The core of this idea came from learning that one meaning of “ruminate” is “chew the cud” for ruminants, e.g. cows and goats, and that “ruminant” comes from their multi-chambered stomachs, including a large “rumen”. From there I had the idea of contrasting my own “rumination” in the form of a brain diagram. Happily enough, brains actually do have four main compartments, which worked very nicely for consistency purposes.

I deliberately went a very different color scheme/style than I usually do; at one point I was thinking about the old Toejam & Earl games and how vibrant their colors were, particularly in the “hyperfunk zone” levels. I was going to draw a bunch of symbols in the backgrounds of each panel (e.g. cow spots on cow, exclamation points / question marks for the brain), but ended up not doing it. I did however borrow a color palette from one of the TJ&E games. I thought with that color palette, a nice flat look without too many details worked best; I didn’t want to take away from the actual words and arrows on display with a bunch of irrelevant details.

References:

• Cow digestive system redrawn from https://extension.umn.edu/dairy-nutrition/ruminant-digestive-system
• Brain diagram redrawn from https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/can-your-brain-really-be-full/
• Color palette adapted from Toejam & Earl: Back in the Groove screenshot https://www.coachingforgeeks.com/toejam-and-earl-back-in-the-groove-the-review/
• “Am I living up to my potential” is a lyric from “The Tyranny of Expectations”
• Title is a play on “Ruination Day” song by Gillian Welch