Squid Ink - Squidoodle
Deal illustrator Steve ‘Squidoodle’ Turner on naturalist steampunk and filling up intestines with American football helmets...
From his old fisherman’s cottage in Deal, fans of illustrators, especially those from Kent, will likely have seen the work of Squidoodle on Instagram.
Better known as Steve Turner, Squidoodle has been drawing ever since he could walk… which in turn developed into a passion throughout school, art college and university. But having spent 20 years as a graphic designer, Steve only really took up illustration seriously about 10 years ago but can now be seen mashing up nature and steampunk on the regs…. We wanted to find out more.
How would you describe your style to people?
It’s all about filling the space – I’m not one for minimalist work, props to those who are, I just don’t really know when to stop. I guess you could call it ‘doodling’ in the sense that there are many components to the pieces I create. A common theme among my work is a juxtaposition between nature and man-made – I love drawing flowers, plants and animals but with a mechanical steampunk twist.
Do you have any major influences on your work?
This is always a tricky one to answer – there’s tons of artists I admire, but for different reasons, but I wouldn’t say they’d influenced my work as I’ve found my own path. It’s probably not very cool to admit, but I love Van Gogh – can’t really call him an influence, though, as there’s no way he makes me want to bust the old oil paints out and attempt some sunflowers. If there’s one artist I’ve probably looked at the most over the years and tried to emulate, it would be Kerby Rosanes.
What is your favourite-ever piece?
Not for its artistic merit, although I am quite happy with it, but during the beginning of the pandemic I did a portrait of Florence Nightingale, which I sold as prints and donated all the money to the NHS. A massive drop in the ocean compared with what some people did, like Captain Tom, but it made me feel good and raised a few quid.
What’s the strangest thing you have been commissioned to create?
Ha ha – for a surgeon in America. His wife commissioned me to do a drawing of the intestinal system of the human body but filled up with things that the surgeon was interested in – so, like, American football helmets and stuff. That was pretty weird.
Steampunk and skulls are often central to your doodles – is there a reason?
Steampunk lends itself well to my style, as there are so many different components – cogs, wheels, gears, chains, straps, ropes, buttons, pipes etc. You can really go to town with shading and rust and depth. And as for skulls? Who doesn’t love skulls? There are so many variations – animal skulls, skulls with beards, Mexican day of the dead skulls, the list is endless.
What is your proudest moment so far as an artist?
I donated some line work to a school for underprivileged children in Australia – they printed out hundreds of heart designs to pin up and make a wall of love. That was pretty special.
How did the Adult Colouring Book come about?
Someone suggested it – this was around the time of the colouring book boom – I did pretty well out of that, but that craze has died off a bit. Again, colouring pages are perfect for my style as you can fill the page with a million different things.
Illustration and ‘doodling’ seem to be highly regarded as an art form now – has that always been the case? And why do you think this is?
Aaahh! I hate to say it but probably because of social media. But I think that’s the case with anything – whether you make realistic cakes or embroidery swear words or origami – you have a platform to reach millions of people and say “I made this cool thing – would be great if you think it’s cool, too”. Doodling has probably been around for centuries – it’s only now we can show it to people.
INSTA: @squidoodleart WEB: www.squidoodleshop.com
