Smurf Relief

Smurf Relief, kind of sounds like a benefit concert to save needy Smurfs from getting eaten doesn't it? Well, not quite. Hello again, how are we all? 

At one stage I was going to call this on "Wait, I'm about to Smurf!" or "Oh my god! I'm Smurfing!", my lovely lady even suggested just calling it simply "Smurfing" to hopefully get the meth crowd onto it.....oh in case you didn't know "Smurfing" is when you pay someone to buy you pseudoephedrine to make meth. I didn't know either, don't feel bad, she watched a doco on meth recently. In the end I just stuck to the first name I had for it when I was developing it, "Smurf Relief." 

So how did I develop this idea in the first place? The other night I was going through my really old unfinished ideas and I stumbled upon this one, and I happen to remember how I got to it originally, even though it was a long time ago. The first idea was; that I was wondering about what happens when Smurfs get 'blue balls', are their balls still blue because their skin is already blue? Then I thought; wait a minute, maybe they have blue skin because they all have major blue balls because there's only one chick in the village and she doesn't put out. Then I assumed that if she finally did, and one lucky Smurf popped his 'smurf' then maybe his skin would go 'normal'. It's odd that I've had this idea in my book for ages and never did it, it just goes to show that you should never throw away old ideas, sometimes when you rethink them you realise that they are better than you thought. I also think that when I first had this idea, I was working for a motorbike mag and I doubt they would have gotten it, so that's probably why I shelved it. Kind of good timing on my part to as that new Smurf movie is out and all, it's weird to see Smurf stuff all over the place again, reminds me of when I was a kid. I was at a toy shop yesterday and those little blue bastards where everywhere! I wonder what colour Smurf shit is? A really dark blue? Would they then give someone a blue-eye? Hmmmm, something to think about.....

You know what, I had a lot of fun drawing this one, it was really easy and took hardly any time at all, win, win! The original artwork is actually almost half the size of what I usually do them at, which I think works out better in regards to line-work quality and also it helps with file size on my computer as well. I've mentioned it before, but for some reason I had a habit of drawing way bigger than I need to and then shrinking it down, not sure why, I just do. So I'm going to try and stop it and stick to this size now, that is unless there's a lot of detail needed like last weeks Predator cartoon.

Ok, I'll Smurf you next time!

Mike