Stiky-to-itivity

 

After a couple of years of the COVID pandemic induced work-at-home situation for my staff-character artist position at Disney, I earnestly returned to a semi-regular drive into the Disney Glendale campus work routine Spring of this year. The buildings were and had been throughout the year typically pretty empty. In May, I started making sketches on standard size 3-inch square sticky notes and posting them in the lobby of the building.

This fulfilled two things: 1) In an empty building, I felt that I could pretty much do what ever it was that pleased me (provided that work was being completed); 2) the sketches were things that I could share with regularity on social media like Instagram (@monstergram7) and with a group of Disney employees on Slack.

These sketches being neither assignments (for work or commissions) or those that I do for my “What Shall I Draw Today?” (in which I accept suggestions by social media followers,) I chose to keep simple in design and color. They are done mostly with a single color pencil and finished with available black pen ink. In the 7+ months, I had coaxed a couple of the interns to each make at least one sketch. Thanks to Zahra Merchant for a lovely Snow White interpretation. Thanks to Christine Lew for a jaunty King Louie take.

Assembled in the animated GIF above, I had made over 130 sticky note sketches.

Around October, I began to regularly take pictures of the wall as the number of stickies grew and shrank. My initial thoughts had dwelled between the extremes of “No one is taking any of these ‘FREE SKETCHES.’ I must be doing something wrong,” and “Somebody is taking my stuff (again labeled as ‘FREE SKETCHES.’ They’re ruining my gallery.” 

There were two occasions when several sketches disappeared in an afternoon. So curious. 

For my own kicks, the subjects that I sketches were mostly from lesser touted Disney films and television- not the Mickey Mouse and Princess things that stock the shelves of the Disney Store.

Another development were the emergence of two themed days. Wednesdays would become “It’s WED-nesday” and then “Today is WED-nesday” which featured something from the Disney theme parks, you know, from Imagineering formerly known as WED Enterprises. 

Fridays would become “Free Draw Friday” which may have already been a thing on social media like “Throwback Thursday.” Anyways, on Fridays I would draw non-Disney things and cheekily put them on the walls of the Disney building.

This Tuesday is the first of more than 250 business/work days for 2023. 

Someone order more sticky notes.

What I Drew Sunday, April 25th - Top 3

Last Sunday’s 8-hour drawing session was not only “Star Wars” themed as planned, but also full of kids and family scenes. Who knew that “family” was such a strong theme running in the franchise? I thought it was about laser words and exploding moons.

Here are the top 3 liked pieces from Sunday:

#1 - Anakin and Padmé take little Luke and Leia to Disney: suggestion by @annakat.m

There seemed to be a family vibe running through many of the suggestions pitched for this “Star Wars” edition of WSIDT. For example take this “what could have been” family vacation scenario.

A couple of similar suggestions came in. @bodast “Young Luke and Leia playing near the lake on Naboo.” Kinzey F. “Padme, Anakin, Luke, and Leia as a happy family”

Remove the time travel aspect of placing characters from an era “a long time ago,” I chose to place Padmé and Anakin in the Magic Kingdom’s famed Fantasyland behind Cinderella Castle. It’s a location different from the typical front of castle.

Clearly communicating “Disney” is a character encounter. From Mickey, to Minnnie I landed on Donald Duck thinking that during my sketch development, that a “dark side“/“duck side” joke could bubble to the surface. such a joke never did.

Young Leia and Luke, having never been realized in the films, are generic to the point of being drawn mostly from their backs. Luke has his name custom sewn into his mouseears. Leia is dressed as a princess. Padmé turned out to be a reasonable caricature of Natalie Portman. Her hair style and dress are made up, but evoking something that she might wear. Anakin on the other hand, is not a good caricature of Hayden Christensen. As the last drawing of the day, this, unfortunately, is the state that I took it calling “time’s up” for the day. From that point, I spent at least another hour to finishing inking and coloring the piece.

1x hidden Mickey.


#2 - Ahsoka babysitting an unruly Grogu: suggestion by @sdogg52
 

This pairing comes from the Disney Plus series The Mandalorian. Ashoka is a character who originated in the animated Clone Wars series and is a Jedi in hiding. Grogu is the character commonly known as “Baby Yoda.”

The suggestion brought to mind Dennis the Menace and Calvin and Hobbes, the later also serving as stylistic inspiration. As depicted in The Mandalorian, Grogu isn’t a very active character. He sits and waddles and is carried a lot. For the benefit of this “streaking baby” joke, he needed to be much more energetic.


