What I Drew Sunday, February 23rd - Top 3

The activity that forced me to reschedule the Disney themed WSIDT from Sunday to Saturday ended up delaying posting these top 3 results a couple of days plus one more because I was just too tired to post this Tuesday.

Drum roll please. Here are What Shall I Draw Today’s top three liked pieces:

#1 - Waddles on a Pirate Ship (suggestion by @snowspuppet)

Waddles is Mabel’s pet pig in the animated television series, “Gravity Falls.” He lands squarely in a blind spot of my Disney fanship: Disney Channel and Disney XD. I hope that a couple of short YouTube short caught me up enough to depict the fellow properly. 

Avoiding dressing Waddles in a pirate captain’s uniform; sought to place him on a ship or at least imply the ship. Other considerations passed up were “Waddles next to a cannon,” “Waddles next to cannon balls,” and “Waddles at a sailing ship’s steering wheel.” 

In the end, the extreme low camera angle would allow the inclusion on a Jolly Roger pirate flag. The perspective is faked but communicates the scene. 

#2 - Lumpy the Heffalump and Roo as Dumbo and Timothy Q. Mouse (suggestion by @akoymdf)

I had read the first part of the suggestion and had drawn Lumpy alone. After posting that, I caught the whole suggestion and proceeded to work on this on a large scale (5” x 7”). Additionally, Lumpy, like Waddles, was a character that I had to rely on YouTube to gain more familiarity before tackling the drawing.

A couple of iconic Dumbo & Timothy set ups would prove difficult to replicate due to the differences in relative character size proportions. Roo is too big to sit in a hat. And he’s too big for him to lead Lumpy by his tail and have it be as cute as as a tiny mouse leading a baby elephant.  

It then became a circus themed scene, imagining the declaration, “Ladies and gentlemen...!”

I don’t know if it’s obvious but I deal with the mottling of quick color pencil sketch work by avoiding approximating flat color and rendering things with shadows and highlights. It’s funny how it’s easier for me to use a rendering style that results in a richer appearance. 

#3- Mer-Stitch (suggestion by @playrunreadcat)

A.k.a. Stitch as a mermaid/man/alien. I thought that there was no reason not to draw his antennae’s and 4-armed alien form. I also thought that a little bit of story always helps- add seahorse. 

Do you think mer-stitches eat seahorses?

Here are the rest:

Thumper and Meeko have Tea.

Princess Marisa and Prince Marzel
from Elena of Avalor

Zazu (The Lion King) and Iago (Aladdin)

Knowsmore (Wreck-It Ralph 2) and/vs Prof. Ludwig von Drake

Doorknob (Alice in Wonderland)

Tiana (The Princess and the Frog)

Queen Elsa (Frozen 2)

Teen Kristoff (Frozen)

Lumpy the Heffalump (Pooh’s Heffalump Movie)

All 12 if these original pieces of art will be for sale at my WonderCon, Anaheim appearance in March.

Please check out my Instagram feed for more drawings: @monstergram7

Thank you for playing, liking and following.

The next WSIDT is scheduled right before WonderCon.

All: black ink and color pencil on Bristol Board.

“Waddles” -  6.35 cm x 8.89 cm (2.50 in. x 3.50 in.).

“Roo & Lumpy” - 12.70 cm x 17.78 cm (5.00 in. x 7.00 in.)

“Mer-Stitch” - 6.35 cm x 8.89 cm (2.50 in. x 3.50 in.).

What Shall I Draw February 23rd?

Saturday.
Saturday! 
SATURDAY!

For February, WSIDT a.k.a. “What Shall I Draw Today?” hits Saturday 23rd instead of the originally scheduled Sunday. Life happens and schedules change.

What Shall I Draw Today?

Saturday, February, 23rd 2019

Eastern Standard Time:  12pm noon - 8 pm

Pacific Standard Time:  9am - 5 pm

DISNEY DAY

But wait! It’s going to be Disney Day for WSIDT! This means that for that Saturday Disney themed suggestions get first consideration over non-Disney themed ones. To be clear, “Disney” will include Disney’s feature films (animated and live action), short subjects, Disney Channel, Disney Parks and sure Pixar, Touchstone and Hollywood Pictures too. Okay I’ll consider Muppets too. 

Not for consideration on the day, however, are Marvel and Star Wars (Lucas Films), if only to leave open the possibility of a Marvel Day and/or a Star Wars Day down the line.

If you can’t resist tossing in a non-Disney suggestion, then those may subsequently pop up in the following weeks as a random daily sketch.

Also, since I am planning to have a table at WonderCon, Anaheim in March, you may think you’re being clever by suggesting something that you might be able to pick up at said WonderCon. Well, I’m not saying that you can’t do that. I’m neither saying that being at WonderCon will help your chances of me drawing your suggestion.

So, please post your suggestions at any of the following social media spots where you find the above prompting image from right now through the end of WSIDT Saturday:

Blog:  monotonae.blogspot.com (here in the comments, please leave a name)

Instagram:  @monstergram7

Facebook:  @Monster Enterprises (exclusively)

Click on the above WSIDT tab for FAQ’s.

