Doug Bloodworth’s Art Secrets Revealed: The Shocking Muse Behind His Mind-Blowing Masterpieces!
Added on November 1, 2025 inEntertainment News Cards, Movie News Cards
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Ever wonder how an artist’s journey might just align with the stars? Well, as Mercury dances through whimsical Gemini, inspiring curiosity and communication, it’s a perfect moment to dive deep into the vibrant world of Doug Bloodworth—a man whose brush has painted everything from colossal Marlboro billboards to scrumptiously crunchy snacks. Doug’s story is a whirlwind tour of America’s backroads and big-city murals, all fueled by relentless passion and a touch of wanderlust. From the glow of photorealistic billboards to the playful textures of cookies and comic books on canvas, his art captures the unexpected poetry in everyday things. So, buckle up for a colorful ride through Doug’s mesmerizing craft, where nostalgia meets artistry and every stroke tells a story worth savoring. Ready to get your mind blown?
For years, Awesome Art We’ve Found Around The Net has been about two things only – awesome art and the artists that create it. With that in mind, we thought why not take the first week of the month to showcase these awesome artists even more? Welcome to “Awesome Artist We’ve Found Around The Net.” In this column, we are focusing on one artist and the awesome art that they create, whether they be amateur, up and coming, or well established. The goal is to uncover these artists so even more people become familiar with them. We ask these artists a few questions to see their origins, influences, and more. If you are an awesome artist or know someone that should be featured, feel free to contact me at any time at [email protected].This month we are very pleased to bring you the awesome art of…
Doug Bloodworth
Doug Bloodworth was born on an Air Force Base in the Philippine Islands. After traveling from Oklahoma, Kansas, Florida and Alaska, his family finally settled in a small town in North Texas where he finished Junior High and High School.
After High School, Doug earned an associate’s degree in Commercial Art & Advertising. His first job was designing outdoor advertising for Lamar Outdoor. He left there and spent a couple of years roaming the country, doing caricatures at amusement parks and county fairs.
Doug then went back to outdoor advertising, but this time focused on painting the actual billboards. He was interested in learning to paint photorealism and considered this a great way to get paid as he learned the technique of taking a photograph and reproducing it in oils on a large scale. The photos he painted were of Coke bottles on ice (40’long), hamburgers, tacos, new cars and trucks, portraits of news teams for various tv stations, hotels, whiskey, beer bottles, and so on. The photos he used as reference were usually from advertising agencies, and of the best quality available.
Little did Doug know that this would lead him on a fifteen year journey. This was in the late 1970’s and 80’s, before the internet. The only way Doug could learn was directly from other painters. He started in Texas and traveled across the country, from Minnesota to the Carolinas, working and trying to learn from different painters along the way. He found out quickly that there were two types of people…. the artists who were generous and eager to share techniques and information, and those who were not. Doug notes he always appreciated those who were willing to share, and notes that he has tried to do the same with anyone that might be interested.
Doug states that through the years, he kept hearing about a guy who was “the best in the business.” Marlboro had done a nationwide search for the best pictorial painter in the country to paint their billboards.
His name was Marv Gunderson, and when Doug found out where his shop was in San Diego, California, he drove out there with his wife Karen, young daughter Bini, and their dog Kat.
Marv and Doug hit it off, and Doug noted that Marv was also behind in his work. Doug stayed there for a little over a year, learning and helping him get caught back up. Marv was more than just a billboard painter, and was a graduate of the Chicago Art Institute. Doug states that Marv “taught me so much about light, form, and color, and showed me the techniques that I still use in my paintings today.”
Together they painted the largest of outdoor bulletins for Marlboro. They painted them in 10’x4’ sections in San Diego, and they were loaded in trucks and shipped/installed to various NFL stadiums around the country. There was what was called a tri-vision (three billboards in a triangle mounted on a single pole) in the parking lot of every football stadium in the US. These triangle bulletins were comprised of two 30’ x 90’s and one 30’x60’.
