Originally I hated the anime cartoon Digimon. I thought it was just another Japanese cartoon about cute fuzzy fighting animals in a long line of similar cartoons, including Pokemon and Monster Rancher. I also thought that adding the word "mon" after all of the characters' names was especially annoying. I then saw episodes from season three of the show, and that ended up changing my mind.
Season Three of Digimon takes place in a different world than Digimon seasons one and two. In this world Digimon is just a card game played by school children. Meanwhile, many years ago, several scientists and computer programmers played around with sofisticated artificially intelligent computer programs in a laboratory. The programs soon became fully aware artificial lifeforms, yet they were still just programs on a computer. The project was eventually abandoned and these digital lifeforms were forgotten. Somehow, some of the digital computer creatures learned how to synthesize proteins, and become animals in the real world. Some of these new real-world creatures, or Digimon, were tame and welcomed companionship with people, while others were dangerous to humans and wild.
To end the threat these creatures posed without alerting people to their existence, a CIA-type agent was called in to eliminate them. He determined that these creatures were not living organisms because they were at one time computer code, and as a result eliminated them indiscriminately. In reality, these creatures were very much alive and could feel pain, fear, etc. In addition, some of these creatures were sentient and could learn, reason, and use complete sentences while talking. This cartoon reminds me about how easy it is to commit genocide when you find ways to de-humanize your enemy-- just like the Nazis did in World War II and many other cultures did in the past and present.
The main thing that caught my attention in this cartoon was Renamon, a vixen with strong Taoist influences in her costume and a dead-serious demeanor. Her appearence set her apart from the other characters in the show. Unlike most Digimon characters which resemble cute little animals like baby T-Rex's and bunnies, Renamon was a she-fox with very striking and feminine hourglass curves. Beyond her pretty character design however, layed what truly attracted me to her character: a strong internal conflict and a lot of self-doubts. I seem to be able to relate very well with these types of characters, and I feel for them. Her internal conflicts developed because the girl who owns her, Rika, views her as just a fighting-animal and users Renamon as if she was throwing a dog into a dog-fighting ring. Renamon, however, thinks and feels like a human, in fact, she often acts more human than her owner, Rika. Eventually Renamon develops an "I am the only one who will look out for me" attitude and Rika does nothing but encourage this. After they both nearly get killed as a result of their bad attitudes, Rika and Renamon begin to realize that they have something more than a human to slave-animal relationship. I often like to believe that animals possess more feelings and intelligence than people consider them to have, and have read many books on animal sentience in the past. Because of this, Renamon and Rika's conflict is one that is of great interest to me.
Since Renamon is a digital creature, I decided to color her digitally. Normally I wouldn't even consider coloring her digitally and just use my trusty old colored pencils, but after seeing what other artists such as Ned Griffin had done with digital coloring I decided to re-think my methods. Having not played with digital coloring for over a year I had to re-learn the Paint Shop Pro burn and dodge tools all over again. I have always liked Photoshop's burn and dodge tools better, but this drawing called for transparency, multiple layers, and masks-- advanced features that I only knew how to use in Paint Shop Pro 7.04. As a result, I made due with Paint Shop Pro's re-touch tools. My digital paint job didn't turn out as good as what Ned Griffin or Fred Perry produces, but I still think I did exceptionally well for my first try in nearly a year and my third attempt overall. This drawing is just a generic white background with a ground shadow added in. I thought this combination looked pretty sharp in Ned Griffin's artwork, so I tried it out for myself. I have a more complex color scheme in my "From Computer Code to Creation" version of this drawing, which shows a lot more creativity and feeling.
The pencil work was done on 80lb. Strathmore medium-surface drawing paper with a Sanford Non-Photo blue pencil. I then inked it with size 05 and 03 ZiG Millennium pens. It was then cleaned up, darkened, and colored in Jasc Paint Shop Pro 7.04.
All text and original multimedia is © 2002 Daniel Keller. All other information is copyrighted by their respective owners.