#The intense/animalistic urge to draw this between projects

[wenchfry]

Insert low quality version of funky town

This is just the daily when you're a robot whose sole purpose is to protect and entertain children

AND TO CLARIFY, TUMBLR THIS IS NOT SELF HARM THIS IS A ROBOT WHO HAPPENS TO HAVE A MECHANIC WHERE HE CAN FLY FROM THE CEILING VIA HANGING WIRE.

TikTok obliterated this video on sight for this very mistake 🔥

[darnell-blog-stcg]

Additional Evidence for FMP 4

This Illustration was at my FMP’s turning point where I realized that due to real life circumstances I could no longer produce a prototype chapter for my series and would have to stick to concept art, thus turning the focus of my project from the story to the production of what could have been.

This Illustration doesn't not have all that much meaning in terms of real world symbolism but is more of a piece of filler art that featured elements from the story. The boy is holding onto a giant sewing needle and blowing his dream sand into the wind, Behind him is a pattern composed of cupboard doors with some closed and some open revealing creepy smiling faces in the darkness.

The Pose the boy is in, was influenced by illustrations depicting the Chinese folklore/fictional character Sun Wu Kong from Journey to the west (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journey_to_the_West).

In journey to the west, Sun Wu Kong is a magic monkey that becomes a Taoist Deity through Illegitimate means and wages war against heaven and the established order. He is later converted to Buddhism and sets out on a journey to India to retrieve scriptures. He and his demonic cohorts are tasked with protecting a monk on this journey and must battle all manner of Demons Ghosts and Gods. As a monkey, Sun Wu Kong is Mischievous, curious whilst also bloodthirsty and quick to anger. It is these traits and base urges that he is forbidden from acting on whilst protecting the monk- If he does, a magic circlet on his head will tighten causing intense pain. As a result, One of the most powerful beings in the story is subservient to a very human monk who he could kill instantly if given the chance, and must walk the path of Buddhism and metaphorically evolve from monkey to man.

By putting the child in a similar pose I intended to draw parallels to Sun Wu Kong as well as tie in some more spiritual/religious influences into my art. 

In terms of major Parallels, both characters are supernatural in nature and (in the planned story) go against the heavenly bureaucracy.

Both characters have (for lack of a better term) monkey/immature characteristics. As the child is, well a child! and Sun Wu Kong is a monkey. Both are tricksters my nature and prone to mischief/pranks. The consequence of this however is that there is a fine line between a prank and an act of malice/violence. While Superpowered- Sun Wukong is still a monkey and an animal by nature- and is not above immediately caving someones head in with his staff if he feels he has been slighted in any way. Similarly the child is both young and has had no authoritive or parental figures in their life and so wouldn't have any reason not to lash out in anger. (Like a typical child’s tantrum only with a few more floating objects and possibility of death than usual).

Another similarity would be their purpose in their respective stories. In Journey to the west, WuKong is only freed from his millennia long imprisonment after agreeing to give up his “evil ways” and accompany the monk Tripitaka on the journey to retrieve scriptures and enlightenment. The child in my story is benefiting from a programme allowing “strange children” the opportunity for a somewhat normal life. As a result they would have multiple behavioural issues to address and shift through in the pursuit of normalcy. The contrast in the two stories however is that while Sun Wukong would eventually achieve enlightenment and mostly Give up his animalistic ways, whether or not the child in my story would be redeemed and I would attempt to have the audience think about how much change was actually possible and whether some traits were simply inherit or too far developed to be corrected completely (mischief, issues regarding empathy, manipulation anti authoritarian behaviour - traits found in children with antisocial personality disorders - https://www.healthline.com/health/parenting/antisocial-behavior-in-children).

I wasn't to make it blatantly obvious that the child suffered from some extreme case of antisocial personality disorder as i don't have much experience or knowledge in this field and did not want to portray stereotypes or present false information that may confuse or offend a reader. Instead I intended to have these traits mostly lead to hijynx and be more lighthearted, and weigh on the caretaker’s sanity- except for when the story called for serious moral questioning. More like a mischievous,pernicious monkey and less like a malicious entity

The inclusion of the giant sewing needle was the first inclusion of a child’s weapon, a sewing needle used to skewer and manipulate the strings they conjure from the dream sand(shown in last blog post). The needle is shown as being so large due to it’s size being dependent on the amount of sand available ,as it is also composed of sand, but also as another parallel to Sun Wukong’s staff which was also able to change in size. The reason i chose a needle was again to give them a medium to control the dream strings but also as a reference to sewing needles often being the weapon of choice of tiny characters in folklore with Tom Thumb of english mythology

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Thumb 

and Issun Boshi

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Issun-b%C5%8Dshi#:~:text=Issun%2Db%C5%8Dshi%20(%E4%B8%80%E5%AF%B8%E6%B3%95%E5%B8%AB%2C,old%20Japanese%20illustrated%20book%20Otogiz%C5%8Dshi.

(one inch boy) of japanese mythology being prime examples

Tom Thumb weilding a sword made from a sewing needle

Image from Picture scroll depicting Issun Boshi and his tiny sewing needle sword

 The idea is also present in pop culture and has a couple of miscellaneous examples i'm not sure the origin of 

while i technically thought up the idea by myself, I was definitely not the first to make it up and definitely wont be the last.

The additional influence of the fairy tale motif was meant to add to the already childish theme and create a sort of Brother’s Grimm situation where light hearted stories have hidden or very apparent darkness that is initially glossed over until looked at with hindsight- sort of like the warning signs of behavioural issues in children looked back on when they are apparent and possibly permanent. Fairy folklore/celtic mythology was also supposed to play a heavy role in the story but now that I'm just doing concepts, its pretty irrelevant.

The final reason for choosing a needle as a weapon is that needles are used for creative practices- a positive connotation. But also very sharp and easy to loose sight of - like a child,

Evaluation

This illustration was also one I made in an attempt to mimic watercolour techniques however this time I removed the paper texture and focused more on the brush techniques. This was because in my last illustration, the paper texture reduced the quality of the image when uploaded online. As a result this Illustration lacks texture a lot of which is a downside

This was also the first illustration where I fully illustrated the child and gave them their pyjama  hoodie design. As a result of being a first attempt, it looks very bland I had tried to augment this at one stage by adding a pattern, however I found this difficult to shade and so it was omitted. Finally, as this is a conceptual design it is quite rushed to be expected. However, now that it is going to submitted as part of my FMP, It’s inconsistent quality is a tad distracting. The Child is fairy detailed however due to the size I displayed them at, their multicoloured hair isn't very visible and looks quote dull as a result. Also as the detail is focused on the child, the rest of the scene is underdeveloped as a result, what look like cards with faces in them were intended to be closet doors (monster in the closet theme). 

In terms of positives, I think the pose has been constructed well and is convincing in weight. I also really like the composition I went for where the bottom of the needle is obscured to accentuate it’s length and half of the scene is taken up by the cloud of dream sand to highlight it’s importance and capture the viewers attention.

If I could do things differently I would put more effort into the rendering- adding more details- clothing folds and add dimension to the doors, while not important in the scheme of things, It is a personal nit pick that irks me. Additionally I probably make the child larger and obscure the lower body to draw more attention to the hidden face and multicoloured hair.

I would also ad specks of white to the dream sand cloud to make it look more magical and eye catching as currently it looks rather bland.