Redesign | Phineas, Ferb and Candace in Drawson Style

A long time ago I posted a funny little piece based on the Phineas and Ferb episode 'Split Personality', one of my all time favourites. I drew the children of the Flynn Fletcher family in the Drawson style and since then that style has changed fairly dramatically. So here they are with a new look!

The biggest improvement is with Candace Flynn, or one thing the Drawson style now has necks! Candace looks a lot more like her original self now. The colouring is pretty much the same since I've always had the right colours for her. I even added her weapon of choice, the mobile phone.

Phineas' only change except from the art style is the amount of stripes in his shirt. As for Ferb the clothing had been modified slightly to better resemble the official design around the collar. Truth be told, the reason Phineas is stood on a box is because he was actually drawn to be nearly the same height as Ferb, not by intention of course!

And of course the biggest difference is the addition of another character, here's Perry the Platypus! Perhaps the cutest platypus I've ever drawn!

It was lovely to draw these characters again, particularly in a more lighthearted manner than the humorously creepy Candace hunt that I reinterpreted the first time. Maybe I should start drawing more fictional characters in the Drawson style, I could make it a collection like the pop figures! We'll see if I can ever fit that into the schedule at some point.

Anne's Just Doing Her Job

Anne Natalie is best known for two things. One of them is fashion design, which is her hobby. The other, is her job as a model. This will vary from modelling for fashion magazines to being a live model for artists. Today you can see her doing the latter.

You thought you were going to get some nudity didn't you? Well sorry everyone, not today! Yes Anne is naked as most live models tend to be. Anne is very calm about being illustrated and is known to the local art schools for her services as a model.

I have never drawn Anne Natalie at this angle before, her head that is. It was quite a challenge to get her hair to be correctly positioned as is according to the rest of her depictions (I should've made a turn around sheet for her, these are things I really should start doing!), considering this I think I did her justice.

The rest is fairly simple, I do love the way the blankety texture turned out, underneath is two chairs, I think that comes across rather accurately. This might accidentally-ish be one of my better efforts at colour theory. All of the colours used are those of which either Anne or Droey bears in their design. Speaking of Droey, I almost couldn't fit him into this piece, but I had to make the effort otherwise this could've too easily been taken out of context!

Tomorrow you'll be seeing Anne Natalie again, as well as Droey, as well as the rest of the cast! What are they up to? You'll have to find out by coming back tomorrow!

Make It Train

I was going to call this 'Big World, Bigger Mistakes' but not only have we yet to see the future of Thomas (not that it would be any different from my original title) but I would also risk dealing with soccer moms, whatever you call them.

There is no doubt that all true Thomas fans know that we are headed for dark times, possibly darker than the late 2000s to early 2010s! There is no way that I could ignore this and I need to express my honest opinion about what to become of one of the longest standing children's franchises. So I'll divide this post into two sections, Below will be my discussion regarding my opinion on the future of Thomas, and further down will be my talking about this art piece.

Thomas the Doomed Engine

You've probably heard most of this before, but that's because it's pretty much the truth. What works for Barbie, does not work for Thomas. They are two separate entities and sending Thomas on a global journey, does not need to become the focus of the show! I wouldn't mind if it was just the movie, but it's the show itself, suffocating half of the episodes with trips overseas.

The laws of physics no longer apply, they haven't slipped the minds of the team, they have been disrespected. We saw this in the recent Thomas film where Thomas is light as a feather and able to shake about like a Jack in the box! As of this year, rail stock will be able to do sideways wheelies and throw the Fat Controller off his seat without killing him! Now I don't mind physically impossible things happening so long as it is done tastefully, Thomas the Jet Engine comes to mind, or the weight of trains making them wobble about, not dancing and depending on a mere barrel to save their lives!

The new characters are also a source of controversy, these being Nia and Rebecca. Nia's design is not so appealing; have an African engine join the cast by all means but Nia was not the answer. Additionally there appears to be no personality to her, she is the same as recently introduced Indian engine Ashima. We ere able to get rid of Bash, Dash and Ferdinand, I can so far see this happening to her.

