Monday, April 18, 2016

Justin Cronin's "Draw a Viral Contest" (Losing Entry)


"The Ol' Smoke and Mirror Trick" Pencil on Paper
by Karen Kay Remus, Copyright 2016
Inspired by Justin Cronin's Novel, "The Passage."

And the loser is:  ME!

I'm not on Facebook, but my friend who is, and who's also a HUGE fan of Justin Cronin, author of the The Passage series, told me about his Draw a Viral Contest. 

Cronin said lots of people had sent him drawings inspired by his work, so he wanted to acknowledge them with this contest, whereby you'd submit your drawing of a viral (vampire-like creatures figuring prominently in these books), and his 19-year-old daughter--his inspiration for the series--would choose her three favorites, which he would post on his Facebook page.  The Grand Prize would be an advance reader copy of The City of Mirrors.

I was all excited, having devoured The Passage and The Twelve, and anxiously awaiting the third and final book of the trilogy, entitled The City of Mirrors.  I made and submitted my drawing, re-read the first two books, and waited to see what happened.  I LOST.  Now I can add "Big Fat Loser" to my Genius Billionaire Moniker!

If you've read The Passage (which you must, if you love well-written, exciting, science fiction), you will know exactly what scene I've depicted here, and you'll get the "smoke and mirror" reference.  I thought it was fitting, given that the virals are nick-named "smokes," their reflections disturb them, and the final book is called The City of Mirrors.  

I also thought that my rendering of the reflected image of the disturbed viral accurately and creepily represented Cronin's description of the creature.  BTW, virals are mutated un-dead humans.  They are hairless and naked.  They glow in the dark.  Their facial features appear to be "...buffed away to a bland, baby-like smoothness," their mouths are "over-stuffed with needle like silver teeth," and their hands and feet are "enlarged, curling, and claw-like."  OK, I took it very literally.  It is literature, after all.

Anyway, I was disappointed to learn that the daughter didn't choose mine, especially after I dreamed that she did, but I'm over it.  She probably had hundreds to judge, and she appeared to choose a cross-section of very different styles of drawings--as well as interpretations of the creatures' appearance. 

Winner #1 is an extremely well-executed, hand-drawn, facial portrait, which, instead of buffed, bland, baby-like features, depicts very prominent, deeply gnarled, aged features.  It's a wonderful drawing--very scary and evil--but my literal mind took it less as a viral and more as the perfect final portrait of Dorian Gray--OR Leonardo Di Vinci's self-portrait as a vampire.  It's got pointed ears, which Cronin didn't mention, but hey, if you've never read the book, this drawing might compel you to do so.

But Cronin said that all of us who submitted drawings were winners, and he admitted that he couldn't draw, so he would have lost his own contest!  I STILL LOVE YOU AND YOUR BOOKS, MR. CRONIN!  I'm grateful to your daughter (the inspiration for Amy?) for "starting the whole thing" as you said.

So here's my deal.  If you entered his contest and "lost" like me, please send your entry as a JPEG file to me at karenkayremus@gmail.com, and I'll post it here!  There won't be any prize.  I'm just a pretend billionaire.  The reward will be exposure (fellow artists--I know you've heard that one before--you can die of exposure) and the satisfaction of seeing your art along with that of your fellow artistic Cronin Cronies.  I'm also curious to see all of the other ones.  Aren't you?

Love, Karen

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