Campbell Walker, better known as Struthless, creates vibrant, effortlessly detailed cartoons filled with adult humor. 28 year old Illustrator / Youtuber / Comic is a Sydney native who uses Instagram and Youtube to promote his artwork featuring social and political commentary. Walker’s 230K Instagram followers and 99.3K Youtube subscribers have the pleasure of viewing hilarious political / social cartoons, advice for artists, and artwork challenges such as drawing a popular character in popular styles.
Struthless’s art journey started as a child drawing comics but he took a long hiatus after being dismissed by an art teacher early on (we have all been there). Walker never went to art school but he did mention on The Daily Talk Show that he began a habit of art making by hanging around stoner art friends and mimicking art styles. He eventually grew to work alongside artist Marc Schattner who one day gave him advice that would change his life. This advice was simple, he told Campbell that his problem as an artist was that he spread himself out too much creatively and he needed to narrow his focus on one thing or he would never see improvement. Schattner told Walker to focus on drawing cartoons and to pick one thing to draw every day. Walker took his advice and focused on illustrating “sky rats” or “bin chickens” ( Australian white ibis ) every day for a year.
Walker eventually got tired of drawing the white ibis every day, he decided to switch things up and add humor through social commentary to his cartoons. Once he mastered his style he switched the white ibis for humans and began exploring different content for his artwork. Struthless has held his Youtube since September of 2017, he stated in a video once that he held his account and created content for roughly a year before he gained a large following pretty much out of no where.
Struthless describes his artwork as childish, colorful, detailed without being detailed, effortless. He says it, “looks like something in a children’s book” which is why he enjoys adding adult humor to it so much. He likes to illustrate things that make him laugh and appreciates positive feedback from his fans and their ideas often influence his work. When asked how he finds inspiration for his pieces he stated, “Heaps of stuff… Terrible phases I’ve been through, people I’ve met, former coworkers, suburban shopping centres, wordplay, patronising ads, kitschy stuff, my dad, Australiana, share houses, growing up, pop culture, and maybe the occasional feeling about the state of the world and our country.”
My boyfriend introduced me to Struthless not too long ago and I instantly found myself captivated in his style of work. I subscribed to Struthless on Youtube and have found myself binging his videos quite often. The way Campbell describes his work is how I would describe my art style at this point which makes it is easy for me to be inspired by his artwork, illustrations and video wise. I find myself relating to him when he discusses struggling with narrowing focus on a specific art form or style, his artist tips and reflections of himself aid in my artistic growth. I really appreciate his carefree attitude when approaching art in that he is not afraid to play with styles or mediums which only makes his original artwork stand out more. Style wise I love his use of flat colors, clean simple line work, and the way he uses hatching and stippling in a minute way to add shading and texture. In regard to his videos my overall favorite thing he does is keep his videos short and simple but full of visuals (usually his illustrations). Struthless does a great job of having consistency but always improving and going out of the box.
Art Bananas 