Monkey: Journey to the West

Full view please

Anyone who knows me knows, (and you might as well know too!) I am a major fan of the band Gorillaz. Albarn’s music and Hewlett’s art never cease to amaze and amuse me. Ok, with that intro aside… This is a knockoff of the Gorillaz album Demon Days cover. The characters? Those from the opera Monkey: Journey to the West, also created by Albarn and Hewlett. The opera first made a European run last fall, and was finally announced that it would come to the US for a straight run of several shows at the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, SC. Guess who got to go?

Anyway, this is my fanart of the four main characters of Monkey, while also attempting to draw them in classic Hewlett-style. It was fun… And I must admit, I really enjoyed drawing things, um… un-pretty? Hehe… I didn’t have much in the way of references, so I hope I didn’t butcher them too much

Left to right, top to bottom: Sandy, Monkey, Tripitaka, Pigsy. Several other familiar manga/anime have been spawned off of this classic, including DBZ and Saiyuki!

Anyone who wants to see a better explanation of what the opera was, watch this: [link]

Character styles belong to Jamie Hewlett, characters from the ancient Chinese novel Monkey: Journey to the West, album cover style belongs to Hewlett and Gorillaz.