What Shall I Draw Today? - Coming July 26

Disneyland’s 60th Birthday

Disneyland Resort, Anaheim, California, U.S.A., Friday, July 17th, 2015 –  By the understanding generosity of my supervisor, I took the day off to spend most of yesterday, Friday, at Disneyland on it’s official 60th birthday, a.k.a. the anniversary of its opening day back in 1955.

For kicks and giggles I picked up an autograph book to use as a sketch book to record my thoughts through out the day. The book contained 12 double-sided pages and four sheets of character stickers. I shared some detail pictures on Facebook via Instagram (monstergram7). Here, however, is the complete volume (minus the sticker pages).

I arrived a bit after 10:00 a.m. and both parks at the Disneyland Resort, Disneyland and Disney California Adventure (DCA), had “special edition” souvenir guide maps (pamphlets) for the day, as well as special commemorative buttons for each guest. Other special items were available and for sale throughout the parks. You can bet that folks were anxious to pick up stuff on the special day.

I met up with my friend and former Disney Artist, Jeff for lunch at the La Brea Bakery. Here, I started my sketch book with a quick Mickey followed by Jeff’s better Mickey. Then I did lunch themed doodles.
I poked around DCA a bit to explore the recently re-themed Grizzly Peaks Airfield and to see for which showing of the World of Color water show Fast Pass ticket were being distributed.

A new way that Disneyland devised to experience the Parks is a Hidden Mickey scavenger hunt called “Looking for Mickey Quest.” Largely, I let the quest guide me to different areas of the park, but not slavishly so. I had to check out the upgrades to the Matterhorn.

One of the Quest’s clues pointed to Mickey’s Movie Barn, which is the finale of exploring Mickey’s House in Toontown and not strictly listed on the guide map. Here, believe it or not, I got my first Toontown introduction to Mickey.

The afternoon parade, Mickey’s Soundsational Parade, now in its fifth year running, was kicked off by a special precession featuring several “original” Cast Members who worked in the park in 1955. I sketched some of the waiting crowd and made note that several guests were costumed in clothes reminiscent of 1950’s American style, skirts, white glove, fedoras, etc. I think this is where I received the most sun.

Next, on to Frontierland, a trip around Rivers of America on the stern-wheel steam ship Mark Twain for two Quest clues and Pirates of the Caribbean which occupied three clues on the Quest sheet. The difficulty of questing during this ride is compounded by the fact that it is a dark, moving ride. Without prior knowledge of the clue answers, one conceivably would have to memorize the choices of the clues.

Big Thunder Mountain broke down while I was on queue. And I rode on The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. I wonder if folks get motion sickness on this attraction.

Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride.

By about 7:30 p.m. I found myself in the Disneyland Opera House for a performance of Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln.

Then I met up with Linda and Olav. I had a birthday cupcake and squeezed in the Main Street crowd for my first-time live-viewing of the new Paint the Night Parade, which was followed by the Disneyland Forever fireworks display. Linda and I caught the second showing of this summer’s edition of DCA’s World of Color waterworks and lights show World of Color: Celebrate.

With Linda treating herself to a Dole Whip, our last experience of the evening was Peter Pan’s Flight featuring “new magic”.

 By 1:00 a.m. I was tired. I was probably tired before Pan, but was occupied enough to ignore it.


EPILOGUE:
With the remaining five pages, I made these epilogue sketches this Saturday afternoon with the luxury of time, a blue pencil and a brush tip pen:

Something inspired by Adventureland: an explorer captain in a hippo encounter.
Something inspired by Tomorrowland: a spaceman and a spacegirl.

Something inspired by Frontierland: The Frito Kid.
Something inspired by Fantasyland: Snow White and guest.

And lastly, the artist’s pick, something inspired by Bear Country (now Critter Country): Henry the bear and Sammy the raccoon from the now non-existent (in Disneyland) Country Bear Jamboree.

I should admit (or perhaps by now re-iterate) that I don’t have the reputed artist drive to sketch all of the time, so I don’t. There were times I’d be on queue for a few minutes before I remembered that, “hey, I was going to be sketching today.” Then, of course, I had to decide what to sketch.


Thanks for a magical day, Disneyland.

SDCC: Catwoman 75th Anniversary

Digital color over hand ink.

17.8 cm x 22.9 cm (7.0 in x 9.0 in)

2015

Here is my tribute to the 75th anniversary of DC Comics’ Catwoman which appears in this year’s souvenir book distributed at San Diego Comic Con (page 94).

