Music: Johann Strauss Jr.’s “Voices of Spring” Click to Advance Slides

Today we have the great pleasure of introducing the artwork of an already well known digital artist: Rodney Pike a.k.a. rwpike. He focuses on caricatures of famous people, but not just any caricatures. The results are so photorealistic and so detailed, that in a different world, we would easily think this is how people look like in real life. Follow this showcase presenting 50 of his creations, along with an exclusive and very interesting interview!

Q: Howdy Rodney! Welcome to the pxleyes.com community. Please introduce yourself. A: My name is Rodney Pike, but many in the art world know me as rwpike, which is my username at many web sites. I am 49 years old, born and raised I Baton Rouge, Louisiana, which is close to New Orleans. I now live in Gonzales, Louisiana, which is still very close to where I grew up. I have been married to my wife Lydia for 12 years now and between the two of us have 5 children. As a child, I admired my older brother’s ability to draw cartoons and I set out at a very young age to one day be as good as him. Mad magazine was a big influence on me at that time and I practiced for hours on end copying caricatures and cartoons. At about age 10, I discovered Norman Rockwell and it changed my life. I fell in love with his work and story telling ability in his paintings. I developed a passion for art which consumed me, so I spent most of my youth locked in my room sketching, painting, sculpting, wood carving; you name it and I did it. I had an insatiable appetite for art and worked hard at my craft but it always seemed there was something missing. I wouldn’t discover what that was until many years later. I have no formal training in any medium. What I have learned has come from studying many artists over the years and from shear desire. I had one unforgettable art teacher in junior high school who had a huge influence on my art and my life but that was really it except for suite of web design classes I attended at LSU at age 38.

Q: You caught our attention by the amazing realism in your artwork. When did you discover this talent of yours? A: My art had taken a back seat to raising children and supporting a family. I put my art aside for about 25 years and over those years lost my passion for creating art. It wasn’t until very recently that my passion and desire for creating art was rekindled. In April of 2010, I entered my first Photoshop contest at Freaking News. I had finally found my niche. Photoshop and photo manipulation was the medium that I had been searching for all my life. Since that day, my art has consumed me once again. I have been working 18 hours a day, 7 days a week since then studying other artists like Max Sauco and doing photo manipulation in Photoshop. I have done over 300 manipulations for Freaking News alone. In May of 2010 I discovered Sebastian Kruger and Jason Seiler and made my first caricature attempt. That started something totally new to me. Photo manipulated caricatures and illustration. For 9 months now, I have devoted all of my time towards learning the art of caricature manipulation.