Gibber-gabber
Etch-a-Sketch art: artform and cottage industry
beingzoe almost 4 years ago

We’ve all played with an Etch-a-Sketch . Like the yo-yo and the hula hoop it seems to be a staple in the American array of classic toys that have spanned the generations. And like Lego’s this little “toy” has become a popular form of “outsider” or “folk” art and apparently it’s own cottage industry.

The Etch-a-Sketch was born in the mind of Arthur Granjean and originally called the Magic Screen. When H.W. Winzeler, owner of Ohio Art, first saw the magic screen at a European toy fair in 1959, he knew it was something special. He licensed the toy and released it the public in the United States in 1960 just in time for the holiday season. The rest is legend.

Over the years, the Etch-a-Sketch has come in many forms including various digital versions, ranging from a handheld “gameboy” style verison with 12kb of memory, to a fancier 6 color version of the same, and even a version you could use on your television.

With the popularity and pervasiveness of such things, there will always be those who take it one step further. In this case, making actual art. Not just amazing drawings made with two knobs, but actual salable works ranging from caricature to original fine art and painting replications.

Some of the best I’ve seen come from George Vlosich III on his site gvetchedintime.com . George takes the whole phenomena to new levels, executing illustrations that could easily be used in professional design. His Etch-a-Sketch style seems as though they have been done with graphic inks or in Illustrator or Photoshop. George’s work was so good in fact, even at an early age, winning time and again Ohio Art’s Etch-a-Sketch drawing contests, that a representative from the company came to his house to verify that he was actually doing the drawings on an Etch-a-Sketch. Now he is a fine artist in his own right. Be sure to check out the gallery on his main site, but also see some more of his work and pictures of him at events and with celebrities at this gallery .

On par with George is Christopher Brown and his company Etch U Productions . He is building a creative empire out of the famous toy. His company offers party sketching doing live drawings, or speed sketchings, of and for your guests, which they can keep as a digital image, on a t-shirt, as a video of it’s creation, or even the entire toy itself that can be hung as art. They also offer preservation techniques and services including poster and other enlargements of his work.

Where George has a more controlled style, Christopher Brown demonstrates a more freehand pencil sketch style of artwork.

Then there are the hobbyists and enthusiasts. You can find a whole slew of them at the Etch-a-Sketch group on Flickr . Or check out this Daily Mail article/posting of famous paintings reproduced on an Etch-a-Sketch mostly be artist Jeff Gagliardi .

Other notable Etch-a-Sketchers I found online include Keith Drake at wanderline , Flickr member etchasketchist , and Nicole Falzone who has been featured in the LA Times and The USA Today.

If you are an etch-a-sketcher post some pics of your work here at CoTradeCo for others to see. From the simple to the amazing, we would love to see them.

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