The Picture of Everything
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
These are but small fractions from artist Howard Hallis’ monumental project, The Picture of Everything. According to Hallis:
It all started in 1997 when I began doing a drawing of Spider-Man. This led to a drawing of other super heroes from Marvel and DC around him in the picture. Soon I had Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, Spawn and The Hulk and was quickly thinking of more. Inspired by some of the works of Alex Ross and other comic book artists, I decided to try and draw as many super heroes as I could in one picture.
Soon I began to think of super heroes that were cartoon characters, such as Blue Falcon and Dynomutt and Hong Kong Phooey. If I started drawing cartoon characters, why not add all the cartoons I could think of as well? And aren’t The Beatles cartoons? Then why not all the rock stars?! And movie stars! And space ships, fantasy buildings, historical figures and places! And why not all the religious figures and iconography? Think about all the famous vehicles from movies and TV, you have to put those in… And video game characters!
Soon I had all the modern and ancient wonders of the world, 157 Pokemon, reproductions of Alex Grey, MC Escher and other famous artists works (not easy to draw, let me tell you!), and as many space ships, religious figures, cartoon characters, historical figures and places, imaginary buildings, super heroes, famous vehicles, movie stars, rock stars, corporate logos, flags of the world, and robots that I could think of in one giant picture. I even included my friends and family in there for good measure. You can’t leave them out, now can you?
The picture was done on 8.5 by 11 inch pieces of regular typing paper, held together by scotch tape and separated into four massive sections. These sections were each approximately 76.5 inches in width and 44 inches in length, bringing the completed picture to 76.5 by 176 inches. The drawing was done with colored pencils and Sharpies. The original is now framed in 4 sections.
Check out the site to witness the extraordinary thoroughness that went into this drawing (which the artist actually destroyed in 2005). The site even provides a key so you can identify everybody in the piece.
via Coudal