Lois Lane: Truth

In June, DC Comics announced their first ever DC FanDome, self-described as “a mega, 24-hour, global, immersive virtual fan event.” The August event is very much a response to the cancellation of all of the big comic book/ pop culture conventions for 2020. With little or nothing with which to compare it, what the fan event is or will be and how or whether it works is for now all speculation.

https://www.dccomics.com/dcfandome

Still, a key component of the event is a wide call for fan art and sharing cosplay. 

I’m a fan of super-hero comics and the DC characters. I am also currently in the unusual situation of having time to work on some unplanned fan art. I ruminated on three ideas. The first was “something with the Superman Family of characters.” A second was “something of a travel poster featuring a famous DC locale, possibly Themyscira.” A third idea was “something third tier, maybe Booster Gold and Blue Beetle or maybe Ch’p the Green Lantern?” In the end, I didn’t make any of these things.

Following an intense 14 days of sketches celebrating Disneyland’s 65th birthday anniversary, I turned my attentions back to DC FanDome with only 14 days before deadline.

Investigative Reporter

My reference gathering for the “Superman Family” notion included some Lois Lane images, leading to focusing on the most significant person in Superman’s history as a character. 

As a list of mental descriptions guided the development of the piece: Lois, night, personality, vector art and wide screen. 

Character Building

“Personality” means something that’s a little more than a year book photo but not an action illustration- something entirely about the character and not about props and locations. 

Midway through the “build” for Lois, I altered the pose both hiding her far arm and lowering the closer arm to hang down rather than being akimbo. It’s subjective of course, but I thought her expression conveyed enough confidence, that she did not also need to have a confrontational posture.

“Night” was a decision of the potential for dramatic lighting as well as offering a plain dark background to surround the figure.

Position, Angle, Speed

“Vector art” is a way to encode a file with geometry instructions for a computer to rebuild an image. The most popular method/ app is Adobe Illustrator, which as an interface has made the “encoding” part not about typing in numbers. It still isn’t intuitive for an artist that may be comfortable with traditional media like drawing with a pencil or painting in oils or watercolors. With all the downsides vector art has as a creative tool, it has tremendous production value, not the least of which is that it’s imagery is nearly infinitely re-scalable.

I wanted to lean into the technical/geometry nature of the application, without depending on a lot of straight lines and circles. The resulting style features things with added or enhanced corners and shapes having clear edges.

“Widescreen” is a format choice of the day. It does allow for space on the the sides to stick the Daily Planet. I wasn’t until I finally uploaded the image to the DC FanDome site hosted by Talent House, that I found wording advising art ate a 4:3 aspect “look best” which is nearly the dimensions of old fashioned television screens. I suspect that it is more an accepted dimension that”s wider than a square for social media like Instagram. I uploaded it as I designed it and didn’t crop the image. 

About Faces

Upon posting detail shots of the final piece on Instagram, a few folks commented finding a resemblance of my Lois to Marvel’s Agent Carter. I’ll say that I did choose to design her likeness after 1940-50s Hollywood actresses. For this, I gathered a lot of images of Joan Leslie, who starred along side James Cagney in “Yankee Doodle Dandy.”

In the Details

Often when I draw a Disney sketch, there are opportunities to hide Mickey Mouse iconography: hidden Mickey’s. Having chosen to use 6-sided hexagons for the booked effect for the background lights, I thought that I could manipulate the geometry to from a small pentagon alluding to Superman’s “S” emblem. 

Lois Lane

My plan for success involved the intersection of two strategies: 1) keep it simple; and 2) stay away from the Trinity (Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman) and the Justice League thinking that there would be LOTS of those submitted.

If I had to choose, Erica Durance has played my favorite interpretation of Lois Lane.

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 Shall I Draw July 26th?

Hot off the heels of an intense “What Shall I Draw Today?” (WSIDT) special Disney Parks edition that resulted in 51 daily sketches over the course of 17 consecutive days now approaches a standard single-Sunday session. for July

What Shall I Draw Today?

Sunday July 26th, 2020

Eastern Daylight Time:  12pm noon - 8pm

Pacific Daylight Time:  9am - 5pm

Yes, it’s the normal, non-themed open-call for sketch suggestions. Proceed to click on the WSIDT tab above for FAQs and suggestion guidelines.

Pitch your suggestions at any of the following social media spots where you find the above prompting image from now until drawing day, Sunday July 16th. No IG DMs please.

