Whether it be Twitter, Facebook your text messages or just general web surfing, it’s almost certain you’ve seen the work of 100% Soft. The artist has become the go-to person in terms of pop culture emojis because his style is so perfectly suited to it. This weekend, he’s having his second solo art show, and we’re excited to debut some of the pieces.
Mass Hysteria 2 opens at Gallery 1988 East in Los Angeles this Friday, August 26. In it, 100% Soft (also known by his real name Truck Torrence) has created a slew of pop culture art in his adorable style, all focusing on big groups of characters, hence “Mass Hysteria”. Here’s the trailer:
“I really wanted to keep with the same theme of my first show,” Torrence told us. “Big casts and crowds, but this time up the scope and push myself further. I illustrated over 700 individual characters across 25-plus pieces for the show so it was quite the marathon, but I love so many of these characters that even though it was a pretty daunting endeavour, I still had a lot of fun with each piece.”
Here are a few items from the collection, along with Torrence’s explanations of what inspired him.
Mad Max: Fury Road was my favourite movie last year, I was blown away by the scope of it and the second I got out of the theatre I immediately wanted to start drawing all those characters and vehicles. The more I started working on it, the bigger it got until I realised it was probably going to have to be 5 feet [1.5m] long in order to capture all the details I wanted. I feel like George Miller would respect that.
I’m hard-pressed to think of another modern series that has as many great characters as Harry Potter. I didn’t plan on watching the whole series again when I was working on this print but I ended up doing it anyway because it’s so engrossing. I tried to include every character that has a significant moment in the series and that list ended up being pretty daunting. I think there are 75 individual characters in the print, and I could have easily kept going! Sorry all you Mundungus lovers out there, he didn’t make the cut.
I’m a big zombie fan and I had previously done prints for Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, and Shaun of the Dead so [The Walking Dead] seemed like the next logical step in my zombie series. I also really wanted to draw a cute Bob with his severed leg. Sorry Bob!
Sometimes the production and character design in a movie is so perfect, it’s irresistible to draw and Mars Attacks definitely has that quality. It’s such a funny and irreverent movie so it was fun to go back and re-watch it for inspiration.
If you’re wondering how Torrence keeps track of all these characters across so many movies, episodes and so on, he starts with a spreadsheet, listing all the characters and elements he wants. The list comes both from his head and from research.
Once that’s done, he starts drawing each character from reference, “making sure I’m capturing their defining characteristics,” he said. And as he finishes, he keeps each movie or show on in the background for inspiration. “It helps sets the tone of the piece. Also if there’s specific set pieces or characters I can reference them easily,” he said.
For more information on the show, and to see the full show once it goes online Saturday, visit Gallery1988.com.