Magic Cowboys

 

This is the first image I ever though of and made for this idea I had about, as you can see, magic cowboys. I was thinking of ways to portray traditionally violent topics and situations in nonviolent ways. That's when I realized: magic! Magic can be directional through wands or hands, and unlike bullets, it's colorful and less graphic, kind of like light sabers. And as Harry Potter shows, you can use a lot of the same hand-eye-coordination skills and dexterity for spell casting as you can with traditional ranged weapons. In short, it's the perfect device. So that made me think, "What if I put magic into a traditionally violent genre- like the wild west!" It happened pretty much how you'd expect it to. Plus, Disney has been pulling this trick for years.

Additionally, I'd love to get practice drawing Monument Valley type settings like the kind you see in Calvin and Hobbes. I've got a long way to go. You can probably tell that this picture is not recent because at the time I hadn't started working in pen yet and I hadn't even started dating my drawings. I've worked on this particular idea lot since then, and I might share other drawings I've made later. But I don't want to give anything away, and some of the drawings are a mess anyway, as you might expect. So this may be the only image from Magic Cowboys that I put on this blog. I would reveal more of the plot and characters, but I'd like to turn this into a web-series or something. Where would the fun be in telling you all of it before I'm even started?

I can say that, looking back, it's a bit more political than I'd expect from such a simple concept, but I still think the characters and lessons intended could apply to everyone. Part of it is that the two main characters are based on an actual struggle inside myself over selfish rationalism vs. religious altruism. I think there are a few people out there who can relate to that. God's will be done.

Dropped

As you can see from the picture, I did this drawing one week ago. It was actually during my spring break, but I didn't post it that day because me and my family were doing college tours. Very exciting, but I had some time to kill so I drew this as quickly as I could in pen. I read some advice from Dana Terrace recently that people who want to be animators should practice drawing people in situations with other people. You may have noticed I don't always do this in my drawings so I wanted to do it in this one. I also wanted to draw the characters in more dynamic poses than normal, and it worked very well for a rush job.

Looking at the drawing, I'm not sure if I was subliminally drawing about my feelings during this time or not. The anxiety and concern the characters are showing didn't come from nowhere, but I don't feel particularly anxious about my college search or about not posting to this blog enough. God will make thinks happen how they should, regardless of whether that's how I want them to be. There's nothing I can do that's so bad God can't turn it around somehow. Now if only I could convince my unconscious mind of that.

In the Path

This is an idea for an animated short I thought of. I haven't finalized the plot, and I don't have the technology to do what I want with the short yet. But I didn't want to forget the idea, so I drew it in pencil first. I won't give away the whole plot, but I can explain this picture at least. The person sleeping on the ground is a hiker who's trail is blocked by a large, smooth rock right in the middle of the path. As you can probably tell, this rock is alive in a way and has large eyes. Part of what I want to do with the animated short is see what kinds of emotions I can express just by moving the eyes around. That's moss on it's top-right corner and left side. I'm not sure that's clear. This image is actually from a long time ago, but I decided to get it back out today.

I haven't been posting lately due to schoolwork among other things. I'd apologize, but I don't think it's necessary in this case. I've started moving towards working with pens in my sketching. It's surprisingly relaxing not being able to erase mistakes on random drawings.

Bookends Idea

This is art from an idea I had called Bookends. It's got a somewhat Steven Universe-like premise where instead of the characters having forms and personalities based on different kinds of gemstones, these personalities have manifested from different types of books.

It's set in a future where books are no longer used. Without the ideas contained in books being diluted to the populace, the books have manifested as sentient creatures and have been discovered by a single little girl who's trying to preserve them. I was originally never going to share this, but then I came up with an idea I'm really excited about. And now I can put this one out here safely. It was really fun designing the books, and you can see the different sheets of paper that make up their forms. Even the book covers have some function on them. It'd be so cool to put the page texture on them in a digital format, but I thought trying to replicate that texture here would take away from the art. Anyway, I thought I'd give you the personalities of each of the characters so you could have some idea what was going on. They are basically parodies of stereotypical genre's so some of their features should be recognizable at a glance. They'd meet other kinds of books and people along the way of course, but this is the "core group."

(Bottom)Laura: The single-named human girl who first discovered the library where these books were hiding out in. She's exactly the kind of person who needs to be able to curl up with a good book from time to time, but she never knew it until now. She'd probably need the most developing before this idea was ever taken off the shelf. She's a necessary presence, but she's not quite as interesting as the sentient books.

