One of my very first paid jobs as an illustrator was in the seventh grade at St. Kevin’s from a classmate I’ve never spoken to. I had a slight reputation as someone who was “somewhat good at art” but there was another superstar artist in my class whose craftsmanship was far superior than mine, which was why I was shocked when Pete approached me with a request to draw the Guns N Roses logo on his binder. He had chosen the blue denim variety to store all of his crinkly looseleaf papers in there instead of the flashier plastic Trapper Keepers so it was entirely doable. Up until that point I was strictly an anime doodle gal but I figured it’s time to broaden my horizon. After all, I had planned to apply for art high schools and I doubted the admissions board would be too impressed by various incarnations of Candy Candy drawn with a ballpoint pen.

Guns N Roses’ debut album cover, Appetite for Destruction, featured a cross, five skulls in elaborate headgear, and banners. My brother was a GNR head so I was very familiar with the image. I remember drawing it on my little desk in my room with a felt tipped pen and then presenting it to Pete the next day. I think he paid me $5 for the lot, not knowing that all these years later, I got to paint the original lineup in doll form. The whole time I was painting this, I listened to their music, which was something I hadn’t done in decades, largely due to the fact that the boys at St. Kevin’s ruined GNR for me. During one of the few talent shows, three boys in my class, only one of which actually knew how to play an instrument (which was a saxophone, but I digress), somehow got their hands on two guitars and a drum kit and proceeded to deafen the ears of everyone sitting in the gymatorium that night with their rendition of “Welcome to the Jungle.” They had turned it up to eleven and kept going. 

Now, years later, I had to appreciate how awesome the band was. These boys unlike the St Kevin’s ones, definitely knew what they were doing. It’s no wonder it took the band 14 years to write one album. 

This one is based on the band’s music video “Estranged” accompanied by a little dolphin.