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

Instagram: @monstergram7

Facebook:  /Monster Enterprises

Tip: after the Disney Parks session, I am VERY much welcoming simple, single-character suggestions.

Draw 51 Disney Parks Fan Arts

a.k.a. What I Drew for Disneyland’s 65th Birthday - July 1 - 17

This the “aftermath” article; a follow-up record of my experience drawing 51 Disney Parks inspired sketches in an official Disneyland autograph book over 17 consecutive days. This project was constructed to celebrate and honor Disneyland’s 65th Birthday anniversary, occurring July 17th, 2020.

You may explore this blog for scans of each sketch, each accompanied by “Hidden Mickeys” guides.

51

The number of sketches was simply dictated by the number of pages in the book, electing to only draw on one side, the right side, of each sheet.

As much as I tried to pace my sketch output over the 17 days, an early miscalculation had me creating 5 sketches in each of the days 2 and 3. By the last five days, a production rate of 2 and 3 sketches per day had me thankful that I had “banked” the additional sketches early in the life of the project.

Ink and Pencil

With the exception of one, all of the sketches were drawn with black ink and color pencils. As dry media, it’s something that I am comfortable with and has the benefit of their control and absence of drying time. Only for the “Main Street Electrical Parade” sketch it was that I added white opaque paint for the effect of the tiny lights on the parade floats.

The last sketch of each day was fully colored. The rest of the sketches were toned with a single pencil color. The last day, I went full “fancy” with all three sketches completed in full color.

Ideas Abound

The whole endeavor was branded with my “What Shall I Draw Today?” banner. These are limited-time opportunities for folks to offer sketch suggestions. I treated each day as distinct windows of time in which to gather suggestions with no prior suggestions carrying over to later days. This meant that, for the most part, I didn’t know what I was going to draw on any given day. Neither was I keeping track of the suggestions, so there was always the possibility that a good suggestion would come and go and not get included in the series.

Top 10

According to the number of “likes” received on Instagram, here are the top 10 sketches:
1. Splash Mountain feat. Br’er Rabbit & Tiana
2. Animation Academy feat Aladdin and friends
3. The Voices of Liberty feat. Sam the Eagle and Ariel and her sisters
4. Radiator Springs Racers feat. Ian and Barley Lightfoot brothers vs. Kim Possible and Ron
5. Character Meet and Greets feat. Penny meeting Tiana
6. Dapper Day feat. Roger and Anita with Pongo and Perdita
7. Kilimanjaro Safaris feat. Oliver and Dodger
8. Fantasmic! feat. Mickey vs. Maleficent in dragon form
9. Pirates of the Caribbean feat. Captain Hook vs. Captain Jack Sparrow, with Lilo and Stitch meeting Captain Redd
10. Big Thunder Mountain Railroad feat. Max Goof and Roxanne

The Splash Mountain sketch depicts Br’er Rabbit handing over the deed to the mountain to Tiana. This was topical as Disney had just announced their plans to re-imagine the attraction to be inspired by The Princess and the Frog (2009). As nearly every such announcement that entails changes to an established Disney Park’s attraction, this was also the most controversial sketch, with several folks expressing disappointment in the announcement.

Favorite Characters, Favorite Attractions

I had attempted by my choice of words to stress that ideas should be about favorite, beloved things found and/or experienced in a Disney Park and the like. Basically, if it’s the type of thing covered by the Disney Parks Blog, then I thought it worth consideration. Adventures by Disney being vacations that on Disney properties fall outside the intent of the “Disney Parks” theme.

I an certain that many suggestions were lead by choices of favorite characters who were subsequently stuck into arguably appropriate attractions.

I didn’t approach some of the big “E“-Ticket attractions until after the July 4th weekend, knowing that there wouldn’t be a shortage of suggestion for those.

Disneyland First

The number of Disneyland, California centric suggestions far out numbered those for other parks. You may speculate as to why as well as I can.

For my part, I leaned towards the original incarnation of an attraction when devising a sketch. For example, Space Mountain exists in different parks, the cars drawn have the in-line configuration of the Magic Kingdom, WDW original version. But since the original park’s attractions have been carried over to the other parks, things like “Pirates of the Caribbean,” “it’s a small world” and “Haunted Mansion” were all considered to be of the original California park.

