An Apple A Sketch

The Underground Man by Mick Jackson

The first page of the book started with the main character wondering what goes on inside an apple tree to make apples bloom. What sorts of intricate machinery sucks up ingredients from the soil and manufactures such a delightful little treat?

Well, I thought that was just perfect for a booksketch. Such an interesting idea for an illustration, and on the first page! I have a very good feeling about this book.

I kind of got carried away with this illustration. I'd say it took about eight hours to complete, colors and all.

Yes, I drew all of those leaves. I hope you appreciate them, Mick!

'Tis the Seasoning

The Moon Is Down by John Steinbeck

I remember picking this book up at a local bookstore. It was a wonderful old copy. You know, the kind that has a cover retail of 25¢? I love those.

I felt like reading a short war-related book, so this fit the bill perfectly. I read this book, All Is Quiet on the Western Front and Storm of Steel in short succession. Nothing like bleak war novels to scare/depress the heck out of you.

Anyway, The Moon Is Down is about a small coal-mining town that gets overrun and conquered by an invading force. As with all military-occupied areas, there can be no true peace where freedom is taken away. The army that has invaded the town knows it but still tries to keep order. Things come to a slow boil: soldiers go missing, equipment keeps "breaking," some townsfolk are executed.

The novel does an excellent job of showing us characters on both sides of the conflict. They are all people, after all.

About the illustration:
I like how this composition turned out. Steinbeck made certain to not point out any specific groups of people, though he was most certainly targeting the Nazis as the invaders. The book was published and snuck into Nazi-controlled areas.

I kept the faces out of sight, instead focusing on the character's intent. You can see a soldier kicking back and expecting some food. He's not really expecting a dose of poison, however. In my head, the lady making/bringing the food to the soldier (who has taken residency in her inn) just found out that her husband was taken by the invaders and executed for being a "conspirator." So she's taking a little revenge. Maybe she won't give a lethal dose. Maybe she'll just add in enough to make the man sick, and then she'll have some friends "take care of him" when he is incapacitated.

Yikes!

Blingwraith

The Lord of the Rings novels by J.R.R "Orc-in Man" Tolkien

In my head, the Ringwraiths wore orcskin boots.

They were pretty fly for some dead guys!

Anyway, the Ringwraiths weren't always scary bad-asses. In their former lives, they were "entrusted" with the seven Rings of Power that were given to mankind. Who would have thought that the power would corrupt them? Sauron, of course.

If you killed one, he'd spawn back to "life" in Mordor. His ride, however, would stay dead. So eventually, after their horses were killed, flying creatures were procured to help the evil war effort. Go, team, go!

I want those boots.

Here's what it looks like scanned straight from my moleskine:

Ringleader

The Lord of the Rings novels by "Fantasy Fire-hydrant" J.R.R Tolkien

Here's everyone's precious: Gollum. From corrupted Hobbit to superstar celebrity, Gollum has come quite a ways to frantically burrow his way into our hearts.

Gollum appeared The Hobbit and kept sneaking around throughout the LOTR trilogy. When he wasn't eating raw fish, Gollum liked to conspire and plot to get his Precious back. Well, half of this character's personality would plot, anyway. You see, all those years under the power of the One Ring had deformed what was originally an upstanding hobbit named Sméagol. Extending his life and ravaging his body, the One Ring asserted itself as Sméagol's master.

After Bilbo happened upon the Ring (it had been momentarily misplaced by a certain slimy little character), Gollum set out in search for his Precious (the One Ring). He was eventually captured by the forces of Mordor and through torture revealed the words "hobbit" and "Shire." This pretty much put events in motion for LOTR.

Anyway, above is a drawing of Gollum being all "GIVE ME MY PRECIOUS. IT BELONGSES TO ME!"

Here's the b/w version, just so you can see how it looked before the coloring process:

Great Write Sharks

The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall

Burt reminded me that posts have been lacking lately...and so I am posting a sketch to save Burt from eating sad ham.

The Raw Shark Texts is an extremely interestingly covered book I picked up off the 75% off rack whilst waiting to check out at Barnes & Noble. I don't even remember the other book I was buying, but this one was a very very nice surprise. People are a little mixed on the ending (which I won't spoil), but I felt quiet satisfied when I ran out of pages to place a bookmark in. The story centers on Eric Sanderson, who has no idea who he is.

