815 - "Savage Chickens On Abbey Road"

Here is more JSVB fan-art for Doug Savage's world-famous "Savage Chickens" cartoon.  I recently had the opportunity to meet Doug in person, which seemed to me the best excuse I would have to get him interested in a print.  I hope that Doug will link back here, and in doing so, perhaps his fans will also be interested in my artwork.  There is a growing collection of it here on JSVB, and much of it is for sale!   This picture in particular I don't think I can sell on account of licensing issues and all, but I would happily work on commission, or ship fine art prints of my other stuff.  My e-mail is at the top of the page. 

 

As for Savage Chickens on Abbey Road... for many weeks, I had toyed with the idea of featuring Doug's lovable chickens in a Renaissance-style painting masterpiece.  I looked through my Uffizi Gallery catalogue to choose the right painting to replicate.  I was close to putting the chickens into The Birth Of Venus by Sandro Botticelli, when I realized where I had seen this idea before: Gary Larson had replaced La Gioconda (the famous Mona Lisa) with a cow.  For that matter, hundreds of artists have defaced or re-faced this picture.  I decided to pick a more contemporary work.  My wife, practising her ukulele music, was following the chord progressions for music by The Beatles, and in a flash of inspiration, I saw Doug Savage's chickens on Abbey Road.

 

"This is a masterwork, Jeff!", cries the audience.  Not so fast.  The majority of this piece was rotoscoped, painted over pre-existing elements.  It was the fastest way to work and also maintain the basics of the original Iain Macmillan photograph.  Abbey Road is a picture that music fans and conspiracy theorists have pored over in almost infinite detail.  Rotoscoping allowed me the oppotunity to preserve some of this:

 

1. The first chicken is wearing white and posed like John Lennon in his white suit.  True trivia: I own a white suit. 
2. The second chicken is not wearing black, but maybe looks like Ringo Starr
3. Chewbacca is barefoot and carrying Paul McCartney's cigarette.  He is leading with the wrong foot, however and is out of step.  This is because I painted Chewie over top of Frame 352 of the  Patterson-Gimlin Sasquatch film.  It's a pose almost as famous as Abbey Road.  Chewie is featured in Doug Savage's most popular cartoons.
4. Doug Savage never drew legs or feet for Prodbot3000, an artistic omission I found highly annoying.  Doug avoids drawing legs and feet whenever he can.  Subsequently, there are very few characters to choose from his cartoon that could functionally be posed on Abbey Road.  I gave Prodbot3000 George Harrison's blue legs, on account of George wearing jeans.
5. Tommy Tofu stands where Paul Cole stood (a bystander caught in the photograph who hated the Beatles music).  Conjecture: Tommy Tofu hates the Beatles, too.  Just a rumour, though, I have no proof to back this statement.  True fact: Tommy Tofu is yet another "Savage Chickens" character with no legs. 
6. The worm is out of scale, placed where other blurry bystanders stood.
7. The Beatles' Volkswagen Beetle (again, another bystander, this car was owned by a neighbour who left the car behind when he went on vacation) is converted into a fast-food chicken delivery service.  The licence plate features Doug's favourite number, 2005.  True insight: I have no idea what Doug's favourite number is.  However, I figured he might well ignore a midnight e-mail from one of his fans demanding "DOUG!!! WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE NUMBER??? I need to know within the hour!!!".  

For other JSVB Savage Chickens fan art, please cluck here.

For a picture of my wife's ukulele, please click here.

The Savage Chickens characters appear on JSVB due the kind permission of Doug Savage.  Chewbacca is the intellectual property of the Walt Disney Corporation.