Robots!

I am working on drawing more robots. Robots are some of the creatures that continue to captivate me over the years. Growing up in the 1990s, I do not have many memories of robots from popular culture. 

People from my parents' generation were raised with the Space Race. I think people enjoyed robot motifs more back then.

My father continues to love science fiction to this day, and I have fond memories of science fiction book covers scattered through our house. Some of them featured robots.

The lacuna of robots today strikes me as ironic. It was my generation that first experienced computers as part of the home landscape. I can scarcely recall a time when my family did not have a computer.

I think the speed of technological change, and the increasing importance of technology in children's lives make robots an appealing theme for illustrations.

I have been trying to draw some robots with real mechanical parts. The robot below is based on the body of a short wave radio. The wheels draw inspiration from Model T cars.

Typically a short wave radio has three numbered frequency panels, two of which are designated for AM and FM stations. The last finds medium and high frequency stations that regular radios cannot pick up. 

Once I happened to meet a ham radio enthusiast in a parking lot. His car had all kinds of interesting antenna coming off of it. He told me that short wave radio continues to be important in disaster relief because satellite and internet communications can be easily destroyed by earthquakes, hurricanes or terrorists.