Dane Flighty describes his work as existing in a state of dreamlike chaos, and that’s exactly the phrase to use. His illustrations border on the bizarre, sometimes looking like what Giger would create if he was making a children’s book. People, animals, and strange alien creatures are put through the blender of Flight’s mind and what comes out is a strange combination of all of them.

What’s astonishing about his pieces is that they are the work of a man who has never studied drawing. Flighty’s use of light and shade in particular would on first glance seem to be the result of years spent in a classroom, but such is not the case.





‘I've always drawn, but have no formal training, so I guess I kind of fell into it, with one illustration job leading to the next. Also I've done some pretty crappy jobs in the past so getting paid to make pretty pictures seemed like a good option.’

Flighty draws upon a slew of influences and inspirations when creating his pieces. ‘The Clayton brothers, Jeff Soto, Barry Mcgee, Tim Biskup, Camille Rose Garcia, plus about a million others.’ Flighty’s images bear particular resemblance to some of Soto’s work. It’s not hard to imagine the disturbing-looking little girl from some of Flighty’s pieces being on speaking terms with Soto’s tentacled monsters.

While there is a unique tone running through the pictures that Flighty creates, it feels as if this is more to do with the artist creating them than any property in the illustrations themselves.

Are there any recurring themes in Flighty’s work?

‘Well, there seems to be a state of dreamlike chaos going on....My characters generally end looking mildly retarded, which can be a problem on commercial work.’





Some of Flighty’s pieces have a distinctly surreal tinge to them, conjuring memories of the more bizarre nightmares that you may have had. In one piece, an octopus in a blood-red sea gazes sleepily at a little girl who is proffering a skull on a string out to the beast.

Where does this twist of the bizarre come from?

‘I guess it's the kind of art that I love,’ is Flighty’s explanation. This is hardly reassuring.

The act of actual creating the pieces is, at least, for the most part grounded in normality. While it wouldn’t be a surprise to find out that Flighty goes through a lengthy process of contacting heathen gods, his blog (a recent creation) gives examples of how sketches are eventually worked into fully viewer-ready material.

The process ‘generally starts with sketches, rough layouts which are scanned, then worked over in Illustrator, re-worked, deleted, rescanned, set fire to, more sketches, into Illustrator once more, then off to Photoshop for a polish.


Many of the characters in Flighty’s work bear no similarity to each other, running the gamut from the square-jawed ‘Johnny Danger’ to the fat, mask-wearing man of ‘Tiki Power’ and, in one instance, Gene Simmons in full make-up, reclining in a swimming pool.

The little girl from the ‘Friends and Enemies’ series, however, makes more than one appearance- does Flighty have any recurring characters in his illustrations?

‘None that have lasted the distance....they start to annoy me after a while.’