#3 - Chewbacca babysitting Toddler Ben Solo: suggestion by Kinzey F.

 
This “babysitting” story was drawn prior to the “Ahsoka and Grogu” piece. Not knowing anything of what the young son of Leia and Han was like, the more fun set ups comes from some conflict. Here a day-worn caretaker (Chewbacca) and a restless ward (Ben). I aged up Ben from a toddler of the suggestion to have more vocabulary, since Chewy would’t be one with dialogue.


Here are the rest of the 4 drawn on Sunday:

 

R2 and 3PO exploring Mars
Suggestion by @elijones94

L3 and Lando on a date.
Suggestion by @fletchthis

Admiral Ackbar yelling “IT’S A TRAP!” at a mouse droid rolling towards a mouse trap
Suggestion by @madesalvo

Bossk
Suggestion by @carbonswap

In the tradition of hiding Mickeys in my Disney sketches, I put IG-88 references in these Star Wars drawings. Did you find them all?


All of these and more original piece of art will be for sale at whatever ends up being my next comic convention showing.

The next WSIDT session is happening in May 30, as a normal, non-themed drawing session.

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.

“Anakin & Padmé” and “Chewbacca & Ben” 12.70 cm x 17.78 cm (5.00 in. x 7.00 in.)
“Ahsoka & Grogu” 6.35 cm x 8.89 cm  (2.50 in. x 3.50 in.)

What I Drew Sunday, July 26th - Top 3

I am thankful that several folks responded to my request for simple, fun sketch suggestions to inspire last Sunday’s session of “What Shall I Draw Today?” It was a welcomed break/recovery period after my 14-days of intense, Disney Parks sketches earlier this month.

Here are the top 3 liked pieces from Sunday:

#1 - Elsa and Killer Frost gossiping while eating snow cones: suggestion by @madesalvo with acknowledgment to @nikkistar5394

These two ladies have similar ice powers. Elsa from Disney’s Frozen franchise controls magic  with primarily ice and snow related manifestations. Killer Frost is one of DC Comics’ many freezing-powered characters, most of whom are villains. On the CW’s The Flash, Killer Frost, a.k.a. “Frost,” is a reformed villain in an overly simplified description.

Opting to go with the T.V. version, the suggestion was an otherwise straight forward description. Depicting “gossiping” in a single illustration isn’t the easiest thing. I went with a not too subtle commentary on Elsa’s ice powers.

#2 - Bolt and the Rescuers: suggestion by @lindsey_baker28

At first glance, this team up of characters seems to be an unexpected cross-over of unrelated Disney characters. They must bee somebody’s favorite characters. While not depicted in the final sketch, I thought the cute back story was that the group must be on a mission to save Penny - again. The twist? Bolt’s Penny is different than Bernard and Bianca’s Penny.

Rhino the hamster is in the mix because he fun and fits in the picture.

#3 - Donald Duck getting mad at texting and auto correct: suggestion by @spanky.bear

Donald has a famously short temper. Even so, being mad at a smart phone or smashing one deserves a little more for a gag drawing. A cartoon short would exploit an anthropomorphized phone, but that’s too much story for a sketch purposes. Along those lines, however, the phone could display a weird, auto-corrected message that irritated Donald’s last nerve.

With nothing coming to mind immediately, an attempt to have my own smart phone auto-correct something didn’t work. A quick-ish internet search resulted in a lot of things a bit too much with mature innuendo. On the other hand, it also resulted in potty humor.

Choosing the root text as the mundane, “I’m starving. What’s for dinner?” substitute “diarrhea” for “dinner” and that’s comedy.
 

Here are the rest of the 8 drawn on Sunday:

Cher (Clueless)
Suggestion by @breezie_draws

“Piglet enjoying his birthday”
Suggestion by Kim H.

Olivia de Havilland
Suggestion by Lara T.

Dug (Up!)

Suggestion by @alice.in.disneyland

Operetta (Monster High)

Suggestion by @paleo_nerd47

All of these and more original piece of art will be for sale at my next comic convention showing some time in 2021.

The next WSIDT session is scheduled for Sunday, August, 30th.

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.

Leftover suggestions may yet inspire sketches is the next few weeks before the next WSIDT.


All: Black ink and color pencil.

“Elsa and Killer Frost” on Bristol Board. 12.70 cm x 17.78 cm (5.00 in. x 7.00 in.)
“Bolt and the Rescuers” on Bristol Board. 17.78 cm  x 12.70 cm (7.00 in. x 5.00 in)
“Donald Duck“ on Bristol Board. 6.35 cm x 8.89 cm  (2.50 in. x 3.50 in.)

