Shaun McBride was sitting next to a 70-year-old women on an airplane when he made his first piece of “awesome” Snapchat art. He turned the elderly women into a My Little Pony using the app. Snapchat is a mobile photo-sharing app that allows users to send photos to others for a set period of time. Typed words and drawn lines can be added on top of photos. Like most users Shaun McBride, a “Snapchat artist” from Ogden, sends selfies to his friends and family. However, unlike the average user he uses the app to craft intricate works of art out of his photos.
McBride, who signs his art as Shonduras, never put much thought into his hobby until his art was picked up by a local news station.
“When I was featured on KSL I thought to myself, ‘Hey, people like this stuff. I should start putting some more focus on “snapping” and see what kinda opportunities I can find,’” McBride said.
Since receiving media attention McBride has improved his craft and has created art out of ordinary pictures of everyday subjects using nothing but his handheld device, the Snapchat app and his index finger.
McBride has many muses, but his favorites are his two wiener dogs who are “down for some serious snapchat modeling” as long as he has treats. The two dogs have been drawn into everything, from Beauty and the Beast to businessmen.
“I don’t like to plan them (my snapchats) usually,” McBride said. “It is better just going about my business and when I see something unique I take a pic and twist it into a weird snapchat.”
McBride plans to continue developing his artistic skills and making more elaborate art as the app evolves.
“I am learning new techniques and really starting to test the app’s boundaries,” McBride said. “It is fun!”
McBride goes by Shonduras on both Twitter and Snapchat. A larger collection of his art can be viewed at https://shonduras.imgur.com/all/.
