What I Drew Sunday, July 25th - Top 3

During last Sunday’s “What Shall I Draw Today?” an eight-hour session reserved for drawing other folks’ suggestions, I managed to create just 6 sketches.

Here are the top 3 liked pieces from Sunday:

#1 - Krypto the Super Dog vs Cruella DeVil!: suggestion by @rockamola

I imagine that this could be a spectacular animated sequence. It might not be a long sequence. It is picture of a non-super-powered villainous fashionista battling a super dog, after all. But still, it might be spectacular. 

I employed the standard motif of looking up at the hero, to imply his power and dominance in the scene. I enjoy every opportunity to draw super pets.

Cruella is frequently a fun character to draw. She is tall and her posture presents lots of sharp angles. Her voluminous fur coat is an interesting counter that works best if you stay loose when drawing it. I had considered changing her outfit colors, but chickened out. Still, with the two characters sharing nearly identical color palettes, against the energetic yellow-orange burst in the background, it all kind of works.

1x hidden Mickey.

#2 - Paul Dini’s Jingle Belle meets Wonder Woman: suggestion by @jazzatron5000

The suggestion came with a bit of dialog: “Your Dad sounds wonderful” “Yeah, yeah.” I hope that I assigned the lines correctly. I changed “Dad” to “father” because I think that’s what Diana would have said it.

This I laid out as a medium-two-shot. Reasoning: if you don’t need to see legs and feet, then you don’t need to see legs and feet. The whole of the action is the dialog, the contrasting expressions and their body language.

Jingle Belle is a comic creation of Paul Dini who may be more famous for writing Batman: The Animated Series. Jingle Belle is the daughter of Santa Claus, and if I remember correctly, a lot more bratty than Anna Kendrick’s “daughter of Santa Claus” in the movie Noelle (2019).

I opted to draw another caricature of Gal Gadot’s portrayal of Wonder Woman. I think that if I continue to draw that version, that eventually I’ll get it right.

#3 - MacGyver (Lucas Till) and Fred Jones (Scooby Doo) working on a trap together while Daphne watches and swoons: suggestion by Nicole P.

Here’s a lesson in persistence (kind of). Nicole has inserted Lucas Till’s MacGyver several time previously and paired with Fred at least once. Top be fair, she has also pitched multiple suggestion per session.

I’ve watched the Richard Dean Anderson MacGyver series (1985-1992), but only a couple of Till’s episodes. From the typical internet image search I took on the caricature and hoped that it would look more like Till than say Matt Damon.

The close-up framing of Mac and Fred has everything to do with not wanting to devise and draw a readily recognizable trap contraption that wasn’t just a camouflaged noose. If you’ve read my behind-the-sketch “Top 3” run downs, then you’re familiar with me finding economy where I can.

Both Fred and Daphne are wearing version of their costumes from the Scoob! movie (2020).

Here are the remaining 4 drawn on Sunday:

Luke Skywalker or Qui Gon Jinn lifting Thor’s hammer. Either is worthy.

Suggestion by @loquacious_piano_hobbit

Calvin and Hobbes as firefighters during wildfire season.

Suggestion by @artofthehike

Calvin and Hobbes as firefighters during wildfire season.

Suggestion by @artofthehike

All of these and more original piece of art will be for sale at my next comic convention showing, which will be in 2022.

This as the last WSIDT session for this year, 2021. Unfortunately, there are events happening later this year that will interfere with my schedule and causing me to cancel the last 2 WSIDT sessions.

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.

“Krypto vs Cruella” and “MacGyver and Fred”: on Bristol Board, 12.70 cm x 17.78 cm (5.00 in. x 7.00 in.)

“Jingle Belle and Wonder Woman”: on Bristol board, 17.78 cm  x 12.70 cm (7.00 in. x 5.00 in.)

What Shall I Draw July 25th?

On Sunday, July 25th, for 8 hours, I will be drawing other people’s suggestions. This session that I call What Shall I Draw Today? will be a normal, non-themed drawing session. From now until 12noon Eastern Time on that day, you may pitch your drawing suggestions on any of these social media platforms:

Instagram: @monstergram7 

Facebook: @Monster Enterprises

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

Only those suggestions posted during this window of time will be considered.

What Shall I Draw Today?

Sunday, July 25th, 2021

Eastern  time:  12pm noon - 8pm

Pacific time:  9am - 5pm

This will also be the last WSIDT for the year. Certain big events lie ahead for me that will disrupt my previous WSIDT plans. I hope that I’ll be resuming WSIDT in January 2022.

For As to your Qs, please click on the WSIDT tab above.

