About Kevin McQueen’s Art

The art that I create is an amalgamation of comic art, video games, hip hop, fantasy, and Japanese manga. When I draw I prefer pencil, marker, or ballpoint pen and I occasionally work with watercolor, acrylics, and paint pens. I began analog, but I have adapted to digital drawing because of the ease of use and portability, which lends to creating on the spot. I create most of my current work using Adobe Photoshop and Procreate.  I enjoy taking a simple sketch on printing paper and transforming it to something bigger or coming up with designs for paintings on a tablet. 

When you look at my art, you will escape to somewhere new and dangerous.  It is a glimpse into the world of my making. My main themes are the connection of robots and pilots - humans and machines - with weapons surviving in a harsh world. 

I pull visual inspiration from graffiti and movies - anything from Quentin Tarantino (Kill Bill or Pulp Fiction), Luc Benson (The Professional, Valerian), or Guy Ritchie (Snatch). Blade Runner, Alien, The Matrix, and Terminator scarred my long term memory. The background scenes in my art are inspired by the anime studios Madhouse (Redline) or Trigger (Gurren Lagann). 

Hip hop artists such as Slick Rick, Slum Village, Nas, Wu Tang, Common, and Mos Def also inspire my work.  I remember how I used to pick up records, drop the needle down and play them. I used to stay up late to record WAMO Hip Hop Hour and share mixtapes with my old art group, Kenji Seay and Antonio Crespo, who I still keep in touch with.  To this day, they continue to inspire and impress me with the art and style.

A lot of my influence can be traced back to my cousin, Tom Woods, who always collected comic books.  I’d copy panels and draw characters like Jim Lee and Chris Claremont’s X-Men, Joe Madureira’s Battle Chasers, George Perez’s Teen Titans, Bill Sinkevich’s New Mutants, and Rob Liefield’s X-Force.  I began watching anime like Akira, Gundam, Kill la Kill, Attack on Titan and Ninja Scroll. 

The art direction in games like Street Fighter, Legend of Zelda, Tekken, Ninja Gaiden has always fascinated me. I clearly remember studying anatomy from Bengus, Akiman, and Daigo Ikeno and Final Fantasy artist Yoshitaka Amano.

Although I am heavily influenced by all of these types of art, I strive not to copy. The main reason why I create art is for piece of mind. Making my art is relaxing and it provides an escape. It is a world apart and very vicious, but it is also a place for you to go to as well.