The only clues he can trust (or can he?) were left to him by himself before he forgot who he was. The clues are not straightforward, however, and are loaded with secret messages and puzzles. As if that's not bad enough, he's being chased by a linguistic entitity on a mission to devour him. Namely, a huge conceptual shark called the Ludovician that swims, in a literal sense, in the figurative flow of language in information. For example, as you're reading the words I've written, information is flowing from your screen to your head, so we're creating an informational flow! Once the Ludovician traces Eric's scent on a flow of information, he can find Eric and quite literally devour him as an actual shark would with the teeth and the ripping skin and bones, etc.

Eric's goal is to avoid the Ludovician until he can destroy it, if he can figure out how to destroy it. He has to change his identity to hide his scent, surround himself with books and letters to throw the shark off (too many linguistic flows make the "water" choppy to navigate), and rely on people he maybe shouldn't trust. As one quick review put it: "Hunting the answers as he is hunted, Eric is led on a journey that will either bring the First Eric Sanderson back to life or destroy both Eric Sandersons forever."

So the sketch is showing how the Ludovician notes the scent of Eric's thoughts as he reads the letter he wrote to himself at the beginning of the story. IE, when he first wrote the letter the Ludovician was present, so it traces his "scent" on the letter from his past self into the head of his present self as he reads it. If that makes any sense.

Wile E. Quixote

Pierre Menard, Author of The Quixote from "Labyrinths," by Jorge Borges

A French author holes himself up in seclusion for a very long time. He is particularly brilliant, and this trait has allowed him to master the 17th-century Spanish dialect in a relatively short amount of time. He becomes so engrossed in the time period that he happens to recreate (on his own), word-for-word, some fragments of Cervantes' Don Quixote.

The narrator of the story presentsa literary review of Menard's The Quixote. He pulls a passage and describes how Cervantes' version is "almost expected" because of the commentary he was making in his own time, while Menard's work is pure genius because the allusion is thicker, since Menard is a modern author.

When I first read through the story, I misunderstood it as Menard just going off and copying the original text and passing it off as his own "interpretation." And the thought of someone praising this as "genius" just made me roll. After having the real message pointed out to me, however, I think it's a lot crazier. Someone assuming Cervantes' persona to the point he is able to recreate his works? HAHA. And the idea that since the setting of the book is so far removed from the modern day, this new Quixote is oh-so-much more potent a piece of literature. That cracks me up.

So I drew a modern day author (much more modern than when Borges wrote this short story) assuming a knightly persona.

And I also drew this:

Which is, of course, a pencil mace. Writing is a powerful and potentially dangerous sport, my friends.

About the illustrations:
These were done in Micron pen. I'm having fun with this sketchier style!

A Hard Read

The Library of Babel from "Labyrinths" by Jorge Borges

Let me just cut to the chase. This short story by Borges is one of the best works I have had the chance to read. And let me just tell you know that this is only the first in a series I'll be doing on other Labyrinth stories. They are all great. This one and Pierre Menard, Author of The Quixote are particularly mind-blowing. To be fair, if you don't want me revealing some of the awesomeness, please go ahead and read the story before reading this post. The story is just a few pages long.

The Library of Babel describes a universe that is literally one massive library. This library is made up of an indefinite number of hexagonal rooms. Two walls directly across from one another are entrances/exits and lead to hallways that connect the hexagons. The other four walls are lined with bookshelves with books of uniform build. Each are the same size, each contain 410 pages. Each room contains the necessities for human life, including a place to sleep and a bathroom.

You may be wondering "If every room in the library/universe is filled with books, there must be a TON of them!" Yes. In fact, the thing about this library is that it contains (take a breath) every possible combination of the alphabet. What this means is that everything that is written, or WILL BE written, is in this library.

Side note: While the number is astronomical, there is indeed a finite number of combinations of the alphabet, so the Library is not infinite.

For example, say you are looking for a Labyrinths in this library. Not only does the "correct" copy exist on one of the shelves, but an "incorrect" version containing any number of typos, false lines, or repetitions also exist. There exists a copy with one comma omitted.

