A Thunder of HippoPUNami
Good morning and welcome back, friends. You all may be wondering what HippPUNami are or where the idea for them came from. To be honest, I never really know exactly where these ideas come from. They literally just pop into my head sometimes when I'm walking down a street or exercising at the gym; literally anytime, anywhere. It just happens. Ever since Prometheus stole fire from the gods, humans have stopped running from the lightning and instead have been chasing it, trying to catch it in a bottle.
I can't exactly tell you, but I was in the gym one day and a couple of homophones popped into my head. Hippoknotamus and Hypnopotamus. Thus began the journey of my Hippopunami: playful illustration visually representing punny homophones of the word "hippopotamus." At the moment, I only have 3 completed ideas for this series but I am sure I will add more to it as time moves along.
Considering the timing of when I completed these illustrations and when I posted them, many might think that I was inspired by Moo Deng. For those of you out there who may not know, Moo Deng is a baby pygmy hippopotamus who lives in the Khao Khew Open Zoo in Thailand, even though her species is native to West Africa. She went viral on the internet when her keeper began posting videos of her since the day of her birth. She is beautiful and absolutely adorable. The zoo has received a lot of traffic since Moo Deng went viral and, I'm sure, very glad of the community and global support. Saturday Night Live even honored Moo Deng with a skit on a recent show. While Moo Deng is adorable, she was not the main inspiration for this series (as the idea journal indicates, I've had this idea in the bank for a while.)
This particular Idea came to me on 4-7-23. I know it's weird to know the exact date for when you had a creative brain wave, but I date my ideas when I am jotting them down in my Idea Journal. As you can see I made a brief description for the HippoKNOTamus and the HYPNOpotamus here. I also am impressed and in awe by the real animal. The fact that they can crush entire pumpkins in their mouths in a single chomp is both impressive and a little scary.
You could say that there might have been further inspiration for Disney's Fantasia. There was always something a bit cool and mesmerizing about ballet-dancing hippos. It's definitely only something that you can see in animation. So I wanted to create something that could only exist within illustration.
A HippoKNOTamus.
As I was doing my visual reference research for this illustration, I was looking at a lot of types of Naval/Sailing knots. there were so many different kinds. I finally decided to sort of mix two of them together to create the exact knot that I wanted my hippo to be tied up in. I remember that it took me a few sketches to get something for this that looked like what I was seeing in my head.
In the end, I went with something that resembled a rounded square shape. I knew I wanted the knot to seem almost impossible, yet based on reality. I also wanted it to be a bit more squat and wider than it was taller. I couldn't tell you why I wanted these particular dimensions. They just felt and looked right in the composition.
I was further inspired by exercise outfits from the 1980's. I heard faint echoes of Oliva Newton John singing, "Let's get Physical! Physical!..." I just think there is something fun, amusing, and eye-catching about those bright audacious-colored leotards.
A HYPNOpotamus.
I have always had an affinity, attraction, and fascination with magicians, mesmerists, and fortune tellers from the late 19th century and early 20th century. This is probably why I like to draw them from time to time. After having the homophonic brainwave for this one, I knew I had wanted it to be a bit of a cliche. To be honest, I wanted all the HippoPUNami to be the cliche versions of what they were meant to represent. To me that just made them even more amusing and fun.
I was doing a good deal of research on what mesmerists wore during the above-mentioned time frame. I also studied posters, banners, and advertisements for mesmerist shows. These shows were typically venued within a traditional theater and the mesmerist would perform on the stage. One of the posters/adverts I found had a visual representation of how they hypnotize or mesmerize their volunteers. However, this particular poster had a few heads of those mesmerized people and I thought to myself, I want to include this visual in my illustration. So I researched other animals that are from the same geographic location as the hippopotamus and decided that they would be the victims of the HYPNOpotamus's mind-controlling magic.
I did fuss with the background a bit before deciding on the one you see in the final illustration. I echoed the hypnotic twirling spiral with each of the three hypnotized animals as well. Overall I had a lot of fun with this illustration in particular.
A HippANONYMOUS.
I have to admit, as much as I loved creating and illustrating the first 2 in this illustration series, I think that this illustration is my favorite of the 3, for the moment. This creative homophonic brain wave came to me as I was working on the other 2. It wasn't logged within my Idea journal so I am not sure where I jotted down the notes for this illustration. I probably and very dangerously, in all likelihood, decided to "keep it filed in my memory." This is the antithesis of keeping an idea journal. Chances are that you will forget the great idea you had if you don't jot it down in a place where you know that you save and organize ideas.
But... DANGER is totally the name of the game with this illustration. This Hippo is all about the danger! lol. I just LOVE their cliche spy outfit. And, yes. I absolutely reference-researched the most cliche outfits and archetypes for international spies. I thought about the duality of the cliche visual itself and how it echoes both the spy and the detective who is meant to catch them. I think of wonderful characters like Spy vs. Spy, and Carmen Sandiego (from my middle school days.) I also think of detectives like Inspector Gadget and Inspector Clouseau from the Pink Panther Series. All of these characters were so much fun to explore and dive into when I was working on this particular hippo.
You may also notice my nod to the famous/infamous (depending on your pov) Groucho Marx. This cliche disguise is just hilarious to me. I can't get enough of it and every time I use it in an illustration ( I used it a couple of times in my Inktober drawings this year as well) it makes me smile.
Now, their bomb is a rather curious item. It could really be for anything. Is it for breaking into a building to steal something? Is it meant to be thrown at a villainous double agent? Is it meant as a tool for an active rebellion? Who knows? I don't really know its exact purpose... and I'm the artist that decided it should be there. Maybe it was clairvoyance. Again, who knows? I just knew that they needed to be sneaking around and that they needed to be armed with a live bomb. And it is very live. Its intended purpose, whatever that may be, is happening right now. How dangerous. How thrilling.
This pretty much wraps it up for my discussion about these three illustrations. As I said before, they are part of an ongoing series. As of right now, I don't really have any additional HippoPunami to add to it... but they will come to me in the future. I am sure of it. Keep on the lookout. In the meantime, try not to get tied up, fall into a mesmerist's hypnotic trap, and avoid any bombs that get thrown your way. You all enjoy the rest of your weekend. I'm off to see a show later today. :)
Until next time, friends,
Keep dreaming, keep sketching, keep thinking, keep laughing, and most important of all, keep making art.
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