Fan art goes global
NL designer gets Instagram gig tied to Netflix show
This time last year, Netflix released its original series, “Stranger Things,” and it became an instant sensation.
Local graphic designer Mike Feehan was one of the millions who tuned in, and couldn’t turn it off.
“I was a big fan of the first season of Stanger Things,” said Feehan. “Shortly after it was released, I did a piece of animated fan art that I posted online.”
To Feehan’s surprise, the piece of fan art got shared and reposted.
A lot.
The amount of followers on his blog rose from a few hundred to a few thousand in just a few short weeks.
The creative agency managing the “Stranger Things” Instagram account saw Feehan’s artwork, and invited him to take part in a special project, called “Curiosity Stories.”
The agency found eight artists from all over the world to create artwork based on each of the eight episodes of season one.
Feehan was assigned to Episode 2, “The Weirdo on Maple Street,” and his contributions were posted last week.
“My work was posted last Wednesday, and remained on the page for 24 hours,” said Feehan. “A new story by a different artist will be posted this week, and next week, and so on.”
Feehan works as a graphic designer at Memorial University, and also does freelance work as a storyboard artist and illustrator.
“I do pretty much all of my work digitally,” said Feehan. “I used Adobe Photoshop to draw and animate my artwork. I work on a Mac with a Wacom Cintiq tablet, which allows me to draw directly on the screen.”
“The fact that I’m one of 8 artists chosen to contribute to this project has been hard to wrap my head around. It’s been a dream gig.”