Since all possible literature is written, there exists an exact account of your future out there. There also exists a ton of false accounts of your future as well. The people that live in this universe are each designated a hexagon of which they are to be the "librarian," or caretaker. When certain cults or believes arise, these people get swept up in movements that really have no effect on the actual library, since it is so massive. Gosh, the idea of this story is so awesome.

The drawing above represents one of the cult's beliefs. Some elders have claimed that there exists a circular room in this universe. The circumference of this room (the walls) act as the spine for a great book. This great book is God. I just had to illustrate that idea.

I drew someone actually stumbling upon this room. How could you get inside if the walls were the spine of the book? I put a little spiral staircase down from above.

Onto the next part of the post:


Originally I misread the cult's belief about the circular room. I envisioned a book with a circular spine, that one could hold and flip through. Since there is no end or beginning, the reading is cyclical. You could start from anywhere and keep reading indefinitely. That'd be one heck of a story, eh? I drew this book to have a stand, so you could set it down. Or press against your tum-tum, if you wanted to read on the go. It also has a handy-dandy book mark, so you'll never lose your place!



Here's a librarian who happened upon the cyclical book. Boy is HE in for a treat.

Look, I could write ten more paragraphs about all the great things in this story. But then I'd be spoiling pretty much everything for you. It's just great to think about all the things that could be found on the shelves of this universe. If you want to discuss it further, let me know. Please do yourself a favor and read the story. It's only about 6 pages or so!

Oh, let me explain the post title. This isn't a "hard read" in the sense that it was hard to finish, or understand. It's in reference to the library universe: The probability of finding what you want in a library with almost infinite books is equal to a library containing zero books.

I hope you were sitting down for that one.

The Wisest Wizard

The Lord of the Rings books by J.R.R "Lore-inator" Tolkien

Did you know that the wizards in the LOTR universe weren't human? They are ancient beings of the Maiar, sent by Valar to help stave the forces of darkness in Middle-Earth. The elves called them Ishtari and mankind called them I remember reading about all that some time after completing the series. And I also remember thinking "WHERE THE HECK WHERE THE OTHER LAZY JACKLEGS?" Did Gandalf have to do all the work? Well, apparently not all of the Maiar ventured out into the area that the books' setting. I suppose had Gandalf and the Fellowship failed, Sauron might have run into other wizards eventually in other lands. Radagast the Brown was the one who sent the eagle to save Gandalf at the White Tower, though Radagast didn't do jack besides that.

Anyway, the Maiar took the form of "old humans" to help them blend into the land. They were sent to guide the races of Middle-Earth. There were a few mentioned in the series, but only two were key. Gandalf The Gray and Saruman The White, whom Sauron (the big baddie) corrupts and becomes one of the man foes of the Fellowship.

Anyway, Gandalf was the dude. The illustration above is him delivering his classic line "YOU SHALL NOT PASS." Not many people know that in the book, the next line he says to the balrog is "Your ass is mine."

Two of a Kind

The Lord of the Rings books by J. R. R. "Mr. Fantasy" Tolkien

Is it just me, or do more people confuse Merry and Pippin? Don't shake your head at me, Elise! Or anyone else that loves Merry and Pippin, for that matter. Alright, maybe it's just me. Merry was the hobbit with the most knowledgeable of the four hobbits of the Fellowship, with an interest in lore and such things that for your average hobbit would be a tall order. Of the two, he's also the one I found myself cursing at the least.

"PIPPIN, LEAVE THAT PALANTIR ALONE!!!"

"PIPPIN! Why on MIDDLE-EARTH are you swearing your allegiance to Denethor???

Etc.

Pippin was the youngest, so I'm sure we can just blame it on that. Young people, tssk tssk.

And yet, without a bit of carelessness and mischievousness, things might have turned out a whole lot worse. For example, Faramir was saved because of Pippin being so close to Denethor.

And plus, they became exceptionally hobbit-tall once they drank the Entwine! That's got to count for something, eh?

About the illustration:
Here are Merry and Pippin plotting to do something thoughtless that will annoy Burt very much. Hahaha.

Sam & FroD'oh!

