An Araltian Adventure

For Erika, it was an enjoyable, but otherwise unspectacular day spent frolicking throughout the galaxy, blowing off homework in every way she possibly could.

For August, it was yet another day filled with futile attempts to get Erika to tidy her room. 

For everyone else, absolutely everything they knew was changed in a very instant, for as enormous as they may be, they were completely and utterly lost in the vast landscapes unwittingly presented by Erika and the cataclysmic mess she called her bedroom. Whether they were trying to find their way out of immense canyons that seemed to stretch forever towards the sky, flee for their lives from looming perilous dangers, or merely gaze on in awe and wonder as they attempt to comprehend the scale of the situation, they were all most certainly in for quite the adventure.  

With 12 inserts featuring my entire cast, a complex background, and over 60 hours spent on the colouring alone (I don’t count any of the sketch time), this picture has turned into one of my largest projects for quite some time. But I have to say I absolutely loved drawing every moment of it. From the wild perspective, to all the fun little details adorning Erika’s bedroom, to the varied scenes in all the inserts, this picture was enjoyable throughout.

It started back in April when I posted the “Idea Pool” with the theme “An Araltian Adventure”. Folks responded with some wonderful ideas, and this one here was provided by VDO:

“Erika, flopped on her bed, paws laid out. One or more characters are lost on her pads, looking out into the vast reaches of Erika's room across her toes, her bed, her floor, and at a distant looming August entering angrily.”

One of the most wonderful things as an artist, is when someone can suggest an idea in a single sentence, and the entire picture forms in your head instantly. This was exactly the case with this picture here, from that one sentence, I knew the angle and the composition I wanted the picture to take, I knew I wanted cameos from the rest of my cast, and I knew I would need inserts. I also haven’t had the opportunity to work on a picture of this scale “for myself” for a number of years, so it was really nice to do that.

This picture is also full of many themes that I really enjoy. I really enjoy extreme size differences, size chains, perspective, and it can be a lot of fun putting characters in situations alien to them. Every single character, except for perhaps Saari is macro or bigger here. But here, they are reduced to "micro" at best, "nanomicro" in most cases relative to the Araltians. And it really is the type of scene which I feel I could have just added more and more inserts to, as there are so many other different views which could be obtained by being in a certain part of the room / being on a certain character.

Anyway, I want to thank everyone for their patience in letting me complete this picture, especially at a time when I was busy packing, moving house, going to a convention, without internet for quite some time. This patreon account allows me to work on things like this that I absolutely couldn’t without you all. So thank you all very much, and I hope you enjoy it! 

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