PowerPuff Ducks

Yes you read that right.

This month saw the return of Ducktales, said to be one of Disney's biggest television successes for cartoons. Ducktales was before my time so I never actually knew about it, but did know of some of the characters as they appeared in an old favourite of a PlayStation game 'Donald Duck's Quack Attack'. Naturally upon hearing about it's reboot I was intrigued.

I didn't quite expect myself to take such a huge interest in the reboot as I did. I respect the original version by all means but I must say I favour this modernization of the cartoon. It feels like one of the few reboots that actually works! (yes that might sound rich since I haven't seen the original TV series)

From what I have seen so far, I do love the revamp and applaud it's efforts. So much so that fan art (of sorts) already exists. I was thinking of a way to inspire myself to draw Huey, Dewey and Louie. And then it strangely came to me, don't draw Huey, Dewey and Louie. Draw the PowerPuff Girls!

And there you have it. The PowerPuff Girls cosplaying as the Quack Pack. This was a genuine joy to recreate and I don't know why I hadn't done it sooner than I have. I tried to stick to three colours with this piece but I can't stand inaccuracies and so had to colour Blossom's eyes pink.

Out of the three I think Bubbles turned out best, not that I didn't like how the other two turned out. Which one do you think cosplayed best and would you ever be interested in seeing Webby perhaps force her nephews into cosplaying the PowerPuff Girls?

Mr. Who | Sketch Dump And More

Here's something a bit more lively than my usual activities, here are some sketches from almost a month ago! I'll be explaining each one from top left to bottom right.

Before we begin, I might as well come out with it. Yes I'm thinking of writing a mini-series as a spin-off to the book series. Maybe it'll become a thing, maybe it won't but I reckon I'm onto something good here.

We start off with poor Mr. Sneeze who is going through the Cyber Conversion process. One of the stories being drafted does involve the Cybermen and so I picked a random (and less advertised) Mr. Man to be drawn as a work in progress Cyberman. Although due to future stories, I might not have Mr. Sneeze go through this, it would be rather funny to see him become a Cyberman, particularly since he does not have arms, would that make him compatible in their eyes?

The next sketch depicts how Mr. Bump (a chosen companion to Dr. Foruth) might join the TARDIS Team. Let's be honest it's got to be some kind of accident and his bandages are often a plot device that lead to his mishaps. This is partly inspired by Captain Jack's reunion with The Doctor in 'Utopia' where he hangs onto the TARDIS as it travels through the vortex.

If anyone is wondering what that small sketch of the TARDIS and a house is, that's a nod to the episode 'Mr. Nonsense Rows To The Moon'. For those who don't remember this episode, Mr. Nonsense actaully rows his house to the moon. I don't know if the laws of Dr. Who could allow this to happen but if it could, then I think this would be a bit more interesting than the Diner TARDIS driven by Clara and Me.

Beneath that one is Anthony Ainley's 'The Master' as depicted by Adam Hargreaves for the Dr. Men books (I'm predicting Dr. Seventh). Beside him is my draft for the Roger Delgado incarnation of The Master. I'm not sure if I did his hair justice though.

Personally I find this the highlight of the whole page!

This colourful piece here is a selfie of the TARDIS Team. For this I am referring to Dr. Fourth, Sarah Jane, Mr. Bump and 'Mr. K9' who has learnt how to hold a phone and take a picture with it. As far a selfies go (drawing them anyway) I am really happy with this one. I think I was able to capture everyone's characteristics on point. I was also able to place some cameos into this picture to make it look like a lively day at the park. I couldn't layer my ink so much with this peice but if I could I would have made the camera flash a bit more obvious, hence Mr. Bump's agony.

Beneath that is a sketch of Mr. Bump at the mercy of Dale The Dalek. When out of options, what else can you do other than offer a jelly baby for peace?

This here is concept art for what can either be taken as a Mr. Men character or a Mr. Who villain. This one is named Mr. Ringmaster. I gave him matching shoes to Dr. Eleventh, and a ring shaped body for obvious reasons. Yes he is carrying a whip which would probably not be a part of his design if he was a Mr. Men character, this will be used to assert his villainy should he appear in Mr. Who.

I don't often design my own Mr. Men, simply because it takes the mind of a Hargreaves to turn any word into one of their colourful family but this was an enjoyable design process. Even though the design stuck to one appearance for the most part.

The last sketch is the TARDIS Team doing one of the most important things required to be a member of such. Running.

I hope you like these sketches, and have possibly grown an interest for the Mr. Who idea.  It won't be sketches on my next post, so if you're not into sketches so much you won't be dissapointed.

