Background: As one of the many kids in high schools across the United States that thought wearing black would make them seem aloof or mysterious, I would wear a long, black coat called a duster almost everyday, regardless of the temperature. Beneath my coat I’d wear more black clothes. Other kids would refer to me as Death and when I stalked the halls crowds would part for me. No joke. In my junior year I’d grown out my hair pretty significantly — though not quite as long as depicted here — and I was toying with the idea of sketching a figure whose face was enshrouded by the shadows of their hair. So we have this piece.

Points of Interest

Vertebrae: This is probably a small point, but if you could see the drawing in real life, you’d see that the shadows in the Grim Reaper’s hood are actually pretty dark — to the point where it wouldn’t really be necessary to draw his spinal cord. I drew it anyway and when you look at the sketch at an angle, the light shows the vertebrae. I thought it was pretty cool.

Boot and Heart: I’ve drawn myself wearing my favorite boots — Harley Davidson motorcycle boots with a steel square toe — which I still wear to this day. Also, the tree stump has a heart carved into it and only the bottom remains after the tree was cut down. So all it says now is “+ René” which was my cry as a tortured teenage artist for the love that had abandoned me.

Skull Pile: Whenever I draw a figure putting his foot up on something, I never decide on what that something is going to be ahead of time. That means the figure is usually standing on a big rock or some rubble. So when I created this pile of skulls, I thought I was pretty slick.