What I Drew for Disneyland's Birthday – Day 17

Cinderella in her glittering pumpkin coach
is just one of many sparkling floats of the famous
Main Street Electrical Parade, Disneyland.

2x hidden Mickeys.

Easter Eggs: Maurice (Beauty and the Beast) as the coach driver.

Elliot the dragon does not stand on his hind legs as a float.

As an amalgam sketch, this does not represent an accurate sequence of the parade’s floats.

 

A nighttime spectacular on the Rivers of America,
Fantasmic!, Disneyland.

3x hidden Mickeys.

Easter Eggs: as an amalgam sketch, this does not represent an accurate singular moment presented in the show.

 

Tinker Bell’s magic lights the evening’s fireworks
performance high in the sky above
Sleeping Beauty Castle, Disneyland.

8x hidden Mickeys.

Easter Egg: Prince Phillip and Princess Aurora from Sleeping Beauty standing on the castle.

 

For this last day of 17, I completed these last 3 of 51 sketches all in full color. Unlike with the sketches of the previous 16 days in which I attempted to interpret compositions directly from suggestions that I received on social media, these three are more accurately described as being “influenced” by those suggestions. Elements of these sketch are also influenced by what seemed to be conspicuous absences among those same suggestions.

Here is an alphabetical list of all 51 sketches:

You may now explore this blog to view all 51 sketches one day at a time at your leisure.

Good night, everyone!

What I Drew for Disneyland's Birthday – Day 16

The WEDway PeopleMover full of...
people!
Disneyland

The confluence of things on this day meant that 3 folks suggested a sketch of the PeopleMover both Disneyland’s no-longer-existing classic version and the Magic Kingdom’s Tomorrowland Trasit Authority version. Adding to those, there was a suggestion for The Rocketeer.

The old Rocket Jets not only makes for a nice vertical element to contrast the horizontal of the PeopleMover track, the two are/were connected anyways.

I added the jetpack man (actually demonstrated in Disneyland in the 1960s) and the Chicken Little characters.

Riders: (first and second cars, L-R, Meet the Robinsons) Lewis, Wilbur, Carl, Lucille and Bud.

(third car, L-R, Big City Greens) Tilly, Bill and Cricket.

(fourth car, L-R, Chicken Little) Abby Mallard, Chicken Little.

2x hidden (poorly drawn) Mickeys.

 

Max and Roxanne had better watch out for

exploding goats while riding

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Disneyland.

Max Goof and Roxanne are from A Goofy Movie.

2x hidden Mickeys.

For the last day, July 17th, I am letting all of the suggestions from these last 16 days feed and inspire my imagination as I create the last 3 of the 51 sketches to complete the autograph book.

Above is a handy checklist of the 48 things I’ve already sketched, which may help you as you guess what last 3 sketches that I might add to this autograph book for 51 sketches of 51 different beloved Disney Parks things.

What I Drew for Disneyland's Birthday – Day 15

Dream Finder and Figment dragon are looking
for more marvelous things to imagine and
collect with the Dream Catcher.
Journey Into Imagination, Epcot.

In the ride vehicle (L-R) Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Daisy.

4 hidden Mickeys.

 

Brother team Ian and Barley Lightfoot test the
track on Radiator Springs Racers against
spy team Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable.

Ian and Barley are from Pixar’s Onward.

Kim and Ron are from her Disney Channel series.

2x hidden Mickeys.

 

Mabel and Dipper Pines on the grid on
Tron Lightcycle Power Run,
Shanghai Disneyland

Dipper and Mabel are from the Disney XD series Gravity Falls.

1x hidden Mickey.

 

The suggestion box for July 16th is now closed.

You have now until 5:00pm EDT (2:00 PDT) July 16th, 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. This may be the last day for suggestions if I decide to complete the series on Friday, July 17th with sketches of my choosing.

Above is a handy checklist of the 46 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.

5 more pages to go.

What I Drew for Disneyland's Birthday – Day 14

Rapunzel, Merida and Flynn (in there somewhere)
on Rock 'N' Roller Coaster,
Disney Hollywood Studios

2x hidden Mickeys.

 

There once were mermaids in the lagoon for
the Submarine Voyage, Disneyland.

Here, these are the Neverland mermaids.

Also featured: Pinocchio and Sebastian.

3x hidden Mickeys.

The suggestion box for July 15th is now closed.

You have now until 5:00pm EDT (2:00 PDT) July 15th, 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 43 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.

8 more pages to go.