Ogre

Well then, here's something ugly. I did this Ogre for a friend of mine who had invented a fantasy world and needed an illlustrator. He paid me to do concept and character studies from that world, which he thought eventually would become an illustrated book like James Gurney's "Dinotopia." This Ogre was really not an ogre, but just a role-player. During rite-of-passage ordeals, my friend's young men encountered ogres who would attempt to smash them. They would have to either disable or evade the ogres (killing was not allowed on either side). The ogres were really played by testosterone-crazed bodybuilders who relished the chance to smack down young privileged utopians.

I used a real bodybuilder photo for this character study. Then I added some generic ogre armor and a spiked club. There was always a light comic element to my friend's imaginary world so I didn't take the Ogre too seriously. But I think it would be possible for me to re-create this character in a darker and scarier form, not to mention playing on the grotesqueness of extreme gender stereotypes.

"Ogre" is pen and ink on Bristol board, 7" x 10", March-April 1998.