George Vlosich III – Etch A Sketch King

George Vlosich III has been featured on Yahoo. The Etch A Sketch maker is still busy with his business. Dubbed the “Etch A Sketch King” for his detailed creations, Vlosich appeared on “Oprah” last February, showing the queen of daytime TV his own royal abilities. Currently, his work can be seen at the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, which is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Etch A Sketch through August 1.

As fun as using the Etch A Sketch is for Vlosich, he doesn’t take on every project tossed his way. That’s because over the years he has developed an involved system that he follows every time he picks up the toy.

First, Vlosich shakes a new Etch A Sketch to make sure it will produce the crisp lines he needs. If an Etch A Sketch doesn’t pass the shake test, he doesn’t use it.

Rather than just start with turning the knobs to begin a new creation, Vlosich initially draws an image in his sketchbook. Only when he is comfortable that the image will reproduce well on the Etch A Sketch does Vlosich get to work.

He spends about 70-80 hours on one sketch. That’s because any time he doesn’t quite get a line right or doesn’t think an image looks like the original, he starts over. After doing the line work first, Vlosich moves on to shading, which he says is the easiest but also the most time-consuming part of a project. A single line might be traced over 20 to 30 times to give it the right thickness.

When he’s finally finished, Vlosich makes his sketch permanent by removing the aluminum powder and stylus from inside the Etch A Sketch. Once those are out, the sketch on the screen cannot be erased. Vlosich says he has shipped completed Etch A Sketches across the country and the images have always remained intact.

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