

Enter our esteemed List of Loyal Customers. It turned out that many of the people who enjoyed looking at these funny pictures also liked the idea of seeing them gathered together in a book – so much so that they actually agreed to purchase copies before the books were printed, and even paid for them ahead of time! Their response was so encouraging, in fact, that we were able to double our initial order, and produce two thousand copies. Take that, publishers!

Book dealers remained skeptical, however. Distributors scoffed. Lacking the imprimatur of a bona fide publishing house, few booksellers were willing to take on an amateur publication by a (still) unknown artist. So, aside from a handful of art galleries and neighborhood bookstores, our distribution network was quickly limited to the DS Art Studio, our web site, and our annual tour of art shows.

It took a while, but as news of the book spread, its popularity grew, and in time the waist-high stacks of book boxes that cluttered the floors of our studio melted away to nothing more than a handful of individual copies.

Which left us with an interesting dilemma: Do we undertake another massive fundraising campaign to re-print the hardbound volume, or should we try and produce a more cost-effective paperback edition? In the end, we took the cheaper way out.

That made it easier for us, and offered a significant a price break for our customers. Since 2011 marks the 25^th anniversary of DS Art, we thought it would be reasonable to price these new paperbacks accordingly, at 25 bucks each.

We are happy to report that just like before, the new books are stacked all around the studio, and they’re going fast. You can find them on Amazon, or right here at DSArt.com. (Yes, they make excellent gifts!)