What I Drew Sunday, June 27th - Top 3

During last Sunday’s “What Shall I Draw Today?” an eight-hour session reserved for drawing other folks’ suggestions, I managed to create 8 sketches.
Here are the top 3 liked pieces from Sunday:

#1 - “The Family Circus” newspaper strip with Wanda, Vision, Billy and Tommy: suggestion by @nikkistar5394

These character are naturally from the Marvel Studios Disney-Plus series “WandaVision.” 

The Family Circus is the long running newspaper comic created by Bil Keane.

As a general note, what I did not realize when I had embarked on the day’s theme of “comics” is that I would very likely have to emulate the comic tone, humor and style of other artists. It’s a challenge that I enjoy, and in fact, it is a challenge that I did more often as I learned about art and popular artistic media such as newspaper comic strips. The standard layout of The Family Circus daily comic is to have the art bound in a circular frame with caption. One of the basic sources of humor for the comic is the world view of the family’s four kids shaped by the misunderstanding resulting from lack of experience.
 

WandaVision used the conceit of Wanda using her magic to structure her life as a television, family situation-comedy. Since part of that features all of the people around Wanda being unaware of being on a T.V. show, then maybe Billy and Tommy’s comments would be speculative about living on a once-a-week T.V. show. Is that irony?

Drawing the quartet sitting down watching television had never been a consideration. I gravitated to an outdoor scene. Having the twins playing with Avengers action figures was intentionally an additional infusion of “Marvel” that any ironic commentary. Which isn’t to say that the dolls that they’re holding aren’t intentionally representative of other Marvel/Disney-Plus content: The Falcon (a.k.a. Captain America) and the Winter Soldier, Loki, and The Black Widow movie. I was only after placing the Iron Man doll on the ground to fill the space, that it dawned on me that effectively his story was complete and the comic’s subtext was was about New stories versus the old. You’d think that I had planned it that way.


#2 - Wednesday Addams: suggestion by @alltookayleigh

As the first sketch comic of the day, I chose to emulate Charles Addams comic, The Addams Family. I struggled with the imagery of Wednesday with a huge axe, only in so far as how I could make that funny.

Time being short, I looked up movie quotes from the 1991 live-action movie featuring a young Christina Ricci playing Wednesday Addams. Is it Wednesday’s best line in the movie? It is certainly up there. It does require some context. One at least has to have knowledge of “Girl Scout Cookies.”

I changed the scene setup from what is depicted in the movie. In the movie, Wednesday and brother Pugsley are running a old-time lemonade stand and are approach by the Girl Scout who has boxes of Girl Scout cookies in hand. I stripped out the lemonade and Pugsley to the basic elements.

Arguably, the better worded caption could be, “Are your cookies made from real girl scouts?”

The raven and spider were added because I thought it needed more macabre elements.


#3 - Donald Duck meeting Howard the Duck: suggestion by @akoymdf

The meeting of two ducks, one from family-friendly Disney and the other the subversive opposite of that. Early Donald was quite the rascally-child who took short cuts whenever possible if he couldn’t first not opt out of doing a task in the first place. I thought that even that version would contrast greatly against a world-weary duck from another world/universe (I don’t really know which).

I also opted to contain the scene onto a smaller collector card. This actually meant that I was unwilling to invest in drawing a lot of supporting props and/or backgrounds. The conflict ended up having Howard complaint about something about Donald or Donald’s world. Enter Disneyland and its iconic Sleeping Beauty Castle. It may well be that I can’t go a whole WSIDT day with out drawing something about a Disney Park.

2x hidden Mickeys. (One is teeny tiny)

Here are the rest of the 5 drawn on Sunday:

The Rocketeer!

suggestion by @evanblasor

Calvin as Loki the trickster who loves chaos

 suggestion by @oliviamn14

Jessica Jones and Batman in a bar (because they are both moody detectives who are orphans)

suggestion by @ani8tor57

Snoopy as Krypto the Wonder Dog

 suggestion by @jonmpeterson

Static Shock

 suggestion by Abigail R.



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 2022.

The next WSIDT session is happening in July 25th.

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.

“WandaVision Family Circus”: on Bristol Board, 12.70 cm x 17.78 cm (5.00 in. x 7.00 in.)
“Wednesday”: on watercolor paper, 12.70 cm x 17.78 cm (5.00 in. x 7.00 in.)
“Donald and Howard”: on Bristol Board, 8.89 cm x 6.35 cm  (3.50 in. x 2.50 in.)

What Shall I Draw June 27th?

 

On Sunday, June 27th, for 8 hours, I will be drawing other people’s suggestions. This session will be themed “comics,” which I’ll include topics from comic books, newspaper comics and animated cartoons (why not?). Sketch pitches that feature topics that originated as comics will be favored over comic styled versions of other things. From now until 12noon Eastern Time on that day, you may pitch your drawing suggestions on any of these social media platforms:

Instagram: @monstergram7
Facebook: @Monster Enterprises
Blog: monotonae.blogspot.com (here in the comments)

Only those suggestions posted during this window of time will be considered.