The Lord of the Rings books by J.R.R. "Fantasy Dude" Tolkien

Continuing with the Fellowship illustrations, here are Sam and Frodo, as I remember them.

Look, I'll just say it. I wasn't a big fan of any of the hobbits. I mean, sure, they prove that size and stature doesn't matter, and that you can still stab big things in the feet if necessary, but come on. Come on, seriously. FOUR of them? How about two? Two would have sufficed, right? Well I guess since they are Halflings, the four of them combined would make two normal-sized characters. Why do I dislike the hobbits so much?

Don't even get me started on Merry and Pippin. Well, you won't have to get me started, because they're up next on the list.

Anyways, Sam & Frodo. Best half-buds. Sam stuck by Frodo through thick and thinner, low times and lower times. Through breakfast and second breakfast. Sam is essentially the heart of the LOTR books. He'd do anything for Frodo, and is one of the few characters who had possession of the Ring at one time and voluntarily gave it up. Morals are practically bursting out of this guy. Who could say that Halflings are half-hearted?

Frodo is pretty much the LOTR punching bag.

But he's also Bilbo Baggins' adoptive heir, and was trusted with the task of tossing a little ol' ring into a murderous demon volcano in Mordor, which was also the home of a big ol' bad guy: Sauron. So, in summary: Little dude with a big job.

This booksketch shows Sam piggybacking agony-stricken Frodo, whom Tolkien had just tossed into the frying for the eleventh or so time.

The Fellowship's Tank

The Lord of the Rings books by J.R.R "Epic Gift To Mankind" Tolkien

I would like to start this Boromir booksketch by saying that if you continue reading past this sentence, you will be subject to a very bad pun. Now, with that out of the way...

I get the impression that a lot of people out there don't like Boromir. Is it because he tried to chase poor tee-tiny Frodo around and take the One Ring? Really? Is that a reason to hate someone? Hobbits are so chase-able. I mean, who wouldn't be tempted? Plus, you have to factor in how tempting the Ring is. I mean, it literally tells you to covet it.

But with the Hobbit-assault aside, Boromir is pretty likable. Let me persuade you:

First, he's a tank. Did you SEE how much of a lickin' he took whilst continuing to tick? And deliver licks in kind, I might add. He had a very proud-warrior upbringing. This was expected, being a son of the Steward of Gondor (who was ruling in the stead of the true king, who had yet to rightly claim his throne), Denethor II.

Pardon my language, but Boromir was a bad-ass. If you don't wish to pardon my language, then replace that last sentence with "Boromir was a bad-mule." He was very passionate about his country and his position, and would do anything to defend both. A very noble noble. He put many a hurt on Sauron's forces.

Second, he loved wind instruments. Well, maybe not, but he DID carry around the Horn of Gondor, which was passed down in the lineage of Gondor's stewards. It makes me think back to the horn in the famous poem The Song of Roland. Or at least I remember there being a horn in that piece of literature. Well, if not, then I remember someone using a horn as a weapon of mass destruction in some story. Sheesh.

Thirdly, he was probably the most realistic character in the series. He's human, for one. He also makes mistakes, isn't immortal, gets pretty angry and is very passionate in his beliefs. Sure, he betrays Frodo, but he also makes up for it in a big way. He did want the Ring, but one big thing about the Rings of Power were that humans were very drawn to them and were pretty easily corrupted. Hence the Ringwraiths. The Ring tricked Boromir into thinking that he needed it to save his country. He probably thought he was Mir-ly going to Boro it.

That was the pun I warned you about.

Tolkien Arrow

The Lord of the Rings books by The All-Powerful J.R.R. Tolkien

Calm down, ladies. Here's Legolas.

I'll start off by saying that this Grey Elf was actually one of my favorite characters. Not because he was an unstoppable killing-machine. For one thing, there wasn't much mention of his battle prowess in the books. The movies turned Legolas into this untouchable warrior after test audiences responded favorably to him surfing down a staircase on a shield and shooting arrows. I'm not going to deny being very entertained by this, as well, haha.

What was interesting about Legolas was how separated he was from the rest of the Fellowship. For example, when the gang was truding through snow-packed mountain passes, Legolas was indifferent to the snow and cold. His endurance was way above any others in the group, as well. He was often off scouting ahead. And he was usually the one to remain in high-spirits. Or, at least, not in utter despair.

