Tuff-Girl vs Thunderkill

Digital composite with ink on bristol board.

Tuff-Girl takes on Thunderkill in this piece to commemorate my appearance in this year’s Charlotte, NC based Heroes Con. The image and style is an homage to the fantasy and comic work of artist Frank Frazetta. Here the hero is in a desert setting facing this strange adversary that I currently refer to as “Thunderkill.” Thunderkill is part man and part bison, seemingly covered in mushrooms and fungi. He’s also wielding a hatchet.

To promote my Unstoppable Tuff-Girl comics, I have been creating art for mini prints for every comic book convention at which I have a table. Admittedly, there have been a few cons in which I got too busy to do so.

Draft - Scarlet red pencil on Bristol Board.
27.9 cm x 43.2 cm (11.00 in x 17.00 in).

Further inspired by Frazetta, Tuff-Girl’s clothes have been shredded, no doubt by encounters with Thunderkill leading to this moment. I could not escape, nor did I really want to, having the whole scene strongly echoing Captain Kirk’s well-known hand-to-hand conflict with the Gorn from the Star Trek 1967 episode “Arena.”

You can see in the pencil draft, changing silhouettes of the distant rock formations, as well as the abandoned dust cloud.

Inked - Black India ink and scarlet red pencil
on Bristol Board. 

These images aren’t considered cannon to the Tuff-Girl mythology, even though any of them may yet serve as inspiration for future stories. Thunderkill hasn’t appeared in any of the books (yet). He has however can be seen in part in a previous commemorative image. Take that as you will.

A last bit of minutiae – some of the Frazetta-isms that he puts into his paintings aside from his fantastical cool palette, led me to incorporate a few curls in the rocks’s shading which intern led me to form some of those into seahorse shapes. Seahorses are a motif that I put into every Little Tuffy and the TufGurlz” comics and is kind of that comic’s logo. Seahorses are pretty intricate shapes and I doubt that I can hide them in all ongoing images, but you know that I will if I can.

PRELIMINARY SKETCHES & THUMBNAIL DRAWINGS

Ink and color pencil on paper.
22.23 cm x 15.24 cm (8.75 in. x 6.00 in.)

Ink on paper.
22.23 cm x 15.24 cm (8.75 in. x 6.00 in.)

What I Drew Sunday – June 24th - Top 3

I drew 12 pieces during Sunday’s 8-hour Disney Day session of What Shall I Draw Today?

Here are the top 3 liked ones:

#1 – Beauty and the Beast: suggestion by @eddysbrothersgf

Amongst three Beauty and the Beast suggestion, I chose the one without specific storytelling probably because it gave me the freedom to draw this scene based on the exchange in the 2017 live action version where Beast presents and gifts the library to Belle. I obviously am using the character designs from the 1991 animated version. An abbreviated version of the scene is featured in the live action version’s final trailer, and may explain it’s persistence in my mind. 

I like how the newer film has the Prince/Beast be educated and literate. This 1) contrasts with Gaston and 2) gives him something to share with Belle.

The layout is the reverse of the wide shots seen in the film by having Belle closer to the camera/audience. The layout also is meant to evoke a typical panel from a comic book book or newspaper comic strip. Here, the characters fill most of the rectangle with background elements minimized and/or generalized. 

#2 – Kim Possible, Ron  Stoppable and Rufus against Dr. Drakken and Shego: suggestion by @akoymdf

Kim Possible (2002-2077) still has its fans. I wasn’t watching a lot of the Disney Channel during its original run, so the action is not based on anything direct from the series. I did find in an image search a poster with Kim and Ron dropping via parachutes. I took that idea substituting a ladder from an out of frame helicopter. The submarine gives Shego and Dr. Drakken something on which to stand. The ocean then by extension is a labor saving blank area that can be accentuated with distant islands and volcano.

The submarine is inspired by details of captain Nemo’s Nautilus from Disney’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. In my mind, it came from the same shipyard as the Nautilus built from plans stolen from Nemo.

#3 – Pooh Bear: suggestion by @sdogg52

Winnie the Pooh is as simple a sketch as I do on a collector card. Pre-Toy Story by nearly 30 years, the original shorts mixed in aspects of the toy-nature of most of the Hundred Acre Woods’ inhabitants. To wit, in Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (1966), Pooh splits a seam during his stoutness exercise routine. “Oh, stuff and fluff” indeed. It’s difficult to do anything more charming than that.

And here are the rest.

Princess Eilonwy (The Black Cauldron)

Plus size Princess Jasmine (Aladdin)

Plus size Princess Aurora (Sleeping Beauty)

Scar (The Lion King)

Scrooge McDuck

Ursula (The Little Mermaid)

Captain Hook (Peter Pan)

Kuzco & Pacha (The Emperor’s New Groove)

Roger Rabbit & Jessica Rabbit (Who Framed Roger Rabbit)

All these are going into the collection of original art for sale that I carry to comic book conventions.

All art - Black ink and color pencil on Bristol Board.

Beauty and the Beast - 12.70 cm x 17.78 cm (5.00 in. x 7.00 in.).

Kim Possible - 17.78 cm x 12.70 cm (7.00 in. x 5.00 in.).

