Finally got around to uploading some images to this section of my website. If you are new here, then I suppose you’re about to enjoy some of my artwork. This is just a small handful of my drawings (I’ve got hundreds of pieces dating as far back as 1990): these particular illustrations and murals I did between 2020 and 2023. Some are still works in progress, others complete, and I will be sure to add more in the near future. I work in a variety of mediums. But I prefer alcohol-based marker and fineliner (yeah, I’m an ink monkey at heart). I use only the most expensive and finest in art supplies. I give everything I touch what I like to call the “Full Copic Treatment.” I specialize in graffiti, pop art, and character art, anything with a pop culture bent, and I’m all about color synthesis, experimenting with symbols, and the study of shapes. But you will get a “feel” for my style below. Some of my pieces tell a story, or are inspired by storied cartoons and comic book characters from a bygone era. Even movie franchises.

I was a freelance writer of science fiction, fantasy, horror and short articles among other things for twenty-five-plus years. But before that I was a graffiti-pop artist. My name is SOBER when it comes to my artistic work (growing up I was an aspiring comic book artist who spray-painted New York City walls). SOBER is not just a tag, a nom de plume, but a state of mind. In time I gave up art and got an education in journalism and creative writing. Then I became Lawrence R. Dagstine. But I never forgot my roots. I had a family. The years passed. Life happens. We age. It is what it is. But I have returned to this lost chapter of my life. I have many pretty drawings to show you. And I am now open for commissions. I’m affordable. Just DM me on Twitter if you’re interested in a piece. I use only the finest paper from Italy, markers such as Copic, Spectrum Noir, Uni Posca, and Tombow. I use India Ink such as Faber Castell. Colored Pencils such as Derwent. Technical Pencils such as Kura Toga and Pentel Graph Gear. Fineliners for outlining such as Sakura Micron, Copic Multiliner SP, Le Pen, and Molotow. If you are interested in a piece, large or small, any character, don’t hesitate to DM me on social media. Everything I do is hand drawn, and when it comes to personalized prints, Numbered 1 of 1. Never to be reprinted.

Contact me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ldagstine

“Joker Never Shy” by SOBER/Lawrence Dagstine – (2020)

“Joker Never Shy” by SOBER/Lawrence Dagstine – (preliminary sketch)

“The Force will always be with Mr. Bones” by SOBER/Lawrence Dagstine – (2021)

“Black Magic Woman” by SOBER/Lawrence Dagstine – (evil Dazzler dedication)

“Jabba’s Palace/Han Solo in Carbonite” by SOBER/Lawrence Dagstine

(2020; unfinished ROTJ piece)

“SOBER Star Wars ROTJ Poster” on Mixed Media paper – (2020)

[pencil phase; unfinished]

“SOBER Star Wars ROTJ Poster” on Mixed Media paper – (2020)

[outlining & inking phase; unfinished]

“Axis of Evil” by SOBER/Lawrence Dagstine – (2020)

(Putin and Trump 2020; some times art imitates life) #IStandForUkraine

“Axis of Evil” by SOBER/Lawrence Dagstine – (starting the Trump sketch back in 2020)

“The Black Hole” by SOBER/Lawrence Dagstine – 18×24 illustration/mural – (2021)

“Crime Syndicate Sober” by SOBER/Lawrence Dagstine – 18×24 illustration/mural – (2021)

[Featuring Two-Face and Mickey Mouse in Old School Hell’s Kitchen]

“6th Doctor and Cyberman” by SOBER/Lawrence Dagstine – (2022)

[unfinished… This is going to be a giant Doctor Who sticker when I’m done]

“Galactic Critters” by SOBER/Lawrence Dagstine – (2020)

[DC Blackbook piece; inking Catwoman with Sharpie ultra fine point]

“Galactic Critters” continued by SOBER/Lawrence Dagstine – (2020)

“Galactic Critters” continued – by SOBER/Lawrence Dagstine – (2020)

“Super Powers” by SOBER/Lawrence Dagstine – (2021)

“The Penguin and the Spider” 18×12 by SOBER/Lawrence Dagstine – (2021)

“The Mouse Trap” by SOBER/Lawrence Dagstine – (2021)

Homage to the Don Bluth film, The Secret of Nimh

“Eve’s Lair” by SOBER/Lawrence Dagstine – (Late 2021)

“Eve’s Lair” character pencils/rough outline – by SOBER/Lawrence Dagstine

“Death to the Demon” by SOBER/Lawrence Dagstine – (2022)

[unfinished mural, 18×24, illustration phase]

“Death to the Demon” by SOBER/Lawrence Dagstine – (2022)

[unfinished mural, 18×24, coloring phase]

“The Pinocchio Chronicles” by SOBER/Lawrence Dagstine – (2022)