What Shall I Draw Today?

Comics Day
Sunday, June 27th, 2021
Eastern  time:  12pm noon - 8pm
Pacific time:  9am - 5pm

For As to your Qs, please click on the WSIDT tab above.

What I Drew Sunday, May 30th - Top 3

During last Sunday’s What Shall I Draw Today?, an eight-hour session reserved for drawing other folks’ suggestions, I managed to create 8 sketches.
Here are the top 3 liked pieces from Sunday:

#1 - Original Josie and the Pussycats dressed like their 2001 versions: suggestion by @nikkistar5394

A creation of comics artist and writer Dan DeCarlo, the rock-and-roll trio Josie and the Pussycats have existed since the mid-1960s. The live action film that starred Rachael Leigh Cook, Tara Reid and Rosario Dawson is now 20 years old having received less than stellar reviews and box office when released.

I imagine that it’s the idea of the Pussycats, being an all-girl rock trio, that is the enduring aspect  over any realized incarnation be they from the comics, animation, live action or their music.

The suggestion is a straight forward costume update. My choices came down to the tall, poster-like format and being inspired by the costumes from what I guess is the main movie poster. Dan DeCarlo’s style of drawing young women, is fun an appealing. It’s the reason that Bruce Timm and Paul Dini used it as inspiration where updating the look of Batman: The Animated Series.


#2 - Luke and Leia as Hogwarts students: suggestion by @harishas.art

I haven’t had a good record of matching characters to Hogwarts houses. That said, I read lists of attributes sought by the four houses and made my best guesses. Well, for the sake of the joke, I pre-determined to place Luke in Slytherin house.

For the caricatures, I looked up photos of Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill when they were younger. Some of the photos of Carrie has her resembling Linda Blair. For Leia’s hair, I based the style on how she had it on Cloud City in The Empire Strikes Back. For Luke’s hair, it’s pretty much his Episode 4 style.

The broom that Leia is holding is both an allusion to the speeder bike from The Return of the Jedi and a “Harry Potter” prop that I felt the composition needed.


#3 - Obi Wan answering the phone with "Hello there": suggestion by @akoymdf

Honestly, this isn’t my best caricature. The results came out looking less like Ewan McGregor and more like Steven Spielberg without glasses. But that’s how it goes on a WSIDT Sunday when I keep moving forward and don’t back step by doing second passes on my sketches.

In the initial pencil sketch, Obi Wan was holding a rectangular cel phone. No, it wouldn’t have been Star Wars accurate, and perhaps a modern prop is expected. It’s also kind of boring. So enter the big, blue handset with curled cord.

1x hidden IG-88



Here are the rest of the 5 drawn on Sunday:

Po from Kung Fu Panda as Shang-Chi
suggestion by @rod_j_sloan

Ulala and Hatsune Miku
suggestion by @stevedelacruz.16

Lizzie and Darcy from Pride and Prejudice and Zombies 
suggestion by Nicole P.

Trent Lane from Daria
suggestion by @linnofthewoods

Tow Vader
suggestion by @nuggie99x

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 2022.

The next WSIDT session is happening in June 27th. The theme for the next session will be “Comics and Cartoons.”

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.

“The Pussycats” and “Luke & Leia”: 12.70 cm x 17.78 cm (5.00 in. x 7.00 in.)
“Obi Wan Kenobi”: 6.35 cm x 8.89 cm  (2.50 in. x 3.50 in.)

What Shall I Draw May 30th?

 

On Sunday, May 30th, for 8 hours, I will be drawing other people’s suggestions. This session will be a non-themed, all pitches welcome event. From now until 12noon Eastern Time on that day, you may pitch your drawing suggestions on any of these social media sites:

Instagram: @monstergram7
Facebook: @Monster Enterprises
Blog: monotonae.blogspot.com (here in the comments)

Only suggestions posted during this time window will be considered.

What Shall I Draw Today?
Sunday, May 30th, 2021
Eastern  time:  12pm noon - 8pm
Pacific time:  9am - 5pm

For As to your Qs, please click on the WSIDT tab above.

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 Shall I Draw April 25th?

 

On Sunday, April 25th, for 8 hours, I will be drawing other people’s suggestions. This session will be Star Wars themed. From now until 12noon Eastern Time on that day, you may pitch your drawing suggestions on any of these social media sites:

Instagram: @monstergram7

Facebook: @Monster Enterprises

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

Only suggestions posted during this time window will be considered.

What Shall I Draw Today?