Winnie the Pooh - 6.35 cm x 8.89 cm (2.50 in. x 3.50 in.).

Please check out my Instagram feed for these and more @monstergram7.

What Shall I Draw June 24th?

Returning from an enjoyable Heroes Convention in Charlotte, I find the bitter-sweet situation of my stock of original art collector cards being rather low. Let’s see if I can’t replenish it a bit by having another themed edition of What Shall I Draw Today? This time the theme is Disney.

What Shall I Draw Today?

Sunday, June 24th, 2018

Eastern Daylight Savings Time:  12pm noon - 8 pm

Pacific Daylight Savings Time:  9am - 5 pm

Post your Disney-themed suggestions at any of the following places where to see the above prompting image:

Blog: monotonae.blogspot.com (here in the comments)

Instagram: @monstergram7

Facebook: @I'm a Fan of Bryan Mon

Click the above WSIDT tab for answers to FAQ’s.

All suggestions not drawn including the non-Disney-themed ones will go in the pen of ideas which may be picked and drawn between the June 24th session and the next session due in July.

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

Heroes Convention 2018

Monster Enterprises presents

Bryan Mon (Disney)

returning to

Heroes Convention, Charlotte

Artist Alley:  table AA-707

Charlotte Convention Center

501 S. College St.

Charlotte, NC 28202

June 15-17, 2018

Other plans will be keeping Merrill Hagan (writer) from appearing this year.

#heroescon

UPDATE [June 11th, 2018]

L B C N U!

Top 3 of What I Drew Sunday - May 27th

#1 – Deadpool Meets the Incredibles: suggestion by Mark Bramm

I can only assume that the similarities of the characters’ costume colors was the impetus of this suggestions. Perhaps the current batch of marketing for the newly released Deadpool 2 and the up coming Incredibles 2 had something to do with it.
In this conception of the meeting, I think DP would be a fan of the family of supers. Although DP cozies up to Mr. I, Bob can’t readily reciprocate the sentiments. Young Dash, however, thinks DP is pretty cool. Elastigirl and Violet withhold their respective judgements.

#2 – Supergirl & Wonder Woman: suggestion by @starliie5929

If my memory holds, in the animated series, Justice League Unlimited, Supergirl was going through training by the like of Wonder Woman, Black Canary and other seasoned heroes. I think the same happened when Supergirl was reintroduced in the early 2000’s. So I naturally considered depicting a training scene. That’s a lot to squeeze within the confines of a 2.5" x 3.5" card, however. As that I try to cap working on the larger cards to only two, and having pre-determined from the suggestion list which two those would be, I pushed to “something else.” Comedy, perhaps?

I was really charmed by the brief scene in Wonder Woman where Diana first tries ice cream. The scene was at least inspired by a similar one in the animated, Justice League: War. I thought that there are more things about this strange world that Diana may introduce to Kara than fighting.

Ice cream is pretty great.

#3 – Sir Hiss: suggestion by @art3mis8182

This simple drawing beat out Sheila (Dungeons & Dragons) and the Muppets playing soccer to place in the top 3. In doing so, it upset my predictions to what tends to be Instagram popular.  Conversely, it may highlight the popularity of all things Disney.

Hiss is a fun character in a the fun movie full of fun anthropomorphic characters re-telling the legends of Robin Hood for kids. Set aside, of course, that latex balloons didn’t exist in the time of Robin and King Richard. Also set aside the improbable physics of gaining lift from one’s own breath and not helium nor hydrogen, and further strain that with re-inflating that balloon with your own breath from within that same balloon.

Like I said, it’s about fun.

I’d like to see Disney do a lot more with anthropomorphic casts of characters in their animated features, whether or not it’s a Zootopia sequel. After all, Disney started with the likes of Mickey and Minnie Mouses and Donald Duck, and he had great success with the Three Little Pigs.

All 11 original drawings will be available for sale at Heroes Convention, Charlotte, NC next month.

What I Drew Sunday - May 27th

11 little sketches in 8+ hours.

Sir Hiss from Robin Hood.

Pucca.

The Incredibles meet Deadpool.

Dr. Teeth as Doctor Strange.

Sheila from the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon.

Supergirl and Wonder Woman.

The Tenth Doctor and Rose Tyler.

A mother hen and her baby chicks dressed up.

Peridot from Steven Universe (Peanuts stylized)

The Muppets playing a game of soccer.

Hepzibah of the Starjammers.

The top 3 coming up.

What Shall I Draw May 27th?

The May edition of What Shall I Draw Today? is upon us already. No theme this time, just the norm of taking on your suggestions as varied as your imaginations.

What Shall I Draw Today?

Sunday, May 27th, 2018

Eastern Daylight Savings Time:  12pm noon - 8 pm

Pacific Daylight Savings Time:  9am - 5pm

Post your suggestions at any of the following places where you see the above prompting image:

Blog:  monotonae.blogspot.com (here in the comments)

Instagram:  @monstergram7

Facebook:  @I’m a Fan of Bryan Mon

Click the above WSIDT tab for answers to you frequently asked questions (FAQs).

