Go John, Go!

I felt like drawing John so I decided to draw John, that's about it really.

John works for his family's pizzeria so I should show it more, and this is a step towards that. John's on one of his delivery rounds going as fast as he can. He's most likely in a rush to get out of work for get the pizza there warm!

I used my crayola pens for this one, except for the background. I thought about using the colours to allude to a speed effect and so went from the luminous yellow in a gradient pattern towards red. While there are more conventional ways to portray speed I think this abstract choice suited for the medium I was using.

Do you have any OCs that work? Have a go at drawing them whilst they're doing their work, it's something to give a try.

3 Colour Challenge based Character Design

When you're not sure what to draw, try an art challenge! I decided to return to the 3 colour challenge and this is what happened.

My colours were raspberry, a very pale cream and blue. Nothing was coming to mind initially so I looked up colour meanings which gave me some key words to work with and allowed me to resort to creating this french looking gentleman. Its funny how he's come out looking like the Pringle man!

Some of the areas of this character design relied on multiple colours. This was to prevent anything from blending with the other elements, though I only used this to it's full effect on the face to give the man a dark purple hair colour, which helps draw attention to the character's face. The rest of the colour mixing was used to add shading to various elements.

What art challenges should I try next? Feel free to comment some suggestions or contact me through any of my social media, I'm interested to hear your suggestions.

When Agrius Stormed Area 51

The Area 51 meme was such a big thing in 2019, here's the artwork that was released on YouTube to coincide with this meme.

There was a lot I wanted to do with this piece. I was thinking of having characters rushing towards Area 51 initially, and then of characters in Area 51, caught up in all sorts of madness. Then my third and used idea was to have a couple of characters trying to get away while Alien chaos is unleashed on the world.

This idea of the chaotic results caused by Area 51 again had a lot that was left undone. There were multiple mechanical/extra-terrestrial entities that I wanted to involve but in the end you can see I just decided to have one large robot walking over the mountains in the distance. Meanwhile, breaking down the barriers is a UFO that has been commandeered by Agrius Moth and Collin Cloud.

When I was colouring this piece, I chose colours that were close to the environment of Area 51's dessert but they came out very saturated. To compensate for this, I used only black and light grey to colour the characters and props which allowed enough contrast for them to stand out.

And now it seems the Area 51 meme can finally die in peace. Normally I don't do much involving meme culture but this one was pretty difficult to resist. Feel free to watch the video of this artwork being produced!

Tonic The Warthog

Sonic the Hedgehog is perhaps Sega's most famous icon and there are a ton of Sonic OCs created by the fans, seemingly to the point where a Sonic game was created with a gimmick in reference to this! As shown on YouTube some time ago, I am no longer without a Sonic OC and in this post I'll talk more about Tonic the Warthog.

I can't remember how I resorted to the idea that would be a play on words with 'Tonic Water' but once the idea came to my head I stuck with it. The only things at this point that would be set in stone where the character's name and species. Warthogs have appeared in a few pieces of Sonic media, from the SATAM cartoon to Sonic Boom, all with differing styles. I ended up following the Boom design closely for the head as this was what seemed closest to the Sonic the Hedgehog style we're all familiar with.

I wanted to make the character design look tastefully cringey but I think I worked too hard on the design, darn my perfectionism! The design was given some asymmetry since a lot of the OC designs tended to do this; thus led to Tonic's water glove which he can use to work with his aquatic powers. I decided to give him water based powers as a reference to the source of inspiration for his design (Tonic Water).

In the end I think this design is way past cool! Nah actually I think it's okay, it's not bad and I don't think it's amazing, just good enough to exist in the Sonic universe. Have you got any Sonic OCs or do you lack any? If you already had one you can always draw them again and see if you can make them look any cooler, or if you don't have one you can give it a shot. Have fun seeing how great or cingey you can make them!

Lexi's Soggy Crocs

It's been raining heavily lately, which is very unfortunate for Lexi and her crocs!

Gary and Lexi have been out today despite the rain, wearing their rainy day clothes- mostly. Lexi likes her crocs and so even though she put on her rain mac, the crocs remained on her feet. Gary advised her not to wear them in the rain but Lexi didn't listen. After a short walk to the shop where they do their weekly shopping Lexi realized that both her crocs and her feet were soaked right through! Despite drying them a couple of times, the crocs were beyond saving and no longer any good to Lexi. Poor Gary had to deal with her sulking all evening. The next day saw better weather and Lexi was out and about as normal again, but in another pair of crocs!

This is a watercolor illustration I did by applying the colour before the lineart. This gave me a better job of keeping the colour within the lines. It's ironic though that this time the watercolour did not bleed through the lines marked with pencil and thus I didn't actually need to alter the outline to fit the colouring!

This will also be the last illustration to feature Lexi's original design, as she has a new look which I think suits her much better! So look forward to that and enjoy the weather, don't get your crocs too wet!