Like most stories, this one starts with a girl. I was dating her during the summer of '91. I was working doing some signage at Just Closeouts, and that was the extent of my art work that summer. I wasn't particular satisfied, job-wise. So, even in my personal work, the apathy lead to hacking. It wan't bad, but it wasn't inspire, 
either.
My then-girlfriend asked me to draw an elephant for a friend of hers at work. The lady really liked elephants, I guess. But my girlfriend, picking up on what I'd been saying, said "You can just hack it out."
See, that's a line. I get to say that I hack. Nobody else gets to. She didn't mean anything by it, I'm sure, but the result was a Shakabuku moment. I decided to up my game, just out of irritation. I've got this theory that the "why" you do something isn't always as important as the "what". Sometimes I work out because I want to, sometimes because I have to, but the important part is that you work out, right?
So I went to the library and got some childrens' books, leading to my 
conversation with the section's librarian:
Librarian (noticing I was an adult with no kids with him): Can I help you?
Me: I'm looking for books on elephants.
Librarian: Are you looking for something in a… remedial… reading level?
Me: No, I'm looking for something with lots of pictures.
You kids today don't realize how great you have it with your internets and your Google image searches.
Later, armed with two kids books on elephants, I had this. It's really atypical for me. It's inked with rapidiograph, not brush. It's got an angular, almost scratchy, style that's not like me. I was really happy with it. I used it on promotional postcards for a few years later, and it's one of the rare pieces from art school that I can look at and not wince.
The work friend liked it. The girlfriend liked it.
And then she broke up with me the next month. But that's another story altogether, and one which doesn't need exploring at this juncture.
I was happy enough with the elephant art that I did a couple more in the "series". I drew a whale for the next one (which I colored for a Kubert assignment), and did a rhino for a third. When I did the rhino illustration, though, it felt uninspired again. The pose and the style was becoming repetitive. So, I moved on to other things, but had a new style to tuck into my toolbox.