Attractions, Rides and Shows

If there’s any commonality to the type of storytelling guiding the sketch compositions, then it's present in how I tried to follow the example of “Donald Duck Goes to Disneyland.” The conceit here is that everything that Donald experiences at Disneyland is “real.” Donald can meet real pirates on “Pirates of the Caribbean“ and see real singing birds and tikis at the “Enchanted Tiki Room.” He rides a real elephant, but not IN an elephant shaped vehicle attached to a long arm.

When depicting a show, that isn’t so much about an ride experience, then that show is an actual event or at least has real performers. So, “it’s a small world” are singing and dancing children. In the “Main Street Electrical Parade,” the dragon, Elliot isn’t a float, but a character that can stand on his hind legs.

Every rule has its exceptions. For example, with “train” being in the name “Heimlich’s Chew Chew Train,” I chose retain that aspect rather than just draw Heimlich carrying passengers on his back.

I Have an Idea

Ten of the 51 sketches were my own elections. Of note, the first sketch is a of the “French Market Restaurant,” in New Orleans Square, Disneyland. Its inclusion is a nod to the restaurant being where I had my first Disney job. Currently, I work as a staff artist for Disney’s products group.

About midway, I decided to reserve the last day’s sketches first for “Sleeping Beauty Castle” and later including the “Main Street Electrical Parade” and “Fantasmic!” Not that folks hadn’t suggested these three night time spectaculars, but first for reason that it seemed appropriate that the last day feature 3 end of day experiences. Secondly, I wasn’t assured that on that final day, any of those would come in as actual suggestions.

MVPs

Mickey Mouse appears in 5 sketches: 1) E.P. Ripley train engine, 2) Fantasmic!; 3) Videopolis; 4) Star Tours; and 5) Balloons on Main Street.

Goofy also appears in 5 sketches: 1) The Great Movie Ride; 2) The Little Red Wagon corn dogs location; 3) Star Tours; 4) The Marching Band; 5) The Matterhorn.

Things Coming at You

In depicting a ride, it seems my go-to composition is to show a rider in a vehicle headed toward the audience/reader.
1) E.P. Ripley train engine; 2) The Jungle Cruise; 3) Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin; 4) Rock N Roller Coaster; 5) The Matterhorn Bobsleds; 6) Tron Lightcycle Power Run; 7) Dumbo the Flying Elephant; 8) Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride; 9) Peter Pan’s Flight; 10) Space Mountain; 11) Star Tours; 12) Radiator Springs Racers; 13) Storybook Land Canal Boats.

Things Going Away from You

It’s not typical that the back sides of things are more interesting than its front sides. Usually, showing the backs allows for the reader to share the point of view (P.O.V.) of the featured character(s).
1) Big Thunder Mountain Railroad; 2) Submarine Voyage; 3) The Great Movie Ride.

Hidden Mickeys

Across the 51 sketches, you can find (maybe) 112-1/2 Hidden Mickeys. Some are poorly drawn. A few were so poorly drawn that I ultimately didn’t count them as Hidden Mickeys. 1/2 of a Hidden Mickey I count because it mirrors a true Hidden Mickey in the sketch. Some of them are literally the written name “MICKEY.”
The one sketch without a hidden Mickey, is that of “Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln.”
There’s 1 hidden Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.
There’s 1 number “65.”

Oops

“Bear Country Jamboree” - The mounted heads each have name plates. I incorrectly mixed up the names tagging the moose as “Max” and the Buck as “Melvin.”

“Alice’s Curious Labyrinth” - I misspelled “Labyrinth” as “Labrynth.”

All other inaccuracies I attribute to those of artistic choices.

The “Almost” Sketch

Each sketch entailed some bit of reference gathering before proceeding to put pencil on paper.

The one idea that I had gathered reference but then aborted was this (more or less): The Starlight Cafe in Magic Kingdom’s Tomorrowland featuring performer Sonny Eclipse sharing the stage with Max Rebo and also Captain EO’s crew/music band.

The first element here is Sonny who is an audio-animatronic alien creature that sings original space/lounge turns and plays a type of keyboard with a semi circular keyboard. Next, Max Rebo is a blue elephant looking alien from Star Wars: The Return of the Jedi who performs music on a semi-circular keboard in Jabba the Hutt’s palace. As for the last element, what you need to know about the Captain EO (Michael Jackson) crew/band is that Hooter is a blue elephant looking alien, but who isn’t the same alien race as Max Rebo.

All the visual links are there and obvious.

I aborted the sketch because it failed the criteria of whether I thought that Sonny Eclipse was among somebody’s favorite things from a visit to the Magic Kingdom and if adding up to five characters reinforced or complimented that experience.

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.