What Shall I May 24th?

The May edition of What Shall I Draw Today? is happening is a few short days. In my pattern of hosting a themed or special versions on every even month, it follows that for May there is no theme, unless the theme is “fun” and “clever.”

What Shall I Draw Today?

Sunday, May 24th, 2020

Eastern Daylight Time:  12pm noon - 8pm

Pacific Daylight Time:  9am - 5pm

Pitch your suggestions at any of the following social media spots where you find the above prompting image form now until the 24th:

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

Instagram: @monstergram7

Facebook:  /Monster Enterprises

For FAQs, please click on the WSIDT tab above.


Remember, all previous suggestions have been tossed out to make room for new ones. But you can always suggest things again and again.

Deadpan and Spider-Man / in a taxi /  in Chicago
Black ink and color pencil on paper. 12.70 cm x 17.78 cm (5.00 in. x 7.00 in.)
Mashed up suggestion by @akoymdf / @mannysmyname / @mannysmyname
(spelling corrected)

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.)

What I Drew Sunday, June 23rd - Top 3

Not close race at all in the likes contest of last Sunday’s WSIDT session. Trying to do laundry and other other chores really hampered my WSIDT productivity that day, in which I produced only 4 sketches in the scheduled time. So, I went into over time to make 4 additional single character pieces.

#1 - A Crossover Between the Cinematic Spider-Mans: suggestion by @johnssketches

The suggestion was specific about mixing it up with these three Spider-Man actors: Toby Maguire, Andrew Garfield and Tom Holland. Repurposing the Into the Spider-Verse movie poster was a thematic match, if a lazy one. I say quick and effective.

The result is not as clear as the idea. The result is three white guys jumping around in Spider-Man costumes. As much as I tried making subtle color differentiations in the reds and blues of the respective costumes, the real visual distinctions lie in the details of the film costumes not captured in my caricatured drawings.

#2 - Duke Caboom: suggestion by @linymph

Have you heard that there’s a Keanu-ssaince happening right now? Everything I know about this Toy Story 4 character I learned from the trailers: he’s a Canadian, motorbike, stunt-rider toy voice-acted by Keanu Reeves.

The pose, then, is a more action version of something from one of the trailers. You might think that because my own character, Tuff-Girl, rides a motorcycle that drawing a toy motorcycle would be easy. Well, I can do it, but it will never be as easy as drawing soft squishy characters which I can manipulate with clever perspective and scaling cheats.

#3 - Darkwing Duck: suggestion by @transmithim

I hold a fondness for this 1990’s character. Certainly it was a kid’s show, but with hits like The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast, Disney was winning the college-age crowd too. Yes, I was part of that crowd.

My take on Darkwing when I’ve drawn him is to take him seriously, and not treat it as a parody of Batman or Dick Tracy. There’s enough comedy in the idea of a crimefighting duck with oddball foes. This drawing is about his confidence.

Here are the remaining 5 of the 8 drawn:

Wheezy (Toy Story 2)

Wolverine as a Red Lantern

Taarna (Heavy Metal)

Lucifer (Tom Ellis)

Warren Peace (Sky High)

All 8 of these sketches are going in with the other pieces of original art for sale with me at comic book conventions and shows that I show.

The next WSIDT session is scheduled for July 28th.

You can check out my Instagram feed for more drawings @monstergram7 and where you can pitch suggestions for the next WSIDT.

THANK YOU for following and liking.

All: Black ink and color pencil.

“Spider-Mans“ on Bristol board. 12.70 cm x 17.78 cm (5.00 in. x 7.00 in.)

“Duke Caboom” on paper. 12.70 cm x 17.78 cm (5.00 in. x 7.00 in.)

“Darkwing Duck” on Bristol board. 8.89 cm x 6.35 cm (3.50 in. x 2.50 in.)

What Shall I Draw May 26th?

“What Shall I Draw Today?” a.k.a. WSIDT, is a thing I do 9 months out of the year where I attempt to draw as many suggestions in 8 hours as I can. It happens again this Sunday.

What Shall I Draw Today?

Sunday, May 26th, 2019

Eastern Daylight Time:  12pm - 8 pm

Pacific Daylight Time:  9am - 5pm

All suggestions pitched from previous WSIDT sessions have been cleared to make room for shiny new ones. Post your suggestions at any of the following social media spots where you find the above prompting image.

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

Instagram:  @monstergram7

Facebook:  @MonsterEnterprises


Click on the WSIDT tab above for FAQ's

Spider-Man at the DMV.
Black ink and color pencil on Bristol Board.
17.78 cm x 12.70 cm (7.00 in. x 5.00 in.).

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.)

What I Drew Sunday – April 24

Here are the top 3 “liked” drawings from yesterday’s session of “What Shall I Draw Today?”

#1 - Atticus Finch (Gregory Peck): suggested by keaur._

#2 - Nick Wilde and Judy Hopps: suggested by eadgeart

#3 - Teen Wonder Woman: suggested by tombancroft1

And here is the whole Sunday set of collector card size sketches:

This time instead of skewing on the side of the super-heroes, the suggestions leaned to Hollywood legends and “Game of Thrones.”

Thanks everybody for drawing suggestions, Facebook and Instagram votes and for just following my feeds yesterday.

If I wasn’t able to get to your suggestion this time, please try again during the next WSIDT session.

Check out my Instagram feed @monstergram7.

What Shall I Draw Today - April 24

Spider-Man and Deadpool in a DragonBall Z fusion

Now taking suggestions!

from 12:01 am - 11:59 pm EDT (9:01 pm sat - 8:59 pm Sun. PDT)

Nothing special this time, just straight drawing stuff from the digital pile of suggestions.

Check the WSIDT page tab above for the standard guidelines.

Morrigan (Deathstalkers)

Robin (Teen Titans Go!)

What Shall I Draw Today? – Coming Sunday, March 27th

The Comic Convention version!

The guide lines (see WSIDT page tab above) are the same except that I will also be at WonderCon that Sunday, less than 2-days away. This means, amongst other things, that any commissions that I receive and work on at the con will receive priority.

I will be posting things via Instagram (@monstergram7) during the 3-day convention.

I will have lots of the WSIDT sketches for sale at the con on a first-come-first serve basis (i.e. I won’t be reserving anything). And you, or course, can get your name on my commission list at my low convention rates.

I hope to see you all there!