The Alphabet Challenge | Q

Q is for Harley Quinn?

Sorry, nobody with Q really spoke out to me so I sort of cheated with this one.

You'll notice that I haven't necessarily drawn Harley Quinn but instead have drawn a playing card, 'The Quinn of Diamonds'? I figured since The Joker sometimes holds playing cards to introduce himself that Harley Quinn should have her own card to follow in suit *ahem* with her Mr. J.

So I grabbed my pack of playing cards and look at the picture cards to see how I could paste Harley Quinn into the frame. I knew I would have to design this so that it flawlessly would be symmetrical whichever way you looked at the card.

Granted this piece could have had a bit more detail but the simplicity of Harley Quinn's costume made it difficult to add anything in the sections left bare and black, hence my decision to add a diamond pattern much like that on her costume towards the bottom left of each side.

Colouring this card was a simple move, as the red and black were commonly used colours on playing cards anyway, in fact I don't know a pack which doesn't use those colours. The picture cards I have use blue to outline their picture cards, hence the use of blue outline on my Harley Quinn card.

Overall I think this is one of the more interesting addition to the Alphabet Challenge, unconventional in every way. Funny thing is, it wasn't going to turn out like this and I was going to just draw Harley Quinn with my own spin on the costume design, but when sketching it didn't really work out. Here, allow me to enlighten you on some of my humility by showing it you.

Have you seen the letter P? If not you can check it out via my page for the 'Alphabet Challenge' as well as previous entries. Look out for R coming soon!

Mr. Who Character Poster

Or as canonically titled by Adam Hargreaves, the Dr. Men.

So it's probably old news by now but the Mr. Men and Doctor Who have an agreement which will see 12 books published which tells the tales of each doctor in the format of a Mr. Men story, and art style of course.

I in the last month was able to purchase all four current books. I have to say that even back in the days when I would collect Mr. Men books I had never been so hyped for these newcomers. I enjoyed all of them (but on a critical note was a little disappointed reading Dr. Twelfth) and was impressed with how Adam Hargreaves handled the cast and material of Doctor Who, not to say that the BBC didn't have any input with the stories most probably.

Now I love both the worlds of Doctor Who and Mr. Men, I also love drawing characters. It's fairly obvious what was to come and so with my own additions to the cast, this was created.

TARDIS illustrated by Adam Hargreaves

I couldn't resist drawing these characters and adding my own spin to this alternative reality, by adding actual elements from Mr. Men into this universe. First of, for each Doctor, a Mr. Man or Little Miss would be added to the cast as a travel companion, in this case Mr. Bump. Making a monster out of the Mister Men is not an easy task, but luckily Cartoon Network's 'The Mr. Men Show', created a sketch about a film titled 'Gamma Goo From Planet Nine', starring Little Miss Scary as Dementicon. This is now adapted into the Mr. Whoniverse by making Dementicon an actual alien invader rather than Little Miss Scary in costume.

This piece saw me select already existing villains from the Dr. Men series to appear alongside Dr. Fourth in this poster. Most of them had made an appearance alongside Tom Baker's Doctor, most noteably The Daleks, who appear in the same book as Dr. Fourth. Of all Daleks, the obvious choice was Dale, I do hope we haven't seen the last of him; I know we won't see such but perhaps he would end up in the Dalek Asylum. Associated with the Daleks and introduced in Tom Baker's era is Davros. I think it would be criminal not to include Davros in something Tom Baker related. I gave Davros the rarely used rectangular body identical to Mr. Grumpy and like Dr. Twelfth, gave him a prominent nose.

Zygons only ever did appear alongside Tom Baker until their return for the 50th anniversary special, it made sense to include them in the poster. And although Anthony Ainley's incarnation of The Master did not appear until the final season of Dr. Fourth's run, I doubt that despite the mentions of 'Death' and 'Extermination', Adam Hargreaves would get away with including The Master's rather deformed incarnation.

The Cybermen were an unusual case. They appeared in 'Dr. First', although did not match the designs of The Tenth Planet (William Hartnell's only episode with the Cybermen). They better resembled the Cybermen of Patrick Troughton's era, so it makes me wonder if they would be expected to appear like this to all Doctors or if it was simply a design choice made out of personal preference. I should like to think there are several designs scattered across the cosmos (and will probably interpret them) but for the sake of their similarity to the 'Invasion Cybermen', I'll allow Patrick Troughton like Cybermen to appear alongside Tom Baker's.

And now we come to what people will probably agree to be a pleasant surprise, Sutekh the destroyer! One of my favourite Tom Baker episodes and classic villains. While he might be a bit intimidating for Misterland, I could not leave him out.

