“Who so ever ascends the treacherous Mt. Treachery, defeats all 7 monsters at its summit, and claims the golden crown at the peak, shall be named king of the land.” He sighed, and placed the old parchment on his desk.   

How did he get stuck taking over the family tailoring business? He had always wanted to be somebody. The tailor took the paper which the legend was recorded upon, folded it, fashioned himself 1 crown, and placed it atop his head. He felt a little more proud, and sat up a little straighter. 

Now, 2 house flies buzzed into his shop. He startled, but then - with a decidedly royal swat, he splattered them both. At the same time!

The doorbell clinked, and a businessman approached demanding his 3 suits be altered today - extra rush. With the confidence of one who can murder many in a single blow, the tailor informed the businessman that he would be paying triple for the rush order. Better yet - he was taking a sabbatical, and he could return in three weeks hence. The tailor adjusted his new magisterial paper headgear, and embarked for treacherous Mt. Treachery.

Traversing the long road, he first encountered a gymnosophist who demanded a challenge of wits. The tailor vanquished the wiseman in a BRU-U-UTAL game of Connect 4.  

Next, he encountered a beautiful and terrifying lady wizard. They did battle, where he bested her at all 5 magical elemental forces. Fire! Water! Earth! Air! And, love~ 

With the mountain in sight, and a skip in his step, the Tailor would conquer his next challenge by putting it 6 feet underground! It was support beams for a wooden fence an elderly grandma wanted to build. Good guy, the little tailor. 

Now at the summit of the treacherous Mt. Treachery, ready to claim his kingship, with the paper crown upon his head, this brave little tailor had the confidence to take on anything.

Drawing (detail)

The final design of the tailor ended up changing quite a bit. The long pants made him seem a bit too serious and stuffy. And the most iconic aspect of this piece, the “paper crown”, came as an idea only right before I started painting.

Study

Things - got messy. Honing in on the proper palette took more effort than usual, causing the forms to loosen and the paint to clump. But y’know I kinda dig the resulting abstractness of this study. The trick was to group all the bad guys together by color, and separate them by subtle hue and value shifts to maintain readability.

Acrylic on panel. 5x7.”