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Banjo Cutie

2008 is quite a momentous year for Banjo fans; it's hard to believe that the duo have been around for ten years, and that our long-awaited "Threeie" is finally tangible and within our grasp. Rareware has had a huge influence on my drawings, and I knew that in this important year, I wanted to pay some kind of art tribute to my beloved Banjo series. That tribute has come about rather unexpectedly, in the form of Banjo-Cutie.



Over the summer, I was having one of my late-night doodle sessions. With all the fervor over Nuts and Bolts, I had the Banjo characters on my mind, and consequently they emerged through my tablet pen. However, to my great frustration, none of my drawings were coming out right; and just to offer myself a fun diversion from the aggravation, I doodled a super-cute version of my favorite BK character, King Jingaling. I was so amused by it that I instantly felt the urge to draw some more characters in the same vein- and my conversation with Bottles98 that night produced two other originals, Bottles and Dippy.




After that, I was having so much fun with this style that I wanted to try many different characters. On a whim, I decided to ask the people of the RWP who they wanted to see, rather than deciding for myself. And thus Banjo-Cutie was born. Originally, I didn’t intend for requests to be open for very long; but the thread was such a huge success that it evolved from a diversion into a serious project – the tribute which I had been intending all along.

The official Banjo-Cutie project consists of renditions of all the characters in Banjo-Kazooie, Banjo-Tooie, and Nuts and Bolts, as well as many of the common enemies and even some more unexpected requests (such as Banjo’s backpack), in a cute style. The eyes are more googly than ever before, the heads are disproportionately large, and details have been simplified overall; but I strive to make my drawings charmingly sweet without going overboard.



Currently I’ve drawn almost a hundred Cuties (as they have come to be called), and am not even close to being finished. This project has allowed me to realize just how very many unique and memorable characters there are in the Banjo world; and I really enjoy drawing each of them, portraying their individual quirks and personalities. The project will continue at least until all the current requests, as well as any other NPCs in the three console games, have been finished. I have no clue when that will be, but I assure you that I will not stop until then.

Because of the request-based nature of the project, each of the images is dedicated to someone (sometimes multiple people); but that doesn’t mean anyone specifically owns any of them, as I give the project as a whole to the entire fan community. All of the Cuties are free to use as avatars, signatures, wallpapers, or in any other way- all I ask is that no one (well, besides me) be so selfish as to claim they created them; and if anyone asks, please link to where you got the images from.

Banjo-Cutie is dedicated to the Banjo-Kazooie fans of the world, and especially to the Banjo Team, past and present (along with Mr. Kirkhope), who created these wacky and loveable characters for all of us to enjoy. I'm really very thrilled, and unspeakably grateful, that my project has met with such support.
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