The final addition was K9 the robot dog, which made his iconic debut in the days of Tom Baker and even stayed with Sarah Jane Smith, thus his reintroduction to modern Whovians in 'School Reuinion'.

I had drawn all of these characters traditionally but when it came to giving this artwork life via Photoshop, I wanted to put the TARDIS in somewhere. So on this rare occasion an illustration from Dr. First was sample and the TARDIS was given minor tweaks to fit in with the rest of the illustration. Also in the background is Gallifrey, though toned down so the characters can stand out better.

There was a lot of fun to be had with adding effects to this piece, most of which were done using a radial gradient tool. Several areas were given a rather neon glow and then in the back the stars were made the same way, as well as Gallifrey.

This is by far one of the most beautiful things Doctor Who or Mr. Men related that I have ever created and there is more to come, although not up to this standard you will be seeing more of these characters in the future... or maybe the past?

'Risen Like A Phoenix' Character Design Reincarnated

Almost ten years ago, I had recently become a Whovian and was trying to make my own Doctor Who paraphernalia, as I began teaching myself animation. There was this two part serial that played out similar to 'The Daleks' from 1963, set on a cruise ship sailing over either a sun or planet which was mostly magma. Allow me to introduce you to the monster behind this story.

It was actually a friend of mine who came up with this creature, which I created the story and environment for. I only translated the monster into the art style suitable for animating the creature. Although these monsters, of which appeared in two stories, were popular and one of two villains remembered after the series' cancellation, none of the source material remains. All there was is memory of the monster which has now been re-imagined for the pleasure of viewing on this blog post.

And now something that the artists might like to read about, this also (excluding the use of black for the eye) is somewhat a three colour challenge. Using the fiery colours of Yellow, Orange and Red. I was aiming to apply a fiery background to this piece but I feared that all anyone might see is just a fiery blur with red patches here and there.

No Art This Week

Sorry guys, but I'm absent this week and so there's no art to post. I don't access to my blog where I'm at right now so it's not that I'm taking a break, it's that I won't be able to put any work up.

I assure you however that next week I will return to normality and post as usual. Hope you guys don't mind waiting for an extra week, see you Friday!

The Alphabet Challenge | P

P is for Piggley Winks

There were a few possibilities for P, but I soon came the choice of someone who was a rather popular character in his time, at least where I lived. I have known a few humanoid pigs in my time, Miss Piggy, Huxley Pig, Paxton the Pig from a Shaun The Sheep spin off 'Timmy Time' but this particular pig was one I got to see a lot of and had a great deal of charm. Ladies and gentleman, in a way he is the only kids character I know to get away with naming his show after and having the catphrase of 'Jesus' (seriously, look it up in 'Jakers!'), it's Piggley!

Jakers was a formulated show (although the formula was flexible) in which during the present Piggley is a grandfather who is telling the stories to his grandchildren to apply the lessons he learnt in his childhood to their present day situations. It's also apparent the grandchildren can tell when Piggley is exaggerating in one of his stories.

During his own childhood, we get to see the adventurous and mischievous Piggley Winks and his friends getting up to all sorts of shenanigans while either trying to accomplish something or learn a lesson that allows them to grow as people... or animals, I suppose. There was also the B-Plot starring Wiley the Sheep, a rather advanced sheep compared to his peers as he led them in their own simpler adventures that would often coincide with Piggley's.

I was a bit pressed for time when it came to making this, as I've had to be preparing for a week attending to other matters. But I knew I wanted both present and past Piggley to be involved so I first worked on the elderly incarnation which would act as the silhouette in the backdrop, a reminder of what is to come for the young Piggley, who would be oblivious to his future.

Since I haven't done it since I did 'G' in the Alphabet Challenge, I decided to bring back the Drawson style but modify it for the anatomy of a pig. I think I made him too tall in his young age. Oh well.

I have also returned to the use of coloured pencils, which worked best on his jumper. A combination of three colours allowed me to get the right base layer and then the details of his jumper, which looking back on this piece are my favourite element. His skin tone turned out alright as well, using a combination of pink and peach. The nose however might be a bit too much of the bright pink rather than the faded red. Overall I think this entry was a bit of a hit and miss.

Have you seen the letter O? If not you can check it out via my page for the 'Alphabet Challenge' as well as previous entries. Look out for Q coming soon!

Flashback : Sonic The Hedgehog Designs

I was looking through my picture folders and came across a folder that for the most part I had forgotten about. For about two years these pictures have sat collecting dust and I doubt I'll be doing anything special with them, although the idea was nice at the time.

