"You Remind Me of the Babe" - ART CONTEST # 9. I LOVE THE 80'S

The Goblin King with Toby in the castle beyond the Goblin City. Process pictures below.

As a child of the 70’s, I was nine when one of the most enchanting, magical, fantastical, movies in history came out in 1986. Labyrinth, staring David Bowie as the mysterious, powerful, and sexy Goblin King, Jareth, was, is, and always will be one of my favorite movies - not because it is objectively one of the best movies ever, but because so many of my formative memories are wrapped up in our repeated viewings of it growing up. Also, David Bowie. Oh how I love David Bowie. I love him so much, I gave birth to my son on his birthday, January 8.

My sisters and I must have watched Labyrinth at least 30 times, as a conservative estimate. We went through stages of infatuation with different films over the years: Dirty Dancing, Goonies, the animated version of Robin Hood, The Wizard of Oz, and many others…

Some of our favorite quotes from the movie include, but are not limited to:

• “You remind me of the babe.”
  “What babe?”
  " The babe with the power."
  “What power?”
  “The power of voodoo!”
  “Who do?”
  “You do!”
  “Do what?”
  “Remind me of the babe…” - Jareth & Goblins

• “Through dangers untold, and hardships unnumbered, I have fought my way here to the castle beyond the Goblin City to take back the child that you have stolen. For my will is as strong as yours, and my kingdom is as great… YOU HAVE NO POWER OVER ME.” - Sarah

• “Which way do you want to go? Up or down?” - The Helping Hands

• “Get off my baaaaack!” - Garbage woman

• “Nothing? Nothing? Nothing tra-la-la?!” - Jareth

• “That’s not fair!” - Sarah

Even as adults, my sisters and I still regularly quote this film. It’s amazing how applicable its wisdom can be to everyday life.

Here’s the photo I used to make my drawing. A little ambitious for an “artist” of my calibre, but this is the most wonderfully 80’s thing I could imagine, so I went with it.

I mostly referred to my computer screen, but printed out a copy too. Not very helpful in black & white.

Notice I saved the faces for last. Faces are hard!

I think it’s safe to say, my crowning achievement in this drawing is the throne they are sitting in ;-) David Bowie’s eyes are a little perkier than they were meant to be, but I think he’s still pretty recognizable with his make-up. I ended up with some blank space at the top, I did the lettering by hand using the same font they used in the film credits - to the best of my ability.

I hope my adoring tribute to David Bowie put a smile on your face.

What’s your favorite memory of the late great David Bowie?

Written with StackEdit.