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

120 [m ] – Learn to Draw

Becoming a professional artist in visual media, is a largely self-taught endeavor or at least it requires a lot of practice. Still, a few tips can always benefit a student as she/he begins to formalize process, experiment with tools and techniques and pick up industry vocabulary and methods. Instruction and/or mentorship from a working artist is invaluable. However, a good book or two on the subject can offer a good start.

Here are three books that I can recommend to any one learning to draw, and certainly do as well or better than anything I have to offer on the subject.

How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way

Lee, Stan & Buscema, John. (1978) How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way, New York, NY, Fireside.

ISBN 0-671-53077-1

$11.98 (paperback, Amazon)

About the authors:

Stan Lee is the prolific and legendary writer who is responsible for co-creating most of Marvel Comic’s long-lived super-heroes including Spider-Man, The Fantastic Four, the X-Men and many more. John Buscema is the artistic powerhouse behind Silver Surfer, Conan the Barbarian and the Mighty Thor.

Book review:

The book’s twelve chapters covers nearly everything a budding artist of super heroics needs to know from the tools, through anatomy tips and page composition to inking. The black and white pages leave out discussions about coloring. The information is excellent for a solid foundation of drawing, even in today’s digital age.

Cartoon Animation

Blair, Preston. (1994) Cartoon Animation, Laguna Hills, CA, Walter Foster Publishing

ISBN 1-56010-084-2

$13.02 (paperback, Amazon)

About the author:

One of the fine artists of animation, Preston Blair designed and animated the hippos for Disney’s “Dance of the Hours” segment of Fantasia among other notable things. Blair would continue to direct and produce animation.

Book review:

With over 200 pages, Blair has assembled a comprehensive instructional for creating character animations. The first chapter, “Character Development,” contains tips an insights valuable to all artists not limited to animators.

100 Tuesday Tips

Grim and Norm. (2015) 100 Tuesday Tips

ISBN-13: 978-0-9908750-0-0

$55.00 (paperback, Amazon)

About the authors:

Normand Lemay and Griselda Sastrawinata-Lemay is a husband and wife team currently working as feature animation artists at the Walt Disney Animation Studio.

Book review:

Building on the foundations laid out by previous artists and authors on the subject, Griz and Norm distilled concepts into bite-sized lessons which they continue to share on social media, which is the origin of “Tuesday Tips.” Born of the current digital-age of art and media, they cover color theory, and add a few tips specific for a digital artist.

What I Drew Sunday – April 29th

Here we GO!
Here are the top three liked drawing from last Sunday's Marvel-themed What Shall I Draw Today? session:

#1 – The Toy Story Gang as Marvel’s Avengers: suggestion by @akoymdf

#2 – Spider-Man: suggestion by @whateverrsd

#3 – Agent Peggy Carter: suggestion by @ashleyin1drland

UPDATE (May 1st, 2018, 3:00 pm EDT)
Toy Story/ Avengers mashup: I began, as I do, with two columns each listing the essential characters for each team/gang. I capped the lists to 7 each, witch conveniently included Hawkeye and Spider-Man of the Avengers and Bo Peep and Jessie on the Toy Story side.

The two Toy Story leads were easy to match, with Buzz being particularly fitting for Iron Man. Jessie is a better Black Widow than Bo Peep. Mr. Potato with angry eyes is a Hulk natural stand-in. Rex as Thor created the pun opportunity of Tyrano-THOR-us Rex. The others were just cast as best I could.

Then, of course, I riffed off of one of the posters for the first Avengers movie for the composition. The greatest benefit was that it didn’t require much background detail.


Spider-Man: I was inspired by the John Romita, Sr. stuff that I grew up with. From there, it was modernized with a slimmer build for him and more exaggerated and contorted posing.


Agent Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell): This was meant to be more of little portrait than a caricature. As one of the early postings, I do concede that it may not have been the right choice with which to warm up, while at the same time drastically changing the lighting from the reference image I had found.

UPDATE (May 1st, 11:55 pm EDT)
All together I pulled out 13 quick inked and colored sketches going a bit past the 8-hour mark.

Peek at my Instagram to view all 13 drawings - @monstergram7

All of these will be trundled with a lot more original pieces of art to be sold at my next comic convention show, which should be Heroes Convention in June in Charlotte, NC. Please understand how sales of the ready-made art along with sales of at-the-con commissions currently helps to offset the costs of doing the con if not also the costs incurred for travel. I apologize that I don’t currently have an online store set up or make sales DM. I’m working on that. Then I hope that all together, online sales and convention sales together will begin to make this art business profitable.

Any not-yet-drawn suggestion from this session may yet be drawn at anytime before the next. Those sketches too will be trundled to the next con. All time permitting, of course.


Thank you to everyone who pitch drawing suggestions.

Thank you for liking and following.

yadda yadda yadda. The next WSIDT is scheduled for May 27. Be there!


All drawings black ink and color pencil on Bristol Board,
“Toy Avengers” 12.70 cm x 17.78 cm (5.00 in. x 7.00 in.)
“Spider-Man” and “Agent Carter” 6.35 cm x 8.89 cm (2.50 in. x 3.50 in.)