I believe the main purpose of Leggy as a character was to show that even staunch enemies can become friends once differences are reconciled. I mentioned in the Gimli post that dwarves and elves had this bitter animosity towards one another. Well, when the Fellowship was forged, Legolas and Gimli were none-to-happy to be in each others' company. But towards the end however, they formed a steadfast friendship and were willing to defend this with blood.

Also, you have to love their little wager. Even if I still think Gimli cheated. I think the fact that there was a high orc-body count on both sides shows that Legolas actually did do stuff in battle, but it just wasn't focused on in the books. I guess they were more of "off-screen" actions. Off-page? Haha.

About the illustration:
'Twas done in Prismacolor pen and then colored in ye ol' Photoshop.

Full Stride

The Lord of the Rings books by Fantasy Funkmaster J.R.R Tolkien

Since I've decided to draw the entire Fellowship, here's my take on Aragorn, aka Strider. I know that Aragorn was a bad mamma-jamma throughout the entire series, but I personally loved his "Strider" persona. Some dark, hooded figure shows up at a tavern at the beginning of the story and wards the wee hobbits from certain doom at the hands of the Nazgûl (Ringwraiths). Why's he helping? What's he doing? Where does he come from? WHO IS HE? Well, he's simply Strider.

A very strong character. It's interesting how the movie imposed all of this self-doubt upon him. As if he was afraid to take the crown that was rightfully his. I guess they just wanted to add another element? Anyway, he was one of my favorite characters. Maybe THE favorite. I need to read the series again and decide once and for all.

Anyway, here's the rundown on Aragorn:

1) Mostly man, wee bit o' elf. That means he can have a pretty long life (as did all in the line of Númenor), and has other qualities of the elves, and was even raised by elves. But since he's mostly Man, he has the "Gift of Men," which is an eventual death.

2) In line for the throne of Gondor. Which is a large kingdom of Middle-Earth, and has the largest force to stop Sauron (the baddie of The Third Age).

3) Pretty tall and scruffy. All those years as a Ranger of the North add gruff to a character! He befriended Gandalf The Gray during his stint as a Ranger.

On a side note:
I tend to get Aragorn and Lan from Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series slightly confused. This being because Lan was modeled very similar to ol' Ary. Both were ranger-warriors, both were rugged and battle-hardened. They share a bunch of qualities, even up to the "slight bit of gray in the hair." Though I think Lan was less of a spring chicken.

4) I think my Aragorn illustration turned out a bit like Russell Crowe...

5) Oh man, I've got to draw a Ringwraith after the Fellowship is penned!

One Sketch To Bind Them

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by J. R. R. Tolkien, aka "The Fantasy Funkmaster"

Don't mind that faux-title I gave Tolkien. But if you're a fan of epic fantasy (which I am, of course), then you pretty much owe your entire fandom to him.

I've put off doing LOTR booksketches for a while. I thought that the movies did an excellent, EXCELLENT job of portraying the novels. And yet I couldn't go through my life without putting some of the characters down on paper.

Do you know why the brave dwarf Gimli was picked to be illustrated first? He's not my favorite character. I even liked Boromir better! In fact, I was a staunch Legolas supporter throughout their competition. I still can't believe Legolas didn't win. HE HAD ARROWS, for crying out loud.

But I digress. Wait, one more thing. Legolas had arrows. Ok. You don't want to hear me complain about the small stuff. That is not a shot at Gimli's height, by the way.

Speaking of dwarven characteristics: There are only so many ways to imagine a dwarf. I mean, sorry little guys, but you've been stereotyped. Big bushy beards, stocky/muscular, wield axes. You guys like pounding stuff. You like blacksmithing. You live in mountains and are very tempermental. Don't like elves. I think that every fantasy book out there has some sort of prejudice between elves and dwarves. What's up with that?

Alright, so why did I draw Gimli first? Because he's one of the most fun to illustrate. Look at all that stuff! And it's pretty fun to render crazy facial hair. You should try it.

Side note: I have this LOTR riddle book. The first question asked me to translate a sentence from Elven to English. I don't even think they had a codec. What the heck??? That crushed my soul.

