ADN480 Illustration Studio - Final Project
"End of an Era" Narrative Story

This story is about a lonely dragon whose request for “someone for dinner” is horribly misinterpreted by a village of sheep. Thankfully, an equally lonely black sheep volunteers himself to appease the dragon, and learns that he is not the newest menu item, but is instead the dragon’s newest dinner guest. The visual style is influenced by Asian shadow play, an ancient form of storytelling which uses flat, articulated, paper cut-out shadow puppets.

Created with PaintTool Sai, Adobe Photoshop, and Adobe AfterEffects.

--King Baaatholomew was distraught. He knew the dragon would not stop terrorizing his people until he sent the beast a sacrifice; But how could the benevolent ruler send out one (or many!) of his own people to appease the hungry monster. The King and his advisors debated for weeks, and all the while, the dragon continued to massacre the village, crushing houses in his fury. Still, he had not eaten anything. After weeks of this torment, a lone black sheep approached the King in his castle. Baaatholomew recognized him as Staanley, the awkward, lanky pariah of his village.
--“I’ll go appease the dragon,” Staanley mumbled nervously. “Might as well. Nobody will miss me.”
--King Baaatholomew frowned, knowing in the back of his mind that Staanley was never close with the rest of the herd. Reluctantly, he agreed to allow Staanley to go.