‘Snails for Liberty’ is Born (Sketch)

I don’t hear much about Moms for Liberty these days. A sex scandal seems to have driven them into relative obscurity. Or at least they are keeping a low profile. Which is odd. I thought the conservative movement had built up a strong immunity to the hypocrisy of its brightest stars.

Anyway, Moms for Liberty didn’t inspire this sketch. I didn’t think of them until after I had finished, when I imagined this snail marching — crawling rather — to the school library and demanding that this book on slugs be banned .

This sketch began with no preconceived idea. First was the gap-toothed mouth inspired by pop singer Melanie Martinez (a favorite of my daughter). And then the nose was inspired by nobody’s nose in particular. I had no idea where to go with it.

With only a nose and a mouth and Melanie Martinez on my mind, I thought of a video of hers for the song “Light Shower” where she is rendered by CGI as a snail. A snail then!

In many languages the word for slug translates literally as “naked snail.” German – Nacktschnecke (Nackt + Schnecke), Dutch – Naaktslak (Naakt + Slak), Hungarian – Meztelen csiga (Meztelen + Csiga), Greek – Γυμνό σαλιγκάρι (Gymnó + saligkári), Bulgarian – гол охлюв (gol + ohliuv), Latvian – kalisgliemezis (kails + gliemezis). (Source: Reddit)

The medium is ball-point pen and colored pencils. With all the sketching I’ve done in my life, I must have tried this combination before, but I can’t remember when.

Apologies to Melanie Martinez for associating her, however indirectly, with Moms for Liberty.