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INKTOBER 52 Day #33: SLICE.

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: www.amazon.com/dp/1733734716?r…

“Sharp things are cool, especially swords. As I’ve said, PMD is a reflection of me, he’s my alter-ego. I have been a martial artist since 1995, primarily studying Shotokan Karate. Over the decades, I have also dabbled in some other styles, including Iaido, which is the art of drawing a sword. Practitioners wear a variation of the more well-known gi called a ‘hakama’, which – in addition to being a dark navy, almost black color – is identified by the large, pleated, skirt-like pants which supposedly disguise foot movement. The art itself is very formal and ritualistic, emphasizing speed, precision and both physical and mental control. I only trained it for half a year plus a few months on my own when life became busy, but it was a lot of fun. There were enough similarities of movement for me to have some deeper understanding of my ‘base style’ of karate, and it’s definitely something I’d like to pick up again some day.

I tried thinking of some other, less literal options for this prompt. There’s a handful of interesting idioms, like ‘slice of life’ and ‘anyway you slice it’, as well as some common phrases like a slice of cake, bacon, apple, watermelon, etc. None of those conjured anything for me, though. I decided to try something literal but dynamic instead. One of the methods of testing one’s skill with a katana is to practice slicing through rolled up tatami mats. You have to wield the blade just right to make a clean cut all the way through (experts will cut through multiple mats with a single stroke). This is Plunger Monkey, though, so he’s using a giant banana instead.”

Description
INKTOBER 52 Day #33: SLICE.

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: www.amazon.com/dp/1733734716?r…

“Sharp things are cool, especially swords. As I’ve said, PMD is a reflection of me, he’s my alter-ego. I have been a martial artist since 1995, primarily studying Shotokan Karate. Over the decades, I have also dabbled in some other styles, including Iaido, which is the art of drawing a sword. Practitioners wear a variation of the more well-known gi called a ‘hakama’, which – in addition to being a dark navy, almost black color – is identified by the large, pleated, skirt-like pants which supposedly disguise foot movement. The art itself is very formal and ritualistic, emphasizing speed, precision and both physical and mental control. I only trained it for half a year plus a few months on my own when life became busy, but it was a lot of fun. There were enough similarities of movement for me to have some deeper understanding of my ‘base style’ of karate, and it’s definitely something I’d like to pick up again some day.

I tried thinking of some other, less literal options for this prompt. There’s a handful of interesting idioms, like ‘slice of life’ and ‘anyway you slice it’, as well as some common phrases like a slice of cake, bacon, apple, watermelon, etc. None of those conjured anything for me, though. I decided to try something literal but dynamic instead. One of the methods of testing one’s skill with a katana is to practice slicing through rolled up tatami mats. You have to wield the blade just right to make a clean cut all the way through (experts will cut through multiple mats with a single stroke). This is Plunger Monkey, though, so he’s using a giant banana instead.”