“The Unexpected X-Smurfs”
Black ink and color pencil on Bristol Board.  
17.78 cm x 12.70 cm (7.00 in. x 5.00 in.).

Sleeping Beauty at 60

January 29th of this year marked the 60th anniversary of the premier of the classic animated feature film, Walt Disney’s Sleeping Beauty.

It has some of the best hand drawn animated sequences ever created in the nearly 100 years of filmed animation. Maleficent is elegantly evil, and doesn’t require a back story of pain and misunderstanding to  be a standout character. With Prince Phillip, while not a high mark to achieve, would be the best Disney prince up until the 1980-90 animation renaissance of Eric, Beast and Aladdin.

Personally, I think, that it is hampered by a few details. First, that the story sidelines the main character, Princess Aurora, with the sleeping curse inflicted shortly, in film running time, after learning that she is a princess. Second, Aurora happily believing herself to be the simple peasant girl, Briar Rose, looking forward to her 16th birthday, is an underdeveloped character with an excellent singing voice. Third, “Scumps” as both a sequence and song is unnecessarily long.

Carmine red pencil on paper.
21.6 cm x 27.9 cm (8.50 in. x 11.00 in.)

Black ink and carmine red pencil on paper.
21.6 cm x 27.9 cm (8.50 in. x 11.00 in.)

* The penciled construction rough and the subsequent ink-over-pencil version were scanned with different machines resulting in the different color temperatures and contrasts.

** The final version is digitally cleaned and colored.

Art vs Artist - 2019

Here’s something that happens on Instagram: “Art versus Artist.” At its most basic, it’s an image of the artist surround by samples of that artist’s work. Where I could find hard rules about sampling the works, I chose my personal representative favorites from 2018. So, is this the 2018 edition (the year of the pool of stuff posted) or the 2019 edition (the year that these have been curated)?

As my favorite eight pieces, this differs from the “Top Nine” a.k.a. “Best Nine” posts of 2018. The latter determined by a simple counting of likes.

(clock-wise from top-right)

STAN LEE TRIBUTE - This represents my caricature/ portrait work.

CHEF SKUNK - This represents funny animal comics. The character is Nick from the long on-hiatus strip Tags from the a new one created for my 2018 Christmas card.

LIFE DRAWING with MARKERS - From one of the sessions done later in the year, chosen because I think it demonstrates better mastery of “highlighter art” than sessions earlier in the year.

YELLOW RABBIT - Another funny animal. She’s Hilarity from the short lived Cartoon Monday strip.

MICKEY - A rare example of my digital (Photoshop) painting.

BUNNY the BIRTHDAY SQUIRREL - I can’t drawing Bunny for every birthday notice that pops up on Facebook, for example, but I do draw him fairly frequently.

BELLE and the PRINCE as a HOGWARTS STUDENTS - Here’s a mash-up idea that was suggested for one of my “What Shall I Draw Today?” sessions.

TUFF-GIRL - Of course, I need to shamelessly promotion my adventure comic, Unstoppable Tuff-Girl, with the title character and with her pup, Wichita. This piece was created as the marketing image for last year’s WonderCon comic book convention showing.

Check out my Instagram feed @monstergram7

Rapunzel Mashpunzel

Frequenting the pool of suggestions for my monthly What Shall I Draw Today? sessions are fun mash-ups, the combination of 2 or more different things into a new (some times more awesome) thing. I say “fun” because even if I never end up draw those suggested mash-ups, in almost all cases, the ideas tickle the brain to wonder, “what would that look like.”

RAPUNZEL / DAENERYS TARGARYEN

Black ink and color pencil on Bristol Board.
6.35 cm x 8.89 cm (2.50 in. x 3.50 in.).

When the Disney version of the fairy tale character is mashed-up with the Game of Thrones’s Queen of Dragons, naturally the companion chameleon, Pascal gets mashed-up as one of here dragons.

I confess here, that I still haven’t watched any of the HBO series (and 15 minutes of what was probably the much-talked-about “Red Wedding” on a hotel room television on a comic convention trip doesn’t count). Therefore, I don’t know how apt the mash-up is. But it does not need to be, because I’m not developing a story here - not even a Mad Magazine styled satire.

As posted on Instagram

Therefore 2: I gave Pascal costume wings secured by a tiny harness. Even making the assumptive leap from promotion images to imagine that Daenerys did/does ride dragons, I can’t say the she had done/did on a saddle. If she does ride on a dragon saddle, then WIN!

RAPUNZEL / SAILOR MOON

Black ink and Color pencil on Bristol Board.
6.35 cm x 8.89 cm (2.50 in. x 3.50 in.)

I suppose one could argue that the one object in the sky that Rapunzel is most associated with is the Sun, because of the sun symbol (spoilers) belonging to her family; and that would make her “Sailor Sun,” yes?

In designing the mash-up, I tried keeping much of the colors from Rapunzel’s costume and apply them to the typical Sailor Moon costume. Not satisfied with that, I added more of Raunzel’s details like striped pouffy sleeves, laces down the front of her bodice and fringes. Of course, she needs her signature long, long hair.