(Top)The Great Journey: An epic fantasy tale of sprawling lands, wizards, and dragons. “Jour” has perhaps unexpectedly manifested as a girl and is an incredibly valiant knight-like big-sister. Often speaks in nearly incomprehensible poetry, but is loving and good and is perhaps the only book of the three who can really laugh at herself. Her book cover forms the chest-plate of her armor. I didn't draw her big enough.

(Left)1983: A classic dystopian novel who looks and acts like a mopey teenager. 83’s extreme paranoia and ability to find the most pessimistic, tragic, overly-complex interpretations of the most innocent happenings can be humorous in that he says them in total seriousness and nearly without emotion. His book cover forms the pocket in his jacket. He was the only book who's design I just drew today.

(Right)Classic Children’s Fairytales: “I’ve always thought of myself as more of a Classica than a Classic.” Stereotype princess with a belief in happily ever after. Bubbly, remarkably philosophical at times, slightly lazy, and overly-emotional. You can't see it from here because her capelet is covering it, but her book cover forms her fairy wings. Her design is probably the least original, but I think it's the funnest.

I Pledge

This is a draft for a comic I came up with about a year ago. Turns out I like the draft images better than the comic itself. I learned an important lesson about not adhering to the traditional comic format and leaving yourself enough space. Anyway, I'll just tell you what happens along with these images:
It's in school and the pledge of allegiance just finishes playing. The boy in the top-left snorts. The girl notices and leans over to her friend: "What's his problem?" "Oh, he's home schooled. He's just here to take whatever standardized test they're making us do now. He doesn't normally have to say the pledge of allegiance." "So? What's so funny about saying the pledge of allegiance in school?" "At a guess, I'd say the 'liberty and justice part.'"

This comic is based on the true story of me doing exactly what the tall boy describes. For the record, I did not actually laugh during the pledge of allegiance. I take pledging my allegiance to a country under God very seriously, and I take my standardized tests also very seriously (to an unhealthy extent, though I've gotten better since a year ago!). However, I was mildly amused when I was led into this big high-walled concrete facility- through a series of electronic doors we had to get permission to go through- and finally into a room with only one door and no windows- where I would spend the next 2-3 hours sitting in one spot being as silent as possible with intermittent periods of exercise. It was a startling contrast from public school online, where I could get up in the middle of any lesson and go outside when I felt the need to, then return right back to my lesson. Add that to having to say the pledge of allegiance for the first time in about 6 years and I probably smiled.

It's one of my biggest hopes that this joke won't age well. I hope in a few years it will seem completely and totally reasonable to say "with liberty and justice for all" in a public American high school and that my kids will not get the joke. It should be completely and totally reasonable, it just isn't quite yet for a lot of people (who have it much worse than me). Hands folded. God's will be done for our educational system. I finished some of my biggest classes for this semester and year today. It was an even bigger day than I thought. Praise the Lord! For he is good to his servants in everything.

Hippocrisy

The title says it all. We were talking about hypocrisy in my Youth Group today. Someone asked what that was and wondered if it had anything to do with democracy. So I explained that- yes- it is like a democracy- but with hippos. Then I said what it really was, but my next remark was "I should draw that." This is the result. Who knew hippos could get any more dangerous? Note this is not a political cartoon. It's a semantical cartoon.

This is my first time drawing cartoon hippos, but luckily I got lots of practice in with just this picture. They're exactly how I pictured them, which is harder than a person might think. Thank you, God (even for the small stuff). I got my signature a little shmushed on the side there. Anyway, these are the words of the cartoon to make them clear:
Hippocrisy: Like a Democracy, but with Hippos. 
Chief Hippo: Motion carried.
Poster: Hippo Freedom
This is what I imagine when I hear it.

Strange People

As you can see, this drawing is actually from today. The idea I had was to depict people doing normal things, but add an unusual feature to them (in this case a second set of eyes). For example: the rightmost figure is actually crossing his eyes in two different directions while sticking out his tongue, and then the picture below him is him laughing at this action afterward. Obviously, making a face and laughing about it is a very common thing to do, but add another set of eyes and it is not immediately obvious what he is doing.

This is in an attempt to see whether or not people can still identify with and enjoy the drawings as much as if they were of regular people. I expect the result to be: they can't. But that was sort of the point. I'm often taken aback by how strange I think other people can be, only to be swiftly reminded that I myself am in many ways much stranger. More than that, people could be a lot stranger and still be people. Given the idea of the subject, I tried to add extra features to the drawings that I normally wouldn't in an attempt to make them more realistic than my other drawings (such as actual nostrils). The drawing would be much better if I could actually do this to any convincing extent. I thought about whether to post this on the sabbath or not, but this is not work, it's fun. I'm still not sure if that's a good justification or not. God give me wisdom on this subject.