About the illustration:
Gimli was drawn with Prismacolor pens and colored in Photoshop. I used a sweet rock texture as well. Textures are so helpful. For a great texture resource, check out www.cgtextures.com. I really like how it came out, and I'm excited to take on some of the other characters!

Beating a Dead Horse

Ok. The above bookpainting is actually pretty old- probably about 6 or 7 years. I found it in my closet while cleaning and thought I’d post it, since it's inspired by Crime and Punishment.

Even though I’m sure everyone has been forced to read (or sparknote) C&P at some point in your lives, I’ll give a (really) short synopsis anyway:

Main character (Raskolnikov) is fed up with the way people are treated. He believes that God’s law is greater than man’s law- so if he breaks man’s law but it’s cool with God, then he can’t really get in trouble. So he decides to kill this old lady that’s screwing everyone over. Once he does, he starts to feel guilty about it and ultimately gets arrested because this new philosophy of his isn’t how real life works.

To the sketch: Raskolnikov has a dream that he’s a young boy that watches a man beat his horse to death in the middle of town. None of the townspeople care about the horse or the beating or Raskolnikov’s tiny protests. Raskolnikov is heartbroken over the horse’s death and everyone else goes on their way. The horse is HUGE, I know- The disproportionate size is supposed to symbolize the gravity of what the horse represents to the dreamer. Just go with it.

I’ve heard this dream explained a number of times. Raskolnikov = Raskolnikov, Horse = his new way of life, Man = his Guilt, townspeople = cops/townspeople. I’ve also heard it analyzed in more detail as Raskolnikov = 12 apostles, Horse = Christ, Man = Romans, Townspeople = Jews, etc. Or you can combine the two analyses and tie everything together. Yay for reading between the lines.

Whichever way you look at it…it was still a pretty intense dream with some very imaginative visual potential.

What Day Is It?

The Man Who Was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton

I'm tempted to forgo the explanation of this booksketch, for comedic effect. An old man hurdling a baby carriage? Vat in ze vurld?

Well, I can't do that to you. The old man above is Professor de Worms, a German professor as old as death and perpetually on his last legs. He is one of seven individuals on a anarchist council-of-sorts, one individual for each day of the week. The main character in the novel, Syme, was thrust into the council as part of an undercover sting set to bust the anarchist and their leader, Sunday. Syme ends up being Thursday, hence the title of the book.

Each of the council members is very peculiar in his own way. Professor de Worms appears to be always on the brink of death. Syme was very surprised to find the Prof tailing him one day after a council meeting. Try as he might, Syme could not shake the Prof. Now, there was no baby-jumping in the novel; I just threw that in there to make myself laugh, but the chase did involve some pretty strenuous physical activity, which perplexed and unsettled Syme as much as it did myself.

I can't tell you the reason for the sudden instillation of life into the old coot, but I will say that that Chesterton is an amazing author, haha. This book has plenty of fun twists.

About the illustration:
Originally inked with Prismacolor pens and then colored in Photoshop.

Conch'd Up

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

First off, I apologize for the lack of booksketches as of late. I've been having to do a lot of preparing to move into my own house, and spent a weekend out of town, and just have been busy in general. It has been a stressful/down couple of weeks. I'll be trying to move this weekend, so hopefully things will settle down after that.

Lord of the Flies is a novel that places children in an extreme situation and lets animalistic instincts play out and snowball. Without the presence of adults, the children on the deserted island have to cooperate, organize, and communicate to survive. When their makeshift society starts to break down, immaturity morphs into a dangerous tribal sensation. Craving for power and control where there is essentially none. You want to control the conch and the fire and the meat; you don't want the "opposition" to have it.

Once the conch-led democracy dissipated into the more savage tribe-led society, the rules changed. That's because whoever had the power made the rules. And the power belonged to young boys hefting sharp sticks and sporting painted faces.

About the illustration:
Haha, sorry, this image popped into my head and I just had to draw it. The ultimate representation of authority on the island: a conch wearing Piggy's glasses. If this combination would have come into existance, maybe they would have worshipped it! The true "Lord of the Flies," eh?

This illustration was done using Prismacolor pens.

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!