Star Wars Day

Sunday, April 25th, 2021

Eastern  time:  12pm noon - 8pm

Pacific time:  9am - 5pm

A day of Star Wars themed sketches was one of the top four theme ideas as voted in January. The worlds of Star Wars spans movies, television, animation, comic books, video games, theme park experiences and more. So extensive that it is, that I can’t possibly be an expert on it. However, if I can find an image on the internet, then I’m confident that I can draw it.

For As to your Qs, please click on the WSIDT tab above.

 

What I Drew Sunday, March 28th - Top 3

 Last Sunday’s session of drawing other folks’ suggestion went a bit slower than my usual What Shall I Draw Today? session. I produced 6 sketches over the eight hour period. At the start of the day, I had made the pronouncement that I might stop early if I reached 12 sketches in order to turn my attention to household chores. Well, those chores had to wait until the official end of WSIDT.

Here are the top 3 liked pieces from Sunday:

#1 - Steamboat Willy as a Jungle Cruise Skipper: suggestion by Mike C.

Story time- although the Disney short is famously the first to feature synchronized sound, it’s not much on dialogue. As such, it’s ambiguous as to which actor is the titular character. Is it Mickey? Is it Pete? Is it in fact the name of the steamboat itself?  I’ve not seen any documentation to definitively clarify the point. I opted to keep Pete as the captain/skipper.

For reasons that escape my armchair analysis, the Disney Parks’ Jungle Cruise attraction, seems to have popped up frequently among the WSIDT suggestions. I think more than “Pirates of the Caribbean” and more than the “Haunted Mansion.” As such, I wanted to draw a part of the attraction that I hadn’t previously, and decided to feature the African Bull elephant. I remember having drawn, the safari chased up a pole by a rhinoceros, piranhas in the water, the elephant bathing pool and Trader Sam. Another half dozen Jungle Cruise suggestions and I’ll have to tackle the back-side of water.

If I were to do a second take on this sketch suggestion, I might be moved to depict the whole steamboat in the rivers of the attraction.

6x hidden Mickeys.


#2 - Harley Quinn at a Roller Disco with Scooby-Doo: suggestion by @alltookayleigh

There’s no clear connection linking these two characters, so they must be two of somebody’s favorite characters.

Scooby-Doo must be one of the top non-Disney characters that I draw for WSIDT if you include mashups with Scooby and the gang. With every successive Scooby that I draw I feel that I’m getting better.

The reflected spots of lights on the floor didn’t remove as well as I had hoped. A second regret is that I should have added more spots to the back wall, even if the ones on the floor weren’t ideal.

Harley Quinn is based on the model from her animated series. A lot of times I default to original Batman the Animated Series version if not otherwise prompted. I felt like shining a suggested spotlight on the DC Universe series.

#3 - Tigger meets June from “Little Einsteins”: suggestion by @elijones94

I’m a bit outside of the demographics for the “Little Einsteins” television series. A minute with a YouTube video of the series informed me that June likes to dance, and that’s all I needed to know for a drawing.

I tweaked the way I drew June so that her facial features were more Disney-fied.

In pairing June with Tigger, I imagined that she could possibly be shorter than Christopher Robin- maybe not quite up to his chin. And I think Tigger is no taller than waist-high compared with C.R. So, maybe a standing Tigger would be up to June’s chin?

Anyways, Tigger’s dancing would just devolve into a form of bouncing. More and more I like emulating “The Family Circus” style trail of ribbon based dashed lines, even if it’s not associated with a character like Tigger.

1x hidden Mickey.


Here are the rest of the 3 drawn on Sunday:

Zuko and Suki on an adventure with Appa
Suggestion by @nikkistar5394

Venomized Huey, Dewey and Louie
Suggestion by @cyberknight6196

Beverly Sutphin (Serial Mom)
Suggestion by @mannysmyname

All of these are currently not for sale, as I continue to build up a stock of original art to sell at future, T.B.D. comic convention showings.

The next WSIDT session is happening in April 25th. This one will  be “Star Wars” themed. In stating that now, I wonder if half of the suggestions with be Mandalorian and/or “Baby Yoda” centric.

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.

“Steamboat Willie” & “Harley & Scooby”: 12.70 cm x 17.78 cm (5.00 in. x 7.00 in.)
“Tigger and June”: 8.89 cm x 6.35 cm  (3.50 in. x 2.50 in.)

What Shall I Draw March 28th?

 

On Sunday, March 28th, for 8 hours, I will be drawing other people’s suggestions. From now until 12noon Eastern Time on that day, you may pitch your drawing suggestions on any of these social media sites:

Instagram: @monstergram7

Facebook: @Monster Enterprises

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

Only suggestions posted during this time window will be considered.

What Shall I Draw Today?

Sunday, March 28th, 2021

Eastern  time:  12pm noon - 8pm

Pacific time:  9am - 5pm

This session will be a regular, open call, non-themed drawing session. But if you need As for your Qs, please click on the WSIDT tab above for FAQs.