Condiments for Droey and Co.

Drkey and Co. are fairly diverse, but there's not that much you know about them at this point. One matter I heard being discussed was what condiments would be used with everyone's food. It got me wondering what condiments Droey and Co. would favour and so I made this.

I've drawn eight of the characters in a very chibi style. Each of them grouped up to a condiment that would be considered their favourite; although there are two exceptions. I like a few condiments but my favourite is undoubtedly Ketchup. For Anne I decided her favourite would be Pepper, I've never really known anyone to favour salt or pepper above the rest. John's favourite is the man's source, HP sauce. As for Ida, she doesn't know which one she loves most!

Here are the two exceptions; Tenvad and Agrius. Tenvad doesn't consume food at all so she would just take a battery. Agrius was hoping to open a jar of Mustard, but it turned out to be a prank. Quaid, like myself loves his gravy but Quaid loves it most. Lastly there's Mac and his Mayonaise.

So let me know what you think of these chibi designs (don't worry, they won't replace the official designs) and what else you might like to know about the characters of Droey's Draws. I can't promise answers to everything but I'll answer what I can about these characters.

Shunting Trucks!

So I was having a watch at a few of the videos on Daily Jazza, vlog channel to Draw With Jazza. I discover a video of Jazza watching Thomas and Friends with his son and he is able to point something out in the engine roll call. They really do sing the line Shunting Trucks like it was a curse word!

I have the hopes for this to now be Jazza's official curse word, so here I have drawn him working with the monkey avatar to construct his famous Jazza Axe. However a part of it has fallen on Jazza's foot!

In all honesty, there was a creative struggle fighting me at the time of making this. I was on the brink of a burn out but I'm good now. Sadly this piece suffered the most but afterwards I was over the worst of my block. I luckily do not actually succumb to any art block, it was just a matter of making myself create stuff. I've got my methods to ensure blocks and burn outs are highly unlikely to happen so don't expect any problems soon!

Muttony!

You heard the title right, Muttony!

So my younger brother has never heard of the word mutiny and he asks if it is something to do with Sheep! Thus came the birth of 'Muttony', I couldn't pass up the chance to put together a little scene to illustrate his theory.

This started off as simply being a Sheep sent to walk the plank. But it became a little more creative as time went on. For a laugh I decided to add some vegetables in the sea like the sea below would be a lamb dinner, waiting for it's lamb. That's why the sea is now a pool of gravy. As I was giving the piece it's colour I thought to myself, why not go a little further? Now the boat is more like a gravy pot and it's deck a patch of grass to make the Sheep feel a bit more at home.

In hindsight, I should have done more to diversify the Sheep than give them different colours. I know there are some minor differences like eyes, a bandana and a beard. But I'm thinking we could have had a Ram or a young Lamb? Doing more like that might have given our Sheep crew a bit more universal appeal. I could have also tried to make a Shark out of something but I was at a loss for what to do there. Adding a real Shark would have spoiled the creativity somewhat, it would not be fitting amongst the gravy and veg.

This was a good opportunity to return to my watercolour pencils. I have not been using them so much lately since the sketchbook I work in has paper less strong than the previous, thus water colour illustrations really go for the habit of buckling. But I have got some watercolour paper for rarer occasions, which will bring about the use of water coloured pencils. Perhaps it'll be a chance for me to improve my watercolour skills, I feel there is some untapped potential with my equipment but I'm sure to find out in time.

Sector V in Drawson Style

So one of the greatest Cartoon Network shows of all time is Codename Kids Next Door. My first episode was Minigolf, but many years later I sought to watch the entirety of the show and have sucseeded. I have since actually created artwork based on this franchise a few times before. You'll kind a pretty accurate Kuki Sanban and a Sonic the Hedgehog style Nigel Uno. Today you get to see the whole of Sector V on my behalf for the first time ever!

I have rearely drawn any kids in the Drawson style before. The exceptions to the rule would be Phineas, Ferb and the PowerPuff Girls (who I should consider redoing). I tackled the most famous group of trouble making kids to excerise youthful proportions. I believe this excersise had paid off.

Without a doubt the easiest of these to create was Kuki Sanban, as a character design I consider her close to perfect; not because her hands are concealed by her sweater! I also had an easy time working with Nigel and Abigail, who has made me reconsider the way I draw my hats! Hoagie was rather difficult, but I think I was able to make it work for him. You probably can't notice it since he's at the back but maybe I'll draw all five of these separately.

I tried my best to convert these characters to the Drawson style but it wasn't a walk in the park. Their designs are partly the inspiration to the Drawson style and certain elements of these character were so distinct like their head shapes that if I allowed them all to keep features from their official designs I would fail to transfer them to my style completely. I think compromise came best with Wallabe who keeps the rugby ball shaped head and gains the big eyes. Kuki would probably have these but as you can see she's overjoyed as she grabs hold of Wallabe.

Also if you're wondering what kind of Ice cream Abigail is licking, well you should have watched the show; then you might get it! Well that's all about this little piece, come back again for more art soon!

Droey and Co play cards

In the last of my school years, I was among a small group of gentlemen who would pass their time with card games. For the most part I was the supplier and we would play a handful of games wherever we could (friendly games, we never gambled). In honour of those memories, I have put together the entire cast of Droey's Draws for the favourite of those card games. This was made before Lottie was introduced to the cast, hence her unfortunate exclusion.

Everyone has gotten themselves dressed up and headed down to the casino. They are now playing their game and paying the price. Tenvad has placed a fair bit of money once again, nobody has thought to tell her that everyone can see her cards! Droey and Quaid are in suspense more so than Ida who worries for John, having just opted out, he's got nothing else to bet.

