'The Hoppening'

Last summer, after a very interesting night at the movies with two of my cousins, I submitted this illustration in answer to a job post on the Killer Bunnies web site looking for a "bunny artist." Never heard back from them, but I've always thought my idea would have made a neat new card for the game, and I was pretty pleased with myself at having mimicked their style so well.

So, I've finally decided to post it here along with the letter. Neither seemed to do any good for me anyplace else.

Enjoy.

—

GREETINGS KILLER BUNNY GENIUSES.

A cousin of mine introduced our extended family to Killer Bunnies and the Quest for the Magic Carrot at a reunion in Nebraska a few years ago. We were instantly hooked (you had me at Green Gelatin with Evil Pineapple Chunks) and played a giant throwdown match every night of the reunion, with some of us obtaining our own Killer Bunny decks shortly thereafter.

I would love the chance to become one of you. Ecstatic to find a job listing on your web site a few days ago, I worked through the night tonight developing an idea I had at work yesterday.

Please find my drawing for "The Hoppening" — which I envision as a RUN or a SPECIAL card — attached to this e-mail. The description I had in mind goes something like this: Kills all of one player's bunnies, but does so one round at a time. (They cannot be saved; however, other players may contribute or speed up the offing by providing weaponry, which cannot be spread past this player.) Adjacent players have until that player's last bunny is dead to reduce their bunnies by half or their bunnies suffer the same fate, and so on.

I have a few other ideas that I haven't been able to fully develop or sketch out yet, but hopefully this gives you an idea of my abilities and enthusiasm for your product. If you would like to know more about me or discuss my ideas further, feel free to reply to this e-mail or call the number below. Thank you for your time and consideration.

— Gina Dvorak
(blah blah blah... contact info...)

Cha-ching!

When you don't feel like drawing all that money, I have two words for you: MIXED MEDIA. Kind of a cool effect, I think. Not something I'd try all the time, but I think it helped punch it up a little because otherwise, it's really pretty plain. Which was good this time around because I had very little time to pull this together, despite being given the idea a bit earlier in the week than usual.

Oh, and the hand dipping INTO the money was a happy accident. In my original sketch, the hand kind of hovered above the building (which, for some reason, had a skewed angled roof. Don't ask, 'cause I have no answer). I was stuffing the money into the building and hand turned the hand layer off, for some reason. When I turned the hand back on, it was "in" the money... PERFECT. It just clicked and made the whole thing work a lot better.

SIDENOTE: I like the shadow and proportion work I did on the building. I almost messed up the bigger windows; they were originally going to be half as wide, but then I realized the correct proportions would mean they should be longer than the "squares" on the end, which are "shorter" because of perspective. Yes, occasionally I get it right even on deadline. Go me.

I could have a little better making sure my outline strokes were even throughout. I think I've got three widths up there. A little schizophrenic for whatever reason...

CREDIT WHERE IT'S DUE: Incidentally, this original concept for this illustration again came from the reporter on the story. Kudos to you, man. I don't think I'd ever get these things done if I had to sit there and come up with ideas from scratch. Could be worse, though... could be illustrations about SPORTS topics. That would just be beggin' for trouble. Anyway... thanks again, Matt!

Ready for take-off

I've been suggesting illustrations — especially for our Business centerpieces — for quite awhile already. My only stipulation was that I needed to have ample time to come up with an idea I felt confident about executing. Finally, this week, I got some marching orders.

I'll put more details on the topic later. Just wanted to get this posted.

—

This illustration finally ran... about three weeks AFTER I stayed late one shift trying to finish it up to run that first weekend. So it goes.

The story was about how some travelers were finding it cheaper to fly out of Mexican airports for their vacations, some reportedly saving upwards of $1,000.