Project Description

INKTOBER 52 2023 Day #51: ELF.

“Monkeys can be elves, right? Monkeys are cool, elves are cool…seems like a no-brainer to me. Despite the actual, technical definition, my personal vision of elves was set by J.R.R. Tolkien, so I don’t think of them as small and mischievous beings. In my mind they are tall, agile, long-lived, magical, and live harmoniously with nature. Oh, and for some reason they tend to be great archers. I guess if you can live for hundreds, if not thousands of years (and are magical, I suppose), you probably have the time to get really good at whatever you choose.
I read ‘The Hobbit’ and ‘The Lord of the Rings’ at a fairly young age, young enough to write book reports on them (while most of my classmates were complaining about having to read a 100-page book, I was seeking out books that were 300 plus page fantasy epics). I can’t quite remember what grade I was in, I remember the teacher but not her name, I wrote a book report on another fantasy novel (I think it was for Terry Brooks’ ‘The Elfstones of Shannara’, which was the first fantasy novel I read after Tolkien. I remember being almost depressed when I finished ‘The Lord of the Rings’, not knowing what I would read next, what world I could possibly get absorbed in with characters I could ‘befriend’. Anyway, I’m rambling now…). It was probably the first time I realized that not all teachers read every single word students write. The book was clearly a fantasy novel (as should have been clear based on my cover illustration, if not the title), it was full of elves and dwarves; there were magical things made by elves and dwarves. When I got my book report back, she had corrected every instance of ‘elven’ in red pen to ‘eleven’. I was confused at first, until I realized what happened. She was nice and all, but she probably just skimmed through my report looking for grammar or spelling mistakes and completely didn’t pay attention to what I was writing or the context. It still irritates me to this day. I probably need help.
Anyway, monkey elves should be a thing.”

Are you enjoying all these Plunger Monkey pen and ink illustrations? Would you like to see a whole lot more of them, all nicely packaged in book form? Then you’re in luck! You can get a copy of my art book Inklings, which collects 3 years of these pen and ink illustrations! Just follow this link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1733734716?ref_=ast_author_dp