SACO, Maine — Artist Lewis Rossignol begins scratching out his trademark, jagged drawings with thick and shaky magic marker outlines. He then fills in his creations, scribbling outside the lines, with layered colored pencil and pastel slashes.
His grotesque human and animal characters often grin with mouthfuls of crooked, yellowed teeth. They stare with both bloodshot eyes on one side of their heads.
At first glance, his flattened, two-dimensional pictures appear to have been created by a deranged toddler with access to art supplies and an espresso machine.
But art lovers can’t get enough of them.
Aided by snarky commentary and sarcastic how-to videos, Rossignol and his drawings have amassed nearly a half-million followers on Instagram. The growing attention has allowed him to achieve something which eludes most artists: A comfortable living.
In the past few years, Rossignol has sold originals and prints all over the world, done album covers and artwork for major recording artists, published books and helped decorate a former sitcom star’s Las Vegas comedy club.
Rossignol, 45, is a little surprised at his own success. He didn’t start his professional art career until he was in his mid-30s and finishing up a degree at Maine College of Art.
“My goal, my hope was to just be able to make enough money with my art so that I wouldn’t have to work full time somewhere else,” Rossignol said, sitting in his home studio on Tuesday. “But I haven’t had any other jobs [but art] since I left art school.”
To be clear, the Sanford native is capable of creating more traditional, realistic pictures. But that’s boring, he said. Rossignol would much rather play and draw like a child, with no firm plans and no rules cramping his creativity.
Drawing like a kid, with no preconceived ideas of “good” or “bad” art, is not easy.
“We overthink things as adults,” Rossignol said. “I have nieces and nephews, and when I watch them draw, I’m like, ‘This is how people should draw — just have fun with it and not worry about how it’s going to turn out.’”
He doesn’t really like giving his art labels, but when forced, Rossignol calls it “neo-expressionist,” “surreal” and “kind of cartoony.”
“It’s kind of chaotic,” he said. “Really, the art kind of speaks for itself, you know?”
In roughly the past year, the artist has seen his number of Instagram followers double. The jump in numbers is due, in large part, to the reels he started making. Disguised as tutorials, they’re laden with Rossignol’s biting-yet-laconic, Gen X slacker commentary.
In one recent video, he gives instructions for how to draw a dragon but adds: “I swear, if your first thought was to look up a reference photo for something that’s not even real, you don’t even deserve art supplies. Give them to literally anyone else. They’ll be in better hands.”
Another popular reel has Rossignol teaching viewers to draw a real Mainer, complete with L.L. Bean boots, a red hotdog and a shirt with a Renys tag hanging from the sleeve. His open-mouthed character is also holding a bag of Humpty-Dumpty “All Dressed” potato chips.
“Which are delectable,” Rossignol declares. “Although, after a red hotdog and a Moxie, a toenail would be a welcome treat to get the taste out of your mouth.”
Sometimes, a viewer won’t get the jokes and declare his deceptively simple pictures aren’t art at all. The artist takes such criticism in stride and often features negative comments as a jumping off point for his next snarky video.
“I remember drawing like this in the first grade,” wrote one viewer. “Am I missing something?”
In response, Rossignol drew a wild portrait of old-time country music stars Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson. Laid over the top was Cash’s version of the song “God’s Gonna Cut You Down.”
The artist takes the funny videos seriously, though, employing a local photographer to help light and film four or five of them every Monday. Rossignol also spends a couple days a week filling and mailing print orders. The reproductions generally sell for less than $100 while originals fetch more than $1,000.
Since he’s already living the dream, Rossignol isn’t sure what the future holds except a lot more art.
“I’m just kind of having fun,” Rossignol said. “I don’t have some end goal, except, you know, pay off my house.”