I spent a couple hours doing a sketch for one of my illustrations and then somehow lost it. It was an image of two teenagers hiking out from a river in sight of Mount Hood after abandoning a small boat. The boat "Dad" had just piloted into a bunch of rocks and was now half underwater in the river. "Don't tell your mom." he said, as they watched their belongings float into oblivion down the river. To tell you the truth I wasn't actually bothered losing this drawing because I was floundering. It was an ok drawing and "kind of" funny but not one that was inspiring me to go anywhere. My friend Nathan had set before me a good creative Challenge when he asked me to do a drawing of his sister Megan. I have only met her once at Nathan's wedding in Eastern Oregon but that is a whole other story. He wanted to do something special for her and I was hoping to do just that. Instead of coming up with a new concept, I decided to work on something else for a while and let my mind wander. This other drawing was a way to escape but also allowed me to turn various ideas and images over in my head and think thru the problem.
I had asked Nathan a bunch of questions and he sent me a pile of photos too.
Turns out that Megan doesn't take serious photos when with Nathan and is always making a larger than life face. This is great for a photo. A wonderful way to show off her sparkling blue eyes and amazing teeth but was not helping in my struggle to come up with a drawing I liked. Fortunately, I did a dig through my drives and found the photo above that I took. Beyond that need Nathan did send me a couple photos of his sister in which she doing some amazing shoulder workout. "That is her Jam!" he said. To say she is ripped is an understatement. This obviously was something of a gem in the process but I could figure it out.
The idea of replicating the gym scene wasn't doing it either. Making fun of her super ugly poop brown weightlifting shoes was a start but not enough for a whole drawing.
Then I remember having a discussion with Sam about the newest Wonder Woman Movies. She was mad that Gal Gadot was not ripped enough. My teenage male nerd response was
that she didn't need ripped muscles, she needed to be perfect in form. Her strength came from her Goddess lineage. The other Amazons needed to be more ripped because they didn't quite have Diana's genes. Then it hit me. Amazon Warrior. Who wasn't inspired by those training scenes followed by them ass-kicking and then shedding tears on the beach? Ok,... so it was a bit of an adolescent solution but it would be a respectful and strong image. After sketching the rough concept in a few minutes my brain skittered around thinking about some foe for Megan the Amazon Warrior to vanquish. After running a few by Sam she blurted out, "you know what I hate? I hate Care Bears!" With that, my Muse had given me another gem and the image you see above basically popped into my head. Care Bears and a Cabbage Patch Zombie littering the field of Battle. Even if Megan loved Care Bears it would still be funny. I drew these little fuzzy critters while laughing to myself. Note the little green one in the background down below on the riverbank. He was hit so hard by the spear he left skid marks in the sand. You will also see a version of "dad's Boat" and Mount Hood in the background. There are a couple other inside jokes detailed in there I hope she finds some humor in. Finally, I did have to give Megan some cool brown boots instead of those sneakers though. Good grief, those shoes.
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