Komodo Devouring Someone's Son

Actual size: About 7 feet by 5 feet. Pastel, charcoal, pencil, on newsprint. (Photo taken by NSCAD staff member -- I can't do anything about the quality, sadly, as our own digital camera isn't much better! )

Would this be Macabre and Horror? I'm not even sure. Let me know if you think it'd be placed more accurately someplace else. And let me know if you feel this should have a warning censor -- I think with how semi-cartoony it looks, it doesn't necessarily need one, but I'll gladly place an 18 warning (not a bar; just a warning) if people feel it should be in place.

Also, because I had one friend complain to me upon discovering of the drawing I did -- I mean absolutely NO disrespect towards Goya and his amazing Saturn Devouring His Son. This was not my intent, nor was it even a thought in my mind. It was simply an idea that sprung to mind during Drawing II class, and I ran with it.

The assignment, which was a month ago when the class was currently underway, was to draw a picture involving two things -- an animal figure, and a human figure. It didn't matter how much of the figures there were, so long as they were there in some way. I knew I wanted to do a Komodo Dragon, since they're my favorite animal, but I didn't know how to approach it.

One classmate, upon hearing the animal, said, "Yo, did you hear about that Komodo that, like, ate a kid or something?" And then another classmate laughed, saying, "Yeah, you could do a Komodo devouring someone!" Instantly, Goya's image sprung to my mind. I wanted to use it as a base.

What I liked about my Drawing II professor was he wanted us to be accurate, yet at the same time liked us to use our imaginations. So while I used references for this image, I didn't exactly let them drive the image. Once I got the basic outline of the Komodo down, I sort of just ran with it and did what feels right. I'm rather proud of the result, as silly looking as it may be.

It was hung in the NSCAD Port Campus for about the past month. I hear a lot of people saw it and were surprised by it, considering it was surrounded by pictures of cows in fields and flowers and stuff. I hope they enjoyed it, and I hope you guys will as well.