Securitas guard has experience to draw from
Kasey Fielding
Issue date: 12/11/08 Section: News
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Spider-Man has only half a leg, but Securitas guard Jhonny Augustin is working diligently on filling it in.
A popular figure among students with classes in the Walker Building, 24-year-old Augustin mans the security desk at the Boylston Place entrance every weekday morning. Anyone who walks past him has probably seen his work, the expertly sketched comic book characters who seem to leap off the page.
"'What the hell are you doing here? You should go to art school.' That's one that I hear a lot," Augustin said of the most frequently asked questions he fields from curious students. "And 'Why don't you use color?' I'm partially colorblind, so I try to stay away from color."
He said he might add some red to his current Spider-Man work in progress, his favorite character to draw, but he usually gives the finished sketches to two of his younger sisters to color in as they'd like.
An avid artist in his spare time, Augustin spends his days as a Securitas Security guard, while he works toward his master's degree in criminal psychology at University of Massachusetts-Boston.
"So many people talk to me about [going to art school], and I guess it wouldn't hurt to take a class or two," he said.
His brother is a lawyer, and he has two cousins who are cops. Another cousin is in the army. "Before I even had a chance, I had psychology forced on me. I enjoy it though. I'm not hating on it. My brother always jokes that I'll draw for the FBI or something."
While becoming a forensic sketch artist may seem logical, Augustin said there may be one hang up.
"I suck at drawing real people," he said.
Born in Haiti, Augustin moved to Florida when he was four and has been living in Boston for about 10 years. "I've been drawing forever," he said.
He credited his artistic beginning to a lack of action figures as a child. "When I was little I never really got toys to play with, but I watched a lot of cartoons," he said. "I was that kid who woke up at 6 a.m. just to catch that first cartoon on a Saturday morning." He recalled watching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, drawing the characters and cutting them out to use them as toys.
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