Anne Natalie is looking at Droey's cards and is positive that this game is his to win! Quaid has had to resort to betting his car while Mac brings out the last of the money they brought. Meanwhile Agrius has decided to disturb the game with a trick he has kept up his sleeve, quite literally! Will be cause confusion and chaos for the players?

This piece took a couple of days to create and was originally going to have just three characters. However the other characters got a bit involved and it led to the entire cast getting involved in this scene. The only one to be unchanged in design is Tenvad, while everyone else is dressed for the casino. It was lovely to draw all of the characters together like this, in what felt like a lively environment.

It was a bit of a pain to draw Agrius' helmet, but this is the last piece in which this design of helmet makes an appearance. You'll also notice that Agrius has lost a couple of arms, don't worry, they'll be back. I took the liberty of using a random card selector to make sure all of the cards were unique (although I made liberties for when creating Agrius' pack since it was a separate pack). The Ace of spades is the only intentionally repeated card as the two in Anne Natalie's hair are fake, designed specifically as hair accessories.

Like I said earlier, this was such a fun piece to put together and I am eager to draw the entire cast together again. They'll be doing something different next time, since the only genuine difference in these pieces would be the addition of Lottie Line. I hope you look forward to seeing these characters again, because you'll be seeing more of them in future!

Practice Is Handy

On this occasion I find myself practicing hands, since I don't want to risk getting sloppy with them. I have had some concern about my hands so it's time to fight that.

Thankfully I discovered a couple of videos, one of which is a hand tutorial and the other is a sketching video. I sought to attempt hand poses I had not tried before or knew I would need to work on, but first I would get my practice from the tutorial video. I learnt the great tip about how the fingers should all align with the wrist ball as is seen of the hand furthest right.

I have marked which hands were drawn by highlighting the right hands in blue and the left hands in green. I did aim to draw the same amount of each hand but such was not the case in the end. For the most part, the hand were rather correct but there were two that I felt did not meet up to the standards of the rest of them.

Towards the end of this excersise I decided it would be a good idea to also attempt hands in the Drawson style, since the blog's O.C.s are drawn in said style and their hands would have to be adapted to fit that style.

If you ever find that your skills are getting rusty, sketching it out is always the best way around it. Try not to care so much about the sketch when you are making it otherwise you'll be too focuses to make what you sketching worth it's practice. We do sketches in order to improve our masterpieces, so go as quick and as casually as you like!

Comic Strip | Need Some I.D.

Inspired by real experiences, I created this humorous little comic strip about those dedicated cashiers who know how to belittle their customers. Enjoy!

I've had this in the works for a fair bit, having finally seen to it. We've got our cashier who simply doesn't care about customer satisfaction; nor does he have a clue how to tell how old someone is and what products require an I.D. card.

This was a great opportunity to use my landscape markers since most of them are rather dark and desaturated, allowing the cashier and the products on the till to stand out well enough. Have you looked closely at the champagne bottle, did you notice how it's design is a reference to a superhero?

I hope you enjoyed this read, and yes this is very similar to things that have actually happened to me before! More quality art to come so stick around!

Character Reboot - Meet Agrius Moth!

Last summer I designed a intimidating looking villain whose gimmick was of the moth. He made a second appearance in the 100th blog post and a third very recently in the Droey and Co. playing cards piece, this was his transition to becoming official as a Droey and Co. character. Now his design is finalised and he finally has a name and more!

So this is Agrius Moth, an antagonist in the world of Droey's Draws. He isn't quite as diabolical as he makes out to be, all of his threats and promises are just for show. He likes to think he is the biggest threat to the world as the most evil villain, and will insist on being the bad guy even though really he is just a little nuisance.

Speaking of nuisance, I had to change his helmet, I loved the look of the former helmet but the two horns were too difficult to draw at various angles, so I altered them to look more like antenna like you see on a moth, which suits him better giving his more pantomime villain style over the scary villain. To add to that, he now has a pony tail which might add a fair bit of humour to his confrontations!

I considered removing his second set of arms, as you can see in his previous appearance he only had the one set of arms! But when I was able to work them into a body type without making Agrius look disproportionate, I was overjoyed to keep them, Having the extra arms will offer met more potential with his poses, making him more liable to experimentation than any of my character yet! Though like the original design, only the upper arms are gloved. I have also simplified Agrius' belt buckle.

His villain name, 'The Convolvulus Hawk' comes from the type of moth he is based on. Agrius was created when a Hawkmoth flew into my window, and I was able to find the type of moth that I think invade my home. This is where his first name and his villain name come from, the Agrius Convolvulus Hawkmoth. At least I think that's right, you've got the puzzle pieces there so I assume you can work it out.

Droey Drawson Is A Daddy!

Leave off Marlene, the baby's brown!

If you don't understand the reference I made just then, I highly recommend to you the sitcom Only Fools And Horses. You'll find the particular moment in the first Season 5 episode.

However this piece is not based on that sit com, this is merely a coincidence. The real source for this piece comes from a picture of me in my early teens with a classmate. We were in personal development class and she was holding one of the dummy babies, we had a picture together and looking back I can't help but notice that the baby was a skin tone neither of us shared! Quite the family photo wouldn't you agree?

I won't be showing the original photo for reasons of discretion but if you're reading this, you know who you are mother of my baby wrapped in blue! By now he's probably in school, he better be behaving!

Okay so all humour aside, this was a fun little recreation with my own spin out on it while I did my best to keep the baby as accurate as possible. The couple are not intended to be our real selves and instead just a random couple who might exist somewhere in the Droeyverse... I really need to come up with a good name for Droey's home. So sorry about the slightly click bait-sequel title but come on, it's April Fools everyone! I didn't crack a joke last year so I had to make up for it!

Enjoy the rest of your chaotic day and you'll see more art from me in the next week.