So allow me to introduce to you some designs I had in mind for iconic characters from Sonic The Hedgehog, as well as info regarding what could've been a more serious toned series of adventures for him.

Please note that the characters are tracings of pre-exisitng footage/promos of characters which have been modified, simply for the purpose of references when making illustrations based on such designs.

Sonic Maurice Hedgehog

Now Sonic, kind of wasn't. This was actually going to be the descendant of the original Sonic The Hedgehog that we all know and love. This Sonic kept himself to himself and didn't speak much. He also felt shame for having yet to match the abilities his father had, such as to run over water or reach the speed of sound.

You may also notice that Sonic has his ascot like in Sonic Boom, only it has been coloured red to suit his colour scheme better. I like his Boom design but the random brown accessory is rather off-putting I find.

Tails 'Miles' Prowler

What can I saw about Tails? So little was changed about him. The only real modifications I made to him with giving him a new set of gloves, I believe more reminiscent to his Sonic Boom counterpart and the addition of his belt, again from Sonic Boom. But I didn't go full out Boom and decided to leave out the goggles, he doesn't need to be that obviously techy.

Knuckles The Echidna

Knuckles remains mostly as his original form does, and his fur now matches the deeper shade of red from his original video game appearances. I also made his body larger in proportion to his head and buffed him out, but within reason so that it doesn't look over the top. Be honest, did you notice the size difference before I pointed it out?

Amy Rose Hedgehog

Now it goes without saying I have always been entertained by Amy's character, but Sonic Boom perfected her. Their use of Sonamy is probably the best thing about the show. Anyway, this design is mostly original Amy, but she now has a dress design similar to her Boom counterpart, but styled as her more traditional red dress. In this concept I intended for Sonic and Amy to be a thing for a while, but for it to be revealed they were actually siblings separated at birth, thus undoing the relationship. They'd still remain friends and all, and Sonic would move on to someone else over time, I think. But that I shan't say until I reveal more designs to you, that is if you'd like to see more.

As I pointed out on Knuckles' design, his colours match those from his original video game appearance. The same can be said for all of these designs here. That is except from Amy, whose pink and possibly her skin tone are the only matching colours (given that her original video game appearance was a very different design). Amy's red and gold are a match to Sonic's, allowing a sense of uniformity which given the concept suited for these two.

If anyone wants to put these ideas to use then be my guest, it would be nice to see how they turn out when given a bit of work. Let me know if you liked any of these ideas or design elements and if you would like to see more interpretations (no I won't be making any by request, this is a showcase of old work). I have a few more designs that would be of interest so I do hope you are up for seeing some more.

What Almost Was

A few weeks ago, I started something that was going to be fantastic. But I think I spent too long working towards it, hence not actually finishing it. Today I am going to show you the sketches that were building up to a little poster featuring six iconic characters.

This is my favourite of the character designs featured in the project. There was a fair amount of historical influence on this character, and giving her a Snow Owl, one of the deadliest birds, was a lovely touch. I even liked this design so much that I messed around with her face a bit! You may also notice some German fashion taking influence on this character. Can you guess who this is?

Also note that body drawing with the arrow on the top right was actually a thumbnail sketch for my Jodie Whittaker's Doctor Who.

http://droeysdraws.blogspot.co.uk/2017/07/doctor-who-doctor-jodie.html

This one has wintery powers and is able to control snow and ice matter. I took a rather royal approach with this character as she was going to be the leader of the group, you could say she was the queen. There was little I could go on for this character design other than royal clothing, winter wear and original drawings of the character she is based on. I think it's fairly obvious who this one is.

Sadly this is where I gave up. And given the film I had just recently seen, I expected to be extremely motivated to draw this one. I took beautiful french models and tried to combine them with almost demonic looking beasts, favouring the furry kind of course. I was going for a cross between the Jekyl and Hyde or Beast Boy sort of character with this one. A beautiful concept it would have been but alas it just didn't happen. Now I'll be surprised if you didn't get this one. Let's have a look at what this was all building up to shall we?

It still looks beautiful despite not being completed and I really wish I was able to motivate myself to finish this and make the rest of the designs to be as appealing. In all honesty though, I think I wore all of my creativity out on the first design.

Have you guessed who these characters are based on yet? Allow me to introduce you to a Superhero take on the famous females associated with the Disney Princess lineup! (I know, Elsa is not a princess but her reasons is what made me include her as their leader).

I bet now you know who those designs were I'm sure. Let me know if you can guess who the other three are, I'll tell you now only one of the unfinished designs does not reside in the Disney Princess lineup.