Chibi of the Week

(of the Wibi?)

Some have undoubtedly noticed by now, that the depiction of the most rad dinosaur ever, Tyrannosaurus Rex that is this site’s mascot is not exactly the most chibi thing you ever saw.

Let me explain.

In Japanese culture (mainly via anime and manga, Japanese comics/graphic novels), chibi indicates something that is cute, small and childlike – often connoting the super deformed style of drawing/animation that makes characters that are “normal” into caricature versions that are short, stumpy and adorable.

This is often done to express extreme emotion – typically rage or having a big crush on something. (images property of the radical Kentaro Muira, not me).

Not surprisingly, people LOVE this style of art. Seriously, just type “Naruto” into google and you’ll see a chibi version of one of the characters in the first 5 images or so.

I, too, am highly addicted to all things chibi (and kawaii, but more on that later).
A few more examples for ample cuting out over.(images property of the amazing Shirow Masamune, not me).

So, back to what I was saying, my T-rex isn’t that chibi. It’s sort of cute, and kind of smallish but really it’s just a crap version of a good T-Rex drawing.

This is due to my own shortcomings as an artist – don’t blame Chibisaurus!

DON'T BLAME HIM!

One of my main goals right now is to learn to draw and well. So I hope someday soon to have a much more stylistically adroit version of Chibisaurus that I'm unembarrassed to flaunt all over the world. But, until that day, we’re all stuck with “5 year old tries to draw their dog then changes it into a horse, then changes it into a dinosaur” Chibisaurus.

And, with that – a toon! Chibi has a life, a very weird, naughty life and that probably should never be shared, but too bad. Without further ado, the first Chibisaurus Toon: