What I Drew Monday, Oct 4 - Disney Parks

Day No. 4

On this day, Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp were down for a significant portion of the day.

This being a work day and not a day that I can work on these Disney Parks sketches, and it serving as the template for all future work days, I might be able to post a new sketch in the morning and two more at night. At the rate of three sketches a day, this project will be complete by Oct 16.

#13, pp. 26-27 - Rafiki lifting Baby Simba up / on Splash Mountain: @jessiemind / @caitlinfogartyart

Rafiki needs to be pretty high up for this and not in a hollowed out log.

At one point that “hidden” Mickey  spelled out as thorns was pretty subtle, but so as to make it less obscure it ended up being kind of obnoxious.

3x hidden Mickeys.

#14, pp. 28-29 - (L-R) Elyon Brown, Hay Lin, Cornelia Hale, Taranee Cook, Irma Lair and Will Vandom / going on the Haunted Mansion: @stevedelacruz.16 / @_jilliano124_

These character are from the animated series and comic W.I.T.C.H. Since 6 people can’t fit in a single doom buggy, I’ve placed them in the hall with the changing portraits.

3x hidden Mickeys.

#15, pp. 30-31 - Kida and Ariel / in Typhoon Lagoon / carrying a 50th anniversary cupcake: @kmwright222 / @nikkistar5394 / Jeff S.

One of the more straight forward suggestion.

Kira is from Atlantis: the Lost Empire.

2x hidden Mickeys.

1x hidden baby oyster

What I Drew Sunday, September 27th - Top 3

In the last-of-the-year session of “What Shall I Draw Today?” I offered a list of 21 not-yet-drawn suggestions previous pitched this year. Last year, I branded this kind of thing as a “Rewind Day.”  This year I didn’t brand it as such, allowing for folks to also make new suggestions. On the day, I pulled from the poll starting with the suggestion receiving the most votes and trying to work in order down the list.

Here are the top 3 liked pieces from Sunday:

#1 - Christopher Robin-Hood: original suggestion by @ch_arles7762

 

The fully worded suggestion was as follows, “Christopher Robin-hood. Pooh and the gang posing as the characters from the cartoon Robin Hood.” This was the Number 1 voted of 21. The mashed name itself is fun enough to attract the curious.

As I do with mashed up groups, I wrote a column of name of the Hundred Acre Wood characters and a column for the Sherwood Forest characters. Then I try to match them up. Most everyone who is familiar with the Robin Hood tales knows that he led and band of “merry men.” The animated Disney film was a bit short on named merry men however: 3- Little John, Friar Tuck, Alan A-Dale. In contrast Christopher Robin has a tight group of 7 friends in the 100AW named in the Disney song about Winnie the Pooh, and then don”t forget about Tigger. Sorry, Kanga gets left out, as does Owl. I cast Roo as young Skippy- not a merry-man but it works. I cast Rabbit as Prince John, which is possible because they’re all playing. Thankfully, the antagonist gives the others something against which to react. And then Piglet is a poor Sheriff and a porter Sir Hiss. So he is cast as Will Scarlet, a named merry man in many adaptations including the Errol Flynn classic movie.

No need to get overly complicated with perspective and depth, when working with the Pooh characters. Trees with branches to sit upon provide great opportunities to place characters off of the ground. Even Rabbit gets to stand on a rock.

In another world, perhaps Tigger would have been cast as Prince John and then he would use his own tail as a puppet version of Sir Hiss.


#2 - Jasmine, Belle, Ariel and Elsa as Doctors and Nurses: original suggestion by @lindsey_baker28

This suggestion was number 5 in vote counts. You never really know what people are going to react to most strongly. I think in this case, the difference between the suggestion and the final drawing is an ethereal something that you didn’t know you wanted until you see it.

The suggester would later comment that these five are her sister’s favorites, and the suggestion was made on her sister’s behalf who is an x-ray technician.

The composition is very stock photo like. I mused about giving them a patients to attend to. I was leaning towards Aladdin, creating a humorous scene suggesting that the former street rat just took “one jump” too many. Ah, but I thought that was the wrong tone. Likewise, I opted not to have Ariel fiddling with her stethoscope, a thing to her that might be an entire mystery.

I made Belle a doctor, believing that she’d have the better grades. The other three ladies are nurses. Jasmine and Elsa nearly gets to keep their assigned colors. With her trademark hair color and large mass of hair swooping over her forehead, Ariel is always a quick read, no matter her outfit or fish tail.


#3 - Sorcerer Mickey as a Jedi: suggestion by @akoymdf

This suggestion was number 2 in vote counts.

This mashup reads like a good fit. On the one hand, you have good-gut Mickey Mouse wearing a magician’s robes and sometimes a magician’s hat. On the other hand, you have the Jedi, the fabled space magicians of Star Wars.

Never underestimate my eagerness to take an idea and make it more complicated, especially if it involves Disney characters. Enter, then, Peg Leg Pete as a Sith Lord. You can tell it’s him be the peg leg. The layout is a common showdown composition with the antagonist in the foreground with his back to the audience. In perspective, the hero is towered over by the villain, and his expression is clearly read as bravery and determination.


I decided to draw of these on the larger format of 5 in. x 7 in. The multiple character suggestions always work better given the room. But as this was a day of second chances, I wanted to give each drawing the best chance to shine.

Here are the rest of the 5 drawn on Sunday:

The Black Widows! Natasha, Yelena, and Melina
Original suggestion by @chujo9

Young Minerva McGonagall with her witch hat
Original suggestion by @akoymdf

All of these and more original piece of art will be for sale at my next comic convention showing, which, I guess, will be in 2021.

The next WSIDT session is happening in January 2021, as I take a break to turn my attentions to the end of the year holiday events. I still may pull from the voted upon list for inspiration for a fun drawing.

Thank you to everyone who pitched their fun drawing suggestions. Thank you for following my blog and/or Instagram (@Monstergram7) and/or Monster Enterprises Facebook page. Thank you for liking. 

All: Black ink and color pencil on Bristol Board.

“Christopher Robin-Hood” and “Medical Princesses” 17.78 cm  x 12.70 cm(7.00 in. x 5.00 in)
“Mickey Jedi” 12.70 cm x 17.78 cm (5.00 in. x 7.00 in.)

 

What I Drew for Disneyland's Birthday – Day 13

Remy and Linguini enjoying
the Food and Wine Festival.
Epcot, Walt Disney World

Remy and Linguini from Ratatouille.

Also featuring these hungry guests (L-R):

Ichabod Crane, Winnie the Pooh and Monterey Jack (Chip n Dale’s Rescue Rangers)

3x hidden Mickeys.

Moana and Ariel marvel at the Lilliputian-sized
structures of Storybook Land Canal Boats, Disneyland.

Oh, Snap! Who could the boat captain be?

4x hidden Mickeys. 1x Mickey shell motif by design.

  

The suggestion box for July 14th is now closed.

You have now until 5:00pm EDT (2:00 PDT) July 14th, to pitch suggestions inspired by your favorite Disney Parks things and characters for consideration to be my last sketch of the day - here in the comments.

Above is a handy checklist of the 41 things I’ve already sketched, which will to help you to help me fill this autograph book with 51 sketches of 51 different beloved Disney Parks things.

10 more pages to go.

What I Drew Sunday, March 29th - Top 3

Of the 32 suggestions pitches for last Sunday’s “Disney Day” edition of What Shall I Draw Today?, 19 were actually Disney themed. In this. In this context, I do classify Muppets as under the Disney umbrella along side of Pixar, but I don’t include Marvel or Star Wars. That’s just under 60%. I can’t speculate whether the other 40% represents people who had no regard for Disney ideas, or strategize that I might get to their non-Disney suggestions in the days leading unto the next WSIDT in April, or that “Disney Day” just didn’t register with them.

Here are the top 3 liked pieces from Sunday:

#1 - Ariel and Eric as MJ and Spider-Man: suggestion by @chrispy2143

This “Spider-Man” “Little Mermaid” mashup received the most likes, no contest. As such, it is an indicator that I no good at picking the winners in these things. For this session, I pegged this one as #3 with my #1 and #2 picks not making the top-3.

It always helps with a mashup to choose a pose or composition that’s typical or iconic to the theme which does a lot of the work. With Spider-Man and Mary Jane, it was either this scene from the 2002 movie, or #2 when Peter Parker first meets MJ in the comics, or #3 the wedding cover from the comics. Clearly, it had to be the kiss.

The next consideration with a mashup like this is to keep enough of Ariel and Eric, that they look like Ariel and Eric. This is a tougher task, because both Ariel and MJ are red-heads, and then Eric is up-side-down. Facial likenesses have heightened importance when both characters are entirely costumed, with maybe only Ariel’s hair as a “Little Mermaid” look.

Except…

… I replaced the spider symbol on Eric’s chest with a silhouette of Sebastian. That then makes him Spider-Hermit-Crab-Man! And no one on Instagram made mention of it.


#2 - Jessica Rabbit as Tinker Bell: suggestion by John Coy

Another of 4 mashups drawn on Sunday, Jessica Rabbit as Tinker Bell, is a simple costume swap. Still, I thought she should strike a snarky Tinker Bell pose.

The top-knot hair style throws off Jessica’s recognizability. So, getting the face right becomes that much more important. Consider that if Jessica were a blonde, then then results could very well be a stylized “grown-up” Tinker Bell.


#3 - Stay Home Oswald: suggestion by Chiemi Kaneko

Tapping into the issue of these days (which is the COVID-19 self-quarantine to those of you reading this in the future), a lot of folks on social media have already been making light of the situation with comments about being bored.

“Oswald at home” doing at home things does nothing the communicate the underlying “quarantine” idea. Neither would a hyperbolic “trapped at home” composition, which I then thematically used for the March Hare.

Deciding on a bored Oswald on his cel phone isn’t the solution in itself. What pushes the idea over is the text bubble with the right text. As proof, cover the text bubble and ask, “what’s happening here?”

I haven’t drawn a lot of Oswald. So I guess his ears aren’t particularly floppy, like, say Goofy’s.



 
Of the 10 pieces drawn, 6 were done on the larger 18cm sheets with 4 on the collector-card-size 9cm. This is curious, in that I usually try to draw more on the smaller format as a strategy to complete more pieces in the day. What I think skewed things was the decisions to draw the two single character pieces of Jessica Rabbit and “Hula” Belle larger than on 9cm in order to capture more details on full-figure compositions.

Here are the rest of the 9 drawn on Sunday:

Rapunzel and Eugene at Disneyland
Suggestion by @lokoteibex

Kim Possible as Black Widow and Ron Stoppable as Captain America
Suggestion by @rod_j_sloan

Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy dressed up as Spider-Man and Spider-Gwen
Suggestion by @benmcdermott93

Hula girl Belle
Suggestion by @akascooby

Ariel with the Sorcerer Mickey hat
Suggestion by @elijones94

Pepper Ann
Suggestion by @mannysmyname

March Hare
Suggestion by @cindyhendersonliotta

All of these and more original piece of art will be for sale at my next comic convention showing, which, honestly, I don’t know will happen this year.

The next WSIDT session is scheduled for Sunday, April, 26th.

Thank you to everyone who pitched their fun drawing suggestions. Thank you for following my blog and/or Instagram (@monstergram7) and/or Monster Enterprises Facebook page. Thank you for liking.

All: Black ink and color pencil.

“Ariel & Eric” and “Jessica Tinker Bell” on paper. 12.70 cm x 17.78 cm (5.00 in. x 7.00 in.)
“Oswald“  on Bristol Board. 6.35 cm x 8.89 cm  (2.50 in. x 3.50 in.)

Disneyland’s 63rd Birthday

A new Autograph book with Jimmy Cricket Tag-a-Long

Disneyland Resort, Anaheim, California, Tuesday, July 17th, 2018 – For the fourth year in a row, I took advantage of being a Disney Cast-Member to use a day’s vacation time to celebrate Disneyland’s birthday by being in the parks and doing some sketches.

Per usual, I purchased an autograph book on site and began. Sometimes I was promoted by my environment, sometimes by stream of consciousness. On the day as I went along, I posted on Instagram the sketches in front of sights from the parks.

It happens that this book has over 100 pages if you count fronts and backs. That’s nearly triple or quadruple the page count of the books I had previous purchased. I response on the day, I tried to sketch something at least every 30 minutes. Executed in that manner, I fell into a walk-then-draw continuous cycle for the first 6 hours. In practice, I only drew on one side of each page, so only about 50 pages ahead of me.

Here are the drawings scanned (click on images to see them larger):

Having many leftover blank pages and untapped Disney suggestions from previous months’ sessions of What Shall I Draw Today?, I finished the book with small batches of the following drawings in pen and monochromatic pencil shading.

The final five sketches we're done August 8, so in all, I didn’t require quite a full month to fill the book.