[18×24 Pop-Graffiti Disney Illustration on mixed media paper; going to color]

“New Yawk SOBER” by SOBER/Lawrence Dagstine

(The City That Never Sleeps, 11×14 blackbook quickie 2020)

“Kiss of the Spider-Woman” by SOBER/Lawrence Dagstine – (Inktober 2022 #1)

“Kiss of the Spider-Woman” by SOBER/Lawrence Dagstine – (Inktober 2022 #2)

“Kiss of the Spider-Woman” by SOBER/Lawrence Dagstine – (Inktober 2022 #3)

“Marsupilami” by SOBER/Lawrence Dagstine – (Inktober 2023 No. 1)

“Marsupilami” by SOBER/Lawrence Dagstine – (Inktober 2023 No. 2)

“Marsupilami” by SOBER/Lawrence Dagstine – (Inktober 2023 No. 3)

“Marsupilami” by SOBER/Lawrence Dagstine – (Inktober 2023 No. 4)

_ _ _ _ _  _ _ _ _ _

“Baby Yoda Taking A Nap”

“Deadman Wastelands #1” – (work in progress, 24 inches on 160lb bristol)

“Deadman Wastelands #2” – (work in progress, 24 inches on 160lb bristol)

“Deadman Wastelands #3” – (work in progress, 24 inches on 160lb bristol)

“Deadman Wastelands #4” – (work in progress, 24 inches on 160lb bristol)

“Deadman Wastelands #5” – (work in progress, 24 inches on 160lb bristol)

Before the Internet, before illustration software, digital technology, and the graphic arts programs and tablets that go along with it, or the fine pens and papers and paints and tools in a variety of colors we have today, we had to rely on what was made available to us graffiti artists from a different era. You did not have Dick Blick or Michael’s Arts & Crafts. You had Pearl Paint and Sam Flax, and maybe one or two other popular vendors. I was a Third Generation graffiti artist, growing up under the older guys who tagged the train cars of the 1980s (these were your Second Generation pioneers, before the MTA retired most of those old subway cars for scrap metal). We looked up to these artists, if you will, the same way my friends and I read comic books of the late Bronze Age and looked up to the DC and Marvel pencillers, inkers, and storytellers of that era. For a while, I attended The Art Students League of NYC for weekend classes, before finally settling down to college at night at NYU and becoming Kurt Vonnegut’s occasional protege. But I felt The Art Student’s League didn’t really teach me anything that I couldn’t learn on my own, or at least until I came into a style I felt comfortable with. I’m going to share some of my artwork from 1991 to 2001 down below, what street artists looked like, how us “urban youth” dressed, and what we did on a regular basis that would otherwise seem abnormal in parts of today’s culture, because in pre-9/11 times there was lots of mischief and adventures to be had in the city that never sleeps. You did not have NFTs or YouTube, there was no Patreon or Etsy or online classes. There was none of that. You made art in the streets, and that was your canvas. And it was free. If you were one of the lucky few, you got discovered. When you were not drawing outdoors, then you were at home or at a friend’s house scrawling in hardcover sketchbooks called “Blackbooks.”

Larry SOBER: Age 16 going on 17 – (1990-1991 abouts, blackbook in hand)

This is 1992 – ten to twelve feet above the ground on a thin pipe. Bombing Manhattan in 1992. I was eighteen years old here. SOBER & ROZ

SOBER fill-in down on the FDR Drive – 1992

ARTWORK CIRCA 1991 to 2001

[THE EARLY YEARS]

A BLAST FROM THE PAST

As you can tell from these bottom pieces, I had a lot of cartoon and comic influences growing up. Some of these influences ranged from Vaughn Bode (Cheech Wizard and his merry band of psychedelic Lizards) to Walt Disney characters (Mickey Mouse, Uncle Scrooge, and Donald Duck), to Image Comics icons such as Todd McFarlane (Spawn). I would incorporate these characters into my art. Some of these “bottom pieces” are from 1992, 1993, even 1994. More than 30 years old! My friends and I were fans of Saturday Morning Cartoons, and we’d watch the Disney Afternoon’s offerings when we got home from school. We relied on Sharpie Markers, Design Markers, Chartpak, Decocolor, and some times Woolworths brand markers which were ninety-nine cents but, don’t knock it, as cheap as they were, somehow got the job done.

More artwork coming soon. Art pieces displayed here are the work of the creator and owner of this website. You must have permission or consent from the creator in order to showcase art elsewhere.

All images on this page are subject to copyright (2004 to 2022) by the Copyright Owner, Website Admin, the Photographer, and WordPress.com. Any illegal use of these photos are pursuant to the Copyright Laws of the United States of America unless copyright owner/website administrator gives permission or is contacted electronically or in writing.