Road Warrior

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Since the movie is coming out next month, I'd thought I'd revisit the novel. One of my friends recently mentioned how the part of the book where the predatory roamers were first described and how it unsettled him. In a future where food is ultra-scarce and there is no law, roaming bands of dirty, hungry people can't be a good thing. Especially when some of them wear gas masks, right?

I read recently a comment on a message board complaining about how the scavengers looked too "healthy" in the movie stills that were released. Well, my first reaction was that those alarming characters had a source of nutrients that others did not: humans. Yep, they just ate people. No age discrimination, either.

I remember a part in the book where the main character finds a shriveled apple tree that has produced shriveled apples. He was so happy to bit into the bland, dried ghosts-of-fruit that he pretty much teared up. Like they had stumbled upon a great fortune.

Anyway, I drew one of the road-prowlers. Equipped with sunken eyes, wonky hair and gas mask. I like to believe that this character drew the teeth on the gas mask himself. It's something he'd do. He eats people, for crying out loud!

About the illustration:
Done with watercolor and some new Prismacolor pens that I just bought. I like!

Lion Down on the Ground

A Need For Gardens by Richard Brautigan

To tell you the truth, this particular Brautigan short story from Revenge of the Lawn still has me thinking "What the heck?" But in a good way, of course.

I don't mind tell you something about the story this time, since it can only prepare you a little, haha.

ALRIGHT. So, every year the characters in this story try to bury a lion. Why? I don't know. The Annual Lion Burial has been going on since the lion was itty-bitty. At first it scared and surprised him, but eventually he got used to it and just sat through the process looking rather bored.

What happens is every time they dig, the hole ends up being too small. So only a portion on the lion is covered. Then they give up until next year.

Yep!

About the illustration:
Well, this one was done with that Pentel V5 pen as well. But I also went over it with some Prismacolor pencils and some Copic markers. It's an overhead view of the partially-buried lion.

Update:
Ok, so I just googled "lion" and saw that they don't have big pink noses. Woops!

For The Birds

The Wild Birds of Heaven by Richard Brautigan

I'm still reading Revenge of the Lawn and have already found a couple more illustration inspirations! Since the stories are quite short, I won't talk too much about what goes on. I'll just say that in this booksketch, a man is having his shadow removed by a blacksmith.

Yep. You read that correctly. Why it was removed is something you'll just have to find out for yourself, eh?

On a side note, I love how placid he is during the whole process. The guy goes to buy a new television and ends up having his shadow replaced...Oh my, I think I might have said too much!

About the illustration:
Haha, this one was just done with an ordinary Pentel V5 pen. I forgot my usual art pens at home and this was all I had on me!