When you’re in elementary school, the drudgery of the day-in/day-out of classroom life can really take its toll—at least, that’s what all the kids I know seem to think anyway. (Just wait ’til you’re older, kids.) So the one bright light in a hectic day is lunchtime when you can chill with your friends and open up your lunch box to see something magical.
Ben Risbeck creates incredible pieces of art on his kids’ lunch napkins. They’re a fun way for him to show his daughters how much he loves them every single day. As a talented illustrator, Risbeck is always trying to find reasons to doodle and his creations are awe inspiring.
A boring old sandwich and juice box is made that much better with a napkin featuring Boba Fett or a talking taco. The detail on each napkin is outstanding so it’s amazing that each napkin only takes between 1-5 minutes a piece.
While Risbeck has been doing the napkin art on and off for a few years, it was the beginning of this year’s school year that he decided to commit to doing a drawing each day, except for the times when he’s travelling for work. He’s already created over 200 napkins for the kids.
As for inspiration, the subjects are on a whim but sometimes he ties in the characters to things they’re reading or comics and movies they’ve been discussing. The Risbeck family has a great love of pop culture, his little ones were even featured in our kids cosplay round up from San Diego Comic-Con a few years ago.
The question on everyone’s mind, do the girls actually use the napkins? Personally, I don’t know if I’d want to sully Wolverine’s face with spaghetti sauce but Risbeck says he insists the girls use them and throw them away. Cleanliness before X-Menness, I suppose!
For a closer look at the napkin artwork check out the gallery below. You can see Risbeck’s stunning non-napkin illustrations on his website and all of the daily napkin art on his instagram @benrisbeck.
Would you be thrilled to see some of these unique pieces of art in your lunch bag everyday? Let us know in the comments and tag @nerdist and @justjenn on twitter!