Also celebrating their 75th anniversary this year in the Batman sphere are Robin, the Boy Wonder (Dick Grayson) and The Joker. The book has 36 pages featuring tributes to the three written, drawn and painted. And while I’m at it, I’ll mention that 75 years ago DC created the founding members of Justice Society of America and Fawcett premiered Captain Marvel (a.k.a. Shazam), which is now owned by DC.

My piece here is inspired by the cover to Batman #84. I drew and hand inked the line work on Bristol Board. Then I digitally colored it over a cleaned scan of ink. I continue retain the quality of the inked line. I do color the line work, but I don’t much blend the edges into the fill color areas. I am, after all, referencing comic book art.

While trying to do something quickly, I tried to do something interesting with the type, thus the cat. Still, “quickly” wasn’t the most accurate adjective, as I tweaked and nudged the elements quite a bit. Ah, some times I wish I could be satisfied with just picking a font and color.

This Is What I Drew Sunday

Here are the top 3 liked pieces including a tie for 3rd from last Sunday’s inaugural social experiment that I call, “What Shall I Draw Today?”

#1 Jubilee (90’s): suggested by Steve

#2 Harley Quinn (Suicide Squad): suggested by LJ CaliCollectibles

#3 Monster Enjoying a Day at the Beach: suggested by Suzanne

#3 Tuff-Girl and Deadpool Fighting Over Tuff-Mutt’s Water Bowl: Suggested by Pandorina Blythe

Thank you to every one to made a drawing suggestion and for keeping it clean. And thank you for every one who voted with their Facebook and Instagram “likes.”

The next time I do this, I will provide more advanced notice.

What Shall I Draw Today? June 2015

Ariel, the Little Mermaid

When I take on commissions during a comic convention like last weekend’s Heroes Convention is Charlotte, NC, there are two things on which folks comment: 1) I stand up and draw throughout the con with a clipboard in hand; and 2) I’m fast. The third thing are my relatively reasonable commission prices, but I assure you those are only for conventions and if I’m successful, my rate will creep up to more competitive, professional levels.

The first has no bearing on my studio work, and truthfully I will sit down if I’m tired in the final couple of hours in a day.

The second combined with my newly up-joining to Instagram, I’ve chosen this random Sunday to ask this simple question, “What shall I draw today?”

The Invisible Woman

While I don’t expect it to blow up into an unmanageable monstrous undertaking, just in case I guess I’ll have to establish some rules.

1) I reserve the right NOT to draw anything suggested either for content or design without explanation.

2) I’ll field suggestions through comments made in this blog, monotonae, Facebook (either directly to me “Bryan L Mon” or to “I’m a Fan of Bryan Mon,” or through Instagram (if that’s how that works. I don’t know.) I’m monstergram7.

3) This little experiment will extend through 11:59 p.m. today, Sunday, June 27th, 2015.

Spider-Man

I’ll post what I do on Instagram as I go and then my top 3 favorites (a.k.a. liked) here on monotonae tomorrow, Monday.

Ready? Set. GO!

Unstoppable Tuff-Girl, 10th Anniversary

This year, the character Tuff-Girl celebrates the tenth year from first appearing in the pages of Silver Comics issue #5!

To commemorate this milestone, I created this Art Deco inspired poster (above). The poster measuring17" w. x 36" h (43.2 cm x 91.4 cm), will be first available for purchase at the ever nearing Heroes Convention, June 19-21 in Charlotte, NC. I will be arriving at the con with a limited number of copies of the poster priced at $10 each, and at the con, you may, of course, get Tuff-Girl creators Bryan Mon (that’s me) and Merrill Hagan to sign copies of the poster.

I had run through multiple thumbnail drawings for concepts for art to commemorate this special occasion, and narrowed it down to this, albeit another, running pose. Well, Superman flies, Spider-Man swings, and Tuff-Girl runs. From a rough pencil drawing I developed the final art as vector art in Adobe® Illustrator. In the image above, the black lines represent the outlines of the vector shapes, over the red pencil lines of the roughly drawn art.

Admittedly, I’ve been terrible at social media and by extension I’ve been terribly terrible at utilizing social media to promote my self and my projects. That said if you find me at Heroes Con this coming weekend (AA-1511), and utter the code word, “Montreal,” I will sell you a signed copy for the promotional amount of $1 USD.

We’ll see you at Heroes!

