
"A Happy Hitler" 2010 / inks on paper
Adolf Hitler will forever be one of the most notorious faces and images of hate, evil, and racism to ever exist. In this recent illustration, I posed him painting on a canvas. Hitler's application to art school as a young man was infamously rejected. This fact has sparked trivial debate about whether World War II would have occurred had he been accepted.
Initially, I had my subject with the classic cold stare you see in photographs. My wife and I decided to opt for a smile to not only make the work less menacing but to give face to another side of him (the sick bastard had to smile sometime in his life, right?) For my photo reference of a painter, I used a picture of Bob Ross... which also inspired the work's title. The work is curtained at top and bottom with the flags of all the countries Hitler invaded, conquered, and controlled during his reign.
In my portrait, Hitler is painting an image I found in a real Nazi propaganda cartoon depicting The Giant Jew-Bug taking over the world. The Germans used cartoons as propaganda just as the Americans did
even via Disney cartoons.
UPDATE 10/07/2010
Here is the thumbnail sketch of the original concept for my Happy Little Hitler. I found it rummaging around this morning and thought it was neat to compare. With more complex works such as this, I'll often do a couple of thumbnail sketches before I move on to my final sketch.