The one exception was a board at the Chicago O’Hare airport that was 42’x90’. This giant board was just the single face of the most famous of the Marlboro men with his bushy moustache. He was called the Outlaw. Most of the Marlboro billboards were scenes of horses, cowboys and beautiful western scenery. These were all painted in artist oils with brushes, and Doug learned to paint photorealism. He loved every minute of it.
Doug eventually left Marv and returned to Texas where he had his own shop. There he contracted pictorial work from different outdoor companies in the Dallas/Ft Worth area. He then went back to work for Lamar Outdoor in Pensacola, FL, painting pictorials for the surrounding area for five years.
Just about the time vinyl printing started taking over the painted billboard business, Doug was introduced to a new product called Contravision. This was a 2-way viewing material that allowed for a design to be seen on one side and was perfectly clear on the other. This product exploded the bus advertising business, and Doug was one of only a few people that was licensed and knew how to use it.
This led him down to Orlando, Florida, to paint bus advertising for Disney and Universal Studios through the Lynx bus system there. Doug hired a crew of artists, and they painted all kinds of incredible pictures on the 40 foot long city buses (windows and all) for nearly another fifteen years. It also gave Doug the opportunity to fly to Switzerland and paint a pictorial bus for Kuoini Travels in London.
Doug has also done (and still does) large murals. One in particular comes to his mind. Doug describes, “I was ask to do two 30’x200’ murals inside the Tropicana Field concession area for the Tampa Bay Rays. One of the scenes started with Jackie Robinson sliding into home plate. The umpire standing there was 20 feet tall and the crowd in the stands could be seen very small in the distance (almost abstract). As the scene moved to the right behind the concessions, the crowd became larger until it reached the escalators going up to the second floor, and there the crowd was life size. I had so much fun putting celebrities and friends in the crowd. I also had to call all my artist friends in for this, and we worked and lived in St Petersburg for six months.”
Doug states that all this was exciting, but recalls that soon, vinyl printing came for the bus paint, too. Doug notes he was also getting older and about to turn 50. It also made him realize that he had been side tracked from his first goal – of using the photorealism that he’d learned from billboards in his canvas oil paintings. He talked it over with his wife Karen, and he then decided to focus on painting the fine art pieces that he had always really wanted to create. He describes that he had no idea what exactly he would paint, and that he just went to work painting whatever came to his mind.
As Doug painted and displayed at different art shows and events, he noticed that the paintings people seemed to be most drawn to were the ones that included products and snacks that everyone grew up with. They were also products that he had painted all those years in the advertising industry, including Lays potato chips, Coca Cola, Oreos, comic books and board games. Doug explains, “this was great! I could paint these things the way I wanted, and the way way they actually are …chips with air bubbles, and cookies with crumbs…bags crinkled and maybe even upside down. I looked at it as almost anti-advertising. I went at it with a passion. I love painting the different textures…shiny plastics and the rough cookie edges, all in contrast to the hard black outlines on the comic book and newspapers. Karen helps me set up still lifes’ and light them with dramatic shadows. I take tons of photos and usually use three or four as reference for my final painting.”
Doug gained reputation and gallery representation (thirty different galleries at one point) mostly due to his Comic book and Snack paintings.
Doug describes that he has painted Monopoly board scenes in many paintings, and that he has an admitted slight obsession with painting the Monopoly Car. He almost always has one in progress in his studio at any given moment in time. He also paints movie stills that he creates by pausing the TV and taking snapshots to paint from.
Doug happily expresses, “I am surprised that after painting all these years, I still love it so much!”
JOBLO: What got you started as an artist?
DOUG: I have been drawing as far back as I can remember …. which is about four years old.
Who were some of your favorite artists growing up?
Who do you really dig these days, follow on Instagram?
Mariana Duarte Santos, Will Rochfort, Rod Penner, Darren Reid, Walfrido Garcia, Mark Maggiori, Holly Farrell.
What advice would you have for budding artists today?
