Be Jack To My Sally

Yeah, my artist comments box is probably about to become an essay on why I like Nightmare Before Christmas . . .

Anyway. Yesterday I wrote an essay that mentioned Tim Burton, and it got me to thinking . . . I have loved The Nightmare Before Christmas since it came out when I was seven. And yet . . . I have never drawn Jack and Sally or any of the characters. This seemed kinda odd to me given that I love drawing ridiculously thin characters with stitches. So today, I gave it a go.

The picture is probably too dark to tell, but Jack is sewing Sally’s hand back on for her. The string wound up being too dark and I didn’t want to make it white, so I left it alone. I also had problems making the needle visible, but it’s there in Jack’s boney hand. Also, Zero was a last minute doodle, so he was drawn and painted solely by mouse.

I wanted to say that I love Sally because she stands out from the lovable characters of Halloween Town. Unlike the rest of the town, Sally is not childlike and joyfully naïve but wise and very mature despite the fact that Dr. Finklestein made her so young. Like Santa Claus says at the end, she’s the only sane person in the insane asylum that is Halloween Town.

I always loved Jack because he was one of the first characters on the Disney timeline to be a male who was not afraid to have feelings. He wasn’t some macho hero out to save the princess. He was the one who needed saving . . . and from his own loneliness. So Sally saved her prince.

That’s why I love these two characters in particular, though – of course – I love them all. Even the villains.

I swore off fan art years ago because it was taking away from making my own art, but I figured I could make an exception for Jack and Sally.

Skull flowers are mine . . . Jack, Sally, and Zero (c) Disney

colored in Photoshop CS2 with a mouse