Dr. Quack: Reducks Episode 8 Thumbnail.
The story behind this picture is honestly an interesting one, at least to me, it is. Its creation is one of the very few times I've actually redrawn a thumbnail from the ground up because I was so unhappy with the original version.
Usually I'm very happy with my art, even mistakes and imperfections don't deter me from showing it off to the world, but sometimes the finished product is so far off from what I had envisioned, I can't help but tell myself "I can do better than this". I like to believe this version posted is the best it can possibly be, the comparison between the two pieces is virtually night and day, of course I could redraw any of my pictures and there's a strong chance it would look better the second time around, but at that point I would consider it chasing perfection, which in the art world I believe is rather silly!
This picture features Dr. Quack and Amnesia, the two main characters from my webcomic Dr. Quack, in a parody of the album cover for "These Nuts" by Ninja Sex Party. These Nuts is an album I was infatuated with the first time I listened to it, it was the first Ninja Sex Party album I've heard in full, and it absolutely did not disappoint! I wanted to give Ninja Sex Party a try since I was such a huge fan of the comedy rap ensemble Starbomb, which they make up 2 thirds of.
I chose These Nuts as the thumbnail for the remastered version of Dr. Quack Episode 8 for a few different reasons. On the surface I could just say I thought it would look nice, and it does! Any picture with both Dr. Quack and Amnesia together always slightly pulls on my heartstrings because of how important they are to me, even though I've written their personalities and life experiences myself, they still feel incredibly real in a way, which actually ties into the subject of Episode 8, Dr. Quack and Amnesias strong father daughter bond.
The other reason I could spout is there is comedy in sadness, allow me to explain my thought process on this one the best I can. These Nuts as an album is unique, at first glance it's a typical comedy album about goofy scenarios, but when you look deeper it actually derives its comedy from some dark and perhaps relatable places. Whilst all the songs are filled with jokes and funny mannerisms, think about some of the subjects of these songs, Galaxy Hamster is about the death of a beloved pet, Sports Anthem is about failure and not living up to the expectations of others, Dance Til You Stop is about social awkwardness, among others, and some songs like The Boner of Peace (great name by the way, nailed it NSP) is just extremely emotional. It's entirely possible to write a hilarious song about a sad subject, if we couldn't find ways to smile through the pain, how would we ever push past it?
This brings me to Episode 8 of Dr. Quack, this episode centres around Amnesia and Dr. Quack after returning home from an outing. The aforementioned outing is the first time Amnesia has ever left the house, since she is made of slime and people would possibly be afraid of her, Dr. Quack prefers to keep her inside, while Amnesia is outside she is heavily clothed to cover her entire body. Amnesia complains to Quack that she doesn't like wearing dumb clothes, so Dr. Quack explains that if she didn't, there's a chance she'll be taken away from him, possibly for government testing since she's the only one of her kind. Amnesias mood switches immediately, she becomes fearful thinking about the mere idea of being away from Doctor, and wants to be reassured that he'll never let anyone take her away from him. Dr. Quack tells her how important she is to him and that he'll always protect her, Amnesias mood switches again to happiness, she smugly says "I knew you like having me around".
While it may not seem like much, this marks a huge turning point in the story, the reader is now made fully aware of Dr. Quack and Amnesias bond, the sentiment of these two characters truly caring for one another stays true throughout the entire comic, it is the finale of Season 1 after all, it has to be great! I always try and make my Season Finales special, make them show a different, more emotional side of the characters, the very best episode of Dr. Quack, Speak No Evil (Episode 88), happens to be a Season Finale as well, that goes to show how special they can be!
I've been yapping so much about These Nuts and Dr. Quack so much that I forgot to talk more about the picture I posted, for this drawing I also incorporated some newer techniques. The first draft of this picture was sort of a mess, after finishing the picture in Paint I realized it needed more, so I popped it into Photopea and tried applying a bunch of random filters and effects in attempt to fix it. I'm not too upset I sort of wasted my time on a lost cause, because in fact I didn't waste my time at all! Even though the old picture will go unused, I still learned a lot of things from its creative process, which eventually led me to creating this new picture I'm very happy with, so even if you think a failed art piece is just that, try to look on the bright side of it all, there is a sort of comedy in the failed attempts, because looking at the first draft, I chuckle to myself slightly in embarrassment that I allowed such a lazy and poorly done picture to almost become the thumbnail to what I think is a great episode of Dr. Quack.
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