Draw and paint as much as you possibly can!!
A true story to illustrate:
When I was about 20 years old on a whim I decided to try my hand at drawing caricatures one summer at Six Flags over Texas. I had zero experience!
On opening day, the lady who hired me stopped by the booth to see how I was doing. I told her I was a little nervous. I’ll never forget what she said:
“Don’t worry about it. Do 500 caricatures and you will be good. Do 5,000 caricatures and your own personal style will emerge”
On a busy day I could do 100 caricatures!
There was about a dozen of us working at three different locations in the park. I remember one younger artist there, Bob Camp, who went on to create the Ren & Stimpy cartoon. We drew caricatures with a sharpie on an 8″x10″ acetate sheet using an overhead projector, so the crowd could watch us sketch on the wall behind.
We all drew left profiles only with small cartoon bodies doing various funny things. I could be sitting in my booth and see someone walking in the park and from that distance I could tell you which one of us had done the drawing because we all had different distinct drawing styles.
I have found that this revelation applies to painting as well although it may not take 5,000 paintings for your style to emerge.
What should we be looking out for from you in the future?
I LOVE doing commissions for people and bringing their visions and favorite things to life. So, I am always looking forward to what could be coming next. You can see plenty of examples of these in the Commissions section of my website and feel free to let me know if you might be interested in having one for your very own.
As far as my personal work is concerned, I have most recently been enjoying creating the frames for my newest paintings.
After having so much fun using the actual toys in my Toybox painting to create the frame, I decided to make a frame for my newest Monopoly Car painting using the Monopoly Board and all the colorful Money. It is 4’x6’ and I am in the process of mounting the actual hotels and houses on top of the board along with some Chance & Community Chest cards and property deeds placed randomly around the frame to give it even more of a 3-dimensional effect.
Next, I have plans to revisit my 4’x6’ Hubcap painting and build the frame of assorted chrome parts and medallions…..maybe a using a bumper for the bottom rail of the frame.
Also, on my radar are a few more movie paintings…..particularly Die Hard, Indiana Jones and Back to the Future. I also really like the look and feel of the Film Noir movies and the old black & white sci fi’s.
Being a fansite, we have to ask you… What are some of your favorite movies/TV shows of all time?
MOVIES
All of the : Indiana Jones, Diehards, Mission Impossibles, Fast & Furious, Back to the Future, The Good, Bad & Ugly ( especially since the theme song is my ringtone, really all the Clint Eastwood movies…westerns and Dirty Harry’s. Almost all Arnold movies….True Lies, Last Stand, Last Action Hero, Predator…dang it I really can’t think of one of his movies that I didn’t love! Same with Sly……all the Rocky’s, Rambo’s and his new Tulsa King series is awesome. Guardians of the Galaxy (except the last one), IronMan, Thor, Antman, Spidey & Avengers. Big Labowski, They Live, Escape from La & New York, Mars Attacks, Rio Lobo & El Dorado (which are basically the same movie with different sidekicks for the Duke:)
TV Shows
Tulsa King, Justified, Sopranos, 24, Columbo, Vegas, A-Team, Walker Texas Ranger
Scroll down to check out some of our favorite art pieces from Doug as we continue to follow his journey across his Website and social media hubs: Instagram / Facebook Doug Bloodworth / Facebook Doug Bloodworth Art / Limited Editions Store / Open Editions Store / Originals Store / Commissions
Batman & Peanut Butter
The Big Lebowski
The Big Sleep
Crayola
Crossword
Deadpool
Diner Pie
Disney Main Street
Escape From New York
Hotel California
Hubcaps
The Hulk & Cheetos
Mad
Mars Attacks
Monopoly
Nintendo
Oreo
Quick Draw McGraw
Scooby Doo
Spider-Man & Twizzlers
Star Wars
Superman & Lay’s
Toybox
Wolverine
Wonder Woman & Donuts
Wonder Woman & Hershy’s
Source:
JoBlo
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