I like telling stories, I’m not necessarily good at it though. My stories typically should only be a couple minutes in length, but end up being drawn out with extra pointless information that I felt was necessary to the listener. My son can appreciate the extra tidbits, but most teenagers and adults do not.

When it comes to illustrating, I often find myself drawing a story in the same manner as I tell one. I provide more information than is needed, sometimes too much. But beside the point of drawing too much, I make these competitive designs for one person only, Me. I’m the one who enjoys the long-windedness of my own stories and illustrations the most. So, when it came time to make a design for Derby #124: Naughty and Nice I was ready to tell a story the way I like.

As always, I played with some ideas before ultimately choosing one to complete. I went with a design that was a story told over and over again, but I put a twist on it this time. Normally birds stay away from a terrorizing feline, but I did some role reversal. At first glance, the design is of a cat choosing between two potential meal options. After looking longer, you will notice that the cat is not the antagonist of the story. The finches may appear to be harmlessly taunting the calculating kitty, but in fact they are luring it into something much more painful.

I did not want to be so obvious with the intent of the birds, and by varying the line quality and the contrast of the colors, I achieved what I feel is a successful story worth of telling. That story is called Finchievous.

A Mixture of Styles

Singularitee mentions my story telling illustration in the weekly Contest Watch.

Worklog