Heroes and There-O, part 2

Monster Enterprises presents

Bryan Mon (me) and

Merrill Hagan

as they return to

Heroes Convention

Artist Alley - 1511

June 19-21, 2015

Charlotte Convention Center

501 S. College St.

Charlotte, NC 28202

The count down has begun. Heroes Convention is less than a week away.
I quite excited. I’ve still got lots to do, but yes, quite excited.

L B C N U!

Wear For Art Now, Tuff-Girl?

From the first time Merrill and I set up a booth at Heroes Convention in 2010 to begin promoting the first printed issue of Unstoppable Tuff-Girl comic book, the tables of stuff for sale were supplemented with printed tee-shirts. Up until now, monotonae (this blog) had not featured any of those designs. But a few weeks ago popped up the Facebook query asking about them.

Here’s what I have in stock, and with which we will be returning to Heroes:

TUFF-GIRL Red/ black cap sleeve raglan

This is a follow-up version of the first cap sleeve I designed for the time Silver Comics shared booth space. That first design only had the logo on the front but printed in black. The selection of the shirt design had everything to do with the paring of its two colors with the bonus of it not being a traditional tee-shirt cut. At the time of this second order/run, American Apparel was going to discontinue the style. Who knows if or when I’ll make another run.

TUFF-GIRL Pink tee-shirt

This is a pink shirt! Unfortunately the color doesn’t pop well under the lighting a lot of convention halls have, but I think it looks good in the sun.

 TUFF-GIRL Black hoody

Often you will find some convention halls are chilly or have cold spots thanks to high volume air coolers. Perhaps those conditions are enough to nudge a sale or two of a stylish, warm piece of Tuff-Girl apparel? In the areas of transport and display there are difficulties the bulk of a black, long-sleeve hoody presents from an exhibitor’s perspective. I frequently have to decide to only take one or two of each size to a con if I can take any at all. And folded up in a corner on a 6-foot table top doesn’t show the long sleeves or the hood.

TUFF-GIRL Red character shirt for girls

Yes, this currently is a kids-exclusive design. However, probably of all the shirts I have, it probably has gotten the most fans to stop at the table. I’m going to make adult sizes soon, because I’ve been disappointing too many fans who don’t want a tiny shirt. Sorry, but I won’t have adult sizes of this one soon enough for Heroes Con.

Heroes and There-O

Monster Enterprises presents

Bryan Mon (me) and

Merrill Hagan

as they return to

Heroes Convention

June 19-21, 2015

Charlotte Convention Center

501 S. College St.

Charlotte, NC 28202

I’m really looking forward to returning to Heroes this year. For previous comic convention appearances, I’ve accepted advanced commissions, however this year I won’t be able to do so for Heroes. I’m just too busy, in part preparing for the con itself.

I apologize if this inconveniences any one, but I’m certain I’ll be able to take on plenty of commissions at the con. You’ll just want to get on my list as early as you possibly can.

L B C N U!

120 [m ] - Season Three-tings

Here is the third of Cartoon Network’s complete season home video compilations. As I had done on the second, I provided necessary illustration and served as a sort of associate art director.

Following the character feature conceit with Finn for season one, and Ice King for two, with number three, we treated fans with favorite Beemo, a.k.a. B.M.O. Beemo’s characteristic rectangular face made him a natural fit for a DVD and Blu-ray case. Nickelodeon’s Spongebob works the same way.

For the design, we were fortunate that a few episodes by then had shown some of what Beemo’s innards looked like. Still the images of memory chips and hard drive discs we used for the disc art are rather boring, and probably why the internet doesn’t have fan pics of them. However, this led us to trying to re-think the printed contents insert page. Beemo conceptually doesn’t/ wouldn’t have a muscular structure reveal like that of what we did for season one and season two, certainly not one to be distinctive from the circuit board front and battery tray back we wanted on the case wrap. 

I then presented a proof-of-concept of the slip case with Beemo’s arms and legs attached. His arms and legs I had figured would fit on the top half of the printed insert, in fact I needed to make sure they’d fit, thus the proof-of-concept. I try to avoid the “would it be great if.., oh, that won’t work,” high-low scenario. With the proof-of-concept, art director, Candice and everyone pretty much said, “Yes, of course that’s what we should to do.” 

Now, I have no idea how many folks are willing to cut up their printed inserts to paste relatively flimsy arms and legs on to card board slip cases, but a few must have, and maybe the others got tickled by the thought that they hold a sort of kit to build Beemo.

And because I didn’t think that I could top “Build your own Beemo” for a DVD case, I left Cartoon Network.

Just kidding. That’s not why.

Adventure Time: The Complete Third Season

Art direction: Candice H.

All images found.