Donkey Xote and Sancho Panda

Looking through an art website one morning, I noticed a piece by one artist, which was a representation of “Don Quixote”. Thinking on this for the rest of the day, I saw a link in the way that you can say ‘Don Quixote’ in a way that it sounded like ‘donkey’ at the start. Then began a lateral exploration of possible ways to do this as an image. As the story was about the madness of Don Quixote charging at windmills, I though on this and came up with the idea of the madness of the donkey (ass) could be in shouting at a toy windmill, as this is all he could find.

Later I added the concept of the reflected windmill to give a notion of the illusion in the story of the windmills in the mind of the donkey.

To complete the story, I added a panda to represent Sancho Panza (obvious connection there). As I wanted him to be doing something, I thought, and after the initial sketch of the bear was done, made him hold the broken end of the lance that the donkey holds. This would relate to the actual story and in the fact he actually charged the windmills.

This was one of the most complex illustrations I have done, mainly due to the fact it involves fur and hair and the hard approach to try and represent chrome in an effective way.

“They were wild, mad and foolish to follow the winds to the windmills. Charged with craziness they took the will in to their own hands. And for one, he became an ass, as the windmills were in his mind!”

The image was complete the week my Grandmother died, so I dedicate it to her memory.

If you'd like to buy the first book, you can see it here: http://www.blurb.com/b/3164942-animal-behaviour
If you'd like to see the process of how these drawings are done, you can view it here: http://www.behance.net/gallery/Animal-Behaviour-II-movie/3267731