The other newbie is Rebecca. Now I actually have hope for this character. The only thing that hinders her approval among fans is that she will be replacing either Edward or Henry. This is another controversial point, how Edward and Henry, two of three original characters are being neglected and pushed aside to satisfy those not happy with the already existing and probably better female characters. Edward is the original who started off the franchise, if there is ever to be a group of main characters, Edward automatically belongs in that group. As for Henry, he has been badly treated. I dare say that even Awdry himself hadn't realised the potential Henry has as an individual. I thought Mattel could develop Henry to fulfill that potential, but clearly that will not be the case.

The route of the problem, they aren't selling enough toys. The solution was obvious from the start, make better toys. For the past few years, their toy lines have become disproportionate and tackier. You need to see the Thomas and Friends Wood range as of 2017 to believe me. Don't tell me your children are happy to play with block of wood that haven't been fully painted at the price of ten to twenty pounds! If Mattel learned how to make toys for the Thomas and Friends franchise, toys that actually looked like the characters, they would be making a better profit and wouldn't be led to resort to this nonsense.

If anyone wishes to complain at me for what I have said, know that I am not against females, Africans (make that people from any country) or cartoony craziness that children love. But I am against something being warped into something is not, is one of the important life lessons we teach children is to 'be yourself'? Let Thomas the Tank Engine be himself.

About the Artwork

Like you saw in my piece about Stepney, I drew the characters in the My First Thomas style. It was fun to draw these characters, even Nia, in a way that parodied the promotional poster of the new steam team. I was happy to have Thomas running away from the newbies while Edward and Henry are struggling to keep up with the rest of the characters. The perspective by the way, did you know this is my freehand perspective? No rulers or anything involved!

The colouring was done with pastel markers and colour pencils. The highlights were from my white pen, as well as The Fat Controller and the money he is throwing. It was towards the end of this piece that I put together a starburst that resembled the Mattel logo and that's why the White pen was used to create the cutout of The Fat Controller. I drew him throwing his money in the 'make it rain' fashion since no doubt all of these wrong decisions are made with the intention of making more money.

That's pretty much it about this piece, I hope you liked it and that you didn't have any bursts of boredom what with me making my rant against the new show that Thomas has been shunted in to.

Ida, John and Lottie

Today we are focuses on some of the characters that make up the Droey and Co. collection. Here are returnees Ida Noe, John Espostio and a recent newcomer Lottie Line, who you may remember from earlier in the year.

Lottie has recently met Ida and they have discovered how they both have a love for learning, even if Ida takes it to the extreme! Lottie and Ida have decided to go to the library together and take some books, making a joint exploration of the world's knowledge. John sometimes goes to the library when he knows Ida is there, so that he can be found pretending to be interested in the most sophisticated looking books. 

Of course he'll always leave when she does, he has no other reason to be there. However today, he didn't count on her having a new friend with her. Lottie and Ida took an awful lot of books and we're glad to find John. He offered to help, trying to be the ladies man he thinks he is, only to be sentenced to carrying most of the books! Now all tee of them leave the library leaning something, John having learnt probably the most painful lesson out of the three!

Since I hadn't used them in a while, I decided to make use of my felt pens. For the most part I sucseeded in doing that, but there were some parts that just couldn't be matched up by the cheaper inks. I refer to Lottie and Ida's skin tones.

Now it's time for a little confession, thesis both genuine final result! When I was inking this piece, there was a mishap with one of the eyes (sorry Lottie!) and I used my white ink hoping to wipe the slate clean and start the eye again. However when I tried to apply to the correct ink, I found out you cannot actually mark anything on top of the white ink, thus leaving the section pale!

It's not that I don't like exposing my mistakes, I've willingly done that before; but the sight of the mistake was too off putting for me and I had to edