a Giant Squid, in 18 seconds.
A squid is pretty easy, so this drawing is really about being a Giant. A tumblrite named “deadorsleeping” (warning: probably-sleeping puppies beyond link) politely requested the Fastest Possible Drawing of a Giant Squid, whose manifestation of HUGENESS suggested two approaches:
1. a Squid so large that he barely fit on the card, which would be “fun”
2. a Giant Squid in his natural habitat, which means “we can draw boats.”
Okay, so number two.
The impending battle—here between a squid (some tentacles, a couple eyeballs, and a weird triangle hat) and a catboat (the iconic single-mast sailboat we are born to recognize)—is set on choppy seas, filled nearly to capacity by our creepy squid. The eastbound boat, caught unawares, is chased quietly from below. Based on casual market research, we know that our mariners sail in a boat approximately eight meters long, on waves of over one meter. Now we can calculate our squid’s gigantism.
Go get a ruler. With some simple math (remembering the length of our boat), you will learn that this squid is over 40 meters long. This means that our Fastest Possible Giant Squid has broken not one, but two records today. According to the Wikipedia article on Giant Squid, the longest measured squid has clocked in at 13 meters, and though there exist “claims of specimens measuring 20 meters or more…no animals of such size has been scientifically documented”. Here you have it, then, a giant squid longer than 130 feet—the Longest Possible Squid! If you think about it, the Fastest Possible Giant Squid needs to be so unfathomably enormous that he is not confused with your garden variety Calamari. Had we gone with our first instinct—“Squid that is larger than a card”—you might have made such a mistake in identifying him, and it took us probably no longer to draw a boat (which, in the process, was much more fun after all).
A Squid, then, that is both the Fastest and Largest Possible. We hope, “deadorsleeping”, that it is sufficiently satisfying and terrifying to you.
