Art Initiates Life: Difference between revisions

 

Compare with [[Rewriting Reality]], where the written word becomes real. See also [[Portal Picture]], [[Art Attacker]]. Not to be confused with [[The Red Stapler]].

 

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

* Guilmon of ''[[Digimon Tamers]]'' was brought to life when his tamer's fanart of him got scanned through a digivice.

* Mutsumi from ''[[Keroro Gunsou]]'' has a "Reality Pen", given to him by his buddy Kululu, that lets him bring drawings to life.

* In ''[[Flint the Time Detective]]'', there was a bird shifter named Artie. Said shifter could bring drawings to life by tapping them with his beak.

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

* In the story "Gargoyle", in issue #6 of ''Creepy'', an alchemist believed that a local sculptor could turn stone into gold. The gold was actually an ''ingredient'' in the formula the sculptor used to bring the gargoyles he fashioned to life.

* In the story "The Sands That Change", in issue #16 of ''Creepy'', a comic book artist discovered that anything he drew in the Mojave Desert which wasn't already there would appear out of thin air. When he tried crumpling a sketch to get rid of a monster he'd drawn, the beast ended up looking like something by Picasso.

 

== [[Fairy Tales]] ==

* ''[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/books/japan/hearn/boydrewcats.html The Boy Who Drew Cats]'' is about a boy who... well... draws cats all over the walls of an abandoned temple which, unbeknownst to him, is home to a monster. When the monster tries to attack him, the cat drawings come to life and defeat it.

 

== [[Film]] ==

* Woody Allen's ''[[The Purple Rose of Cairo]]''.

* The protagonist of the 1986 [[Cult Classic]] ''The Elm-Chanted Forest'' is a painter who awakens with these sorts of powers, along with the ability to communicate with the local wildlife.

 

== [[Literature]] ==

* In Stephen King's ''Rose Madder'' the heroine finds a strange and compelling painting that leads into a pagan world that is both beautiful and terrifying. This comes in handy - though, as in all King, not without a price - when the heroine's abusive cop husband hunts her down.

* The title character of ''Minerva Wakes'' by Holly Lisle discovered she'd acquired this ability, while her husband Darryl had gained [[Rewriting Reality]]. Learning to use their powers together was about all that saved them, because the powers [[Missed the Call|had been intended for somebody else]], and now could only be passed to their "rightful" users by the ''death'' of Minerva and Darryl.

* Susan Green's ''[[Self Portait With Wings]]'' is based on this. Using some "special" pencils, a young figure skater draws a whimsical sketch of herself with huge gossamer wings. The next morning, the picture is wingless and [[Winged Humanoid|she's got the wings]]. They're invisible to everyone else, but an awful inconvenience to her except when she's skating.

 

* ''[[Doctor Who]]'' features an inversion in the episode "Fear Her": A character who drew various people and caused them to disappear. Reversing the process caused the trope to be played straight with a demonic picture of her father.

** And remember: An image of a Weeping Angel becomes an Angel.

* One of the later episodes of [[The Worst Witch]] reveals that protagonist [[Cute Clumsy Girl|Mildred]] [[Book Dumb|Hubble]] has the ability to turn her drawings to life. This previously unknown talent earns her a place in the prestigious [[Weirdsister College]]. Even Ms Hardbroom is impressed.

* In an episode of ''[[Misfits]]'', Simon attempts his first present-day rescue by trying to save a guy from a bully. The next day at Community Service, the boy recognized Simon by Simon's injury. He wants to befriend him but Simon declines. Little does Simon know that the boy has the power to make his drawings come to life. He draws Simon and him becoming friends. Of course, he takes it too far and messes up Simon's life. Buuuut, let's just say it gets fixed.

 

== [[Music]] ==

* Frosty the Snowman, from the song of the same name.

 

== Religion and Mythology ==

* Many religions have this as part of their creation story. God (or ''a'' god) ''sculpts'' humans and imbues it with "the breath of life". In Jewish tradition, this led to the legend of the [[Golem]], where a mystic does the same thing using a [[Word Of Power]], but with only enough intelligence to follow orders.

 

* ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]''. Nolzur's Marvelous Pigments could be used to create any normal object by painting a picture of it. [[Obvious Rule Patch|And no, it can only make COUNTERFEIT coins.]]

* ''[[Mutants and Masterminds]]'' allows this as one of the variants of its Animate Objects power.

** Within the META-4 universe (the default universe of 1E), Burner of the Tag Team (empowered graffiti artists) possesses this power, being able to animate his graffiti.

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

* In ''[[Ib]]'', the titular character unwittingly enters a parallel world while visiting a gallery of paintings by a [[Mad Artist]] where said paintings come to life. [[Everything Trying to Kill You|To kill her.]]

 

* In the [[Colour My... Series]], clicking on things to color them can make flowers and plants bloom, light lightbulbs, make water flow, and defeat robots.

* [[SCP Foundation|SCP-237]], [http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-237 the Modern-Day Pygmalion], is a [[Hikikomori]] who can create homunculi from handmade miniature figures. {{spoiler|He may or may not be a spy...}}

* In the very short tale [http://midnightgazes.blogspot.com/2010/11/vividness.html "Vividness"], the trope is inverted, {{spoiler|since the painter dies when he draws himself on the picture}}.

* Homonculous, a supervillain from the ''[[Global Guardians PBEM Universe]]'', can make any object or creature he creates, using any artform (in the past he's used sculpture, painting, charcoal sketches, crayon scribbles, and a couple of quickly written lines of poetry), real. But he has to create it himself (he cannot, for example, bring something out of a picture in a magazine, or animate a statue that someone else created).

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Applied Phlebotinum]]

[[Category:Art Tropes]]

[[Category:Magic and Powers]]