Day 1 – Ring

Gollum

I’m a big fan of a lot of genres, and epic fantasy is no exception. I always enjoyed the Lord of the Rings movies growing up (especially the part with the giant spider–it’s awful to say that’s my favorite part in all the movies but it is). But I never actually have read the books. I read The Hobbit when I was about in fifth grade, which I loved. But I remember trying the Lord of the Rings soon after and I couldn’t read it for some reason. All I could recall from it from my memory was this ‘200 page dinner’ that I couldn’t get past.

Now, I’m taking a P.E. class at my school where I have to work out eighteen hours in the Fitness Center. That’s doing exercises like lifting weights (which I haven’t done and won’t do, ever), treadmills, indoor bikes . . .

After doing one exercise session, I knew I wasn’t going to make any progress if I didn’t do something while I was exercising. No offense to anyone who loves to exercise, but if I don’t have something to do at the same time, I’m not tired, I’m bored. To be honest, I’m not the biggest fan of audiobooks. I much rather read my own book and hear the voices speak in my own head, not have someone else read for me. But, I tried reading and running on a treadmill and it’s very hard. Can’t say I recommend it.

So, I thought to try out audiobooks again. I downloaded Audible and was very pleased when they said I could download one book for free, to try them out. Which got me thinking; what book could I download that would last me eighteen hours? I didn’t want to pick something like IT by Stephen King because it’s forty hours, but some of my favorite books I know I would like, such as Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, don’t last long enough. On a whim, I looked up Lord of the Rings. The first book is nineteen hours long to listen to. Perfect.

I’m glad I chose to listen to it, because in all honesty I don’t know if I would be able to read it otherwise. I love the world. It’s a great story. But J.R.R. Tolkien struggles with story flow. My mom describes it as Frodo going on all these “sidequests,” like for a videogame. Tolkien is constantly driving us away from the main story. Which works for him, but I don’t think a book like his would be published today otherwise.

Though there’s a Lord of the Rings class offered at my school, and you can bet I’m going to take it sometime while I’m here.

Day 2 – Mindless

Poor zombie

I know I just talked a lot about my first day’s picture, but I don’t think this one has much of an explanation behind it. I just like to take some prompts literally. And only zombies (to my knowledge) are prone to risk of losing their minds, especially when their heads are cut open.

Day 3 – Bait

Kirby and Gooey

My brother has the deal through Nintendo where you can get all these old ‘Super Nintendo’ games for free, through the purchase of Nintendo online. So Carey and I have had fun playing all these old Nintendo games. One of them was Kirby’s Dreamland 3, which we just recently finished. Carey was, obviously, the little pink ball in charge – Kirby himself. While I played his strange little friend, Gooey, who can’t seem to keep his eyes straight.

The very first scene in the game has Kirby and Gooey fishing, which is where the idea for this came from. Though as the game progressed and we met Kirby’s other friends, one question was raised in my mind; is it ethical for Kirby and Gooey to be fishing when one of their friends is the fish, Kine? Like, how does Kine feel about us fishing?? Eating his brethren of the ocean??? I mean, Gooey stuck the fish they caught right into his mouth, I doubt Kine is very fond of that.

Day 4 – Freeze

Freeze!

There is nothing better than puns. That is all.

Day 5 – Build

Toads at work

This is the first prompt of the day where I really didn’t feel like I had any clever ideas. I mean, as soon as I heard ‘Freeze,’ I knew what I was going to do. I struggled to draw this one. And I personally think it shows. It was inspired by Mario Build – a game where you make your own Mario courses. It’s fun. But I decided to draw Toads because they’re easier (and quicker) to draw than Mario.

Day 6 – Husky

Husky?

Again, my inspiration felt limited this day. It’s cute. But I’m not sure it’s even a dog. It’s a funny-looking dog in my opinion.

Day 7 – Enchanted

I’d like to be a frog

Now this one was fun. When I heard Enchanted, I thought probably what most people do–something cute, something charming. Like Enchanted the movie, which is a great movie. But I wanted to do something different than that. And that day I had gone to the store and seen a lot of Halloween decorations. So I was in a very Halloween-y mood, as we all should be in October.

Thus, I drew a witch. Enchanting some poor fool into a frog. It’s still enchanting, right? And this picture has taken me the longest so far. Though I think all the time I put in paid off.

Can’t wait to draw more!

  • Bailey