Perfectly creepy.

Attractive illustration is almost the most important aspect of a cartoon, advertisement, book, or animated movie for a kid. Small children have more interest in bright colors, bold lines and not too crowded backgrounds. And of course the drawer has to make sure that the main character looks friendly and cute.

However there is a very thin line between cute and plain creepy. Many illustrators everywhere and through the years have simply tried too hard to make their character so perfect, that at some point they unknowingly cross that line. And I’m talking of course of those drawings that aren’t intentionally made to look “too cute it’s creepy”.

The viewers then have to recover from the initial shock to slowly try and get used to and finally love them enough not flinch. The main question remains, What was the illustrator thinking? and most importantly, Why didn’t anybody stop him?

As a mildly related topic, my mother-in-law has a collection of little dolls in different posses. One day I walked into the room to find one of them in my baby’s crib. I almost screamed. I don’t know who sold that doll but it looked like a small evil leprechaun going through an exsorsism. I grabed the thing very carefully (as I had the slight feeling it might have been cursed) and returned it to it’s previous owner.

I told my mother in law that I could not keep it because I was terribly afraid of it and that I could not understand how she didn’t see how very terrifying it’s twisted face and tangled hair was. “Is just a little baby yawning” she still said.

I swear it was not. As soon as I get a picture of it I’ll post it.

How to scare a kid in 30 seconds.

I don’t want this to be an advertisement, since I have not really read all of this book and nobody is paying me. Anyways, I want to recommend this book:

Please DO judge this book by its cover!

Not only because this book contains the shortest of short scary stories, which are great for the AD/HD in all of us, or because of the great authors that collaborated… buy this book because it is ACTUALLY good. You can browse inside the book before buying it, and see why I am drooling over this.

Love this because of all the “instant frights”, it’s like a book filled with scary appetizers. And I swear you can’t have just one! Most of the stories are unbelievable clever, just take a look at this:

This one makes me smile.

Best of all I recommend this book because, even if it’s originally written for kids, it can be appreciated by adults as well. It is creepy and cute, which is kind of trendy… I’m really not sure if that’s a good thing.

Being a short book you’ll probably be done with it in an hour, but a great thing is that when you’re finished you can always give it as a gift to a kid who loves a good ghost story.

That’s two bird with one stone, for about 10 dollars.

(Go to amazon.com to buy)

Animal frustration.

I found a couple of animal pictures on a site and, even though they were supposed to be about animal fights, to me they seemed to be all about feeling little around frustrating situations. So I added some text on each picture to illustrate the idea. (Click to enlarge)

The truth is sometimes I feel like a leopard. A fainthearted, powerless, leopard.

How (not) to begin.

I’m sitting here in front of a blank page, and I have no idea how to begin.

So, of course, I’ll do what I always do and start rambling nonstop.

Sometimes it’s better to just let my hands work on their own. However, if I don’t pay attention, they might run away to go live at some fancy gloves store. After all, that’s what I’d do.

I think that,  if they had the chance, some parts of me would escape at once. My hair would’ve run ages ago, since I never learned how to use a hairbrush. My ears would go to a place where they could wear real diamond earrings.

And before I know it there’s a decent space filled with words. Even better, I’m pulled together even if a blank page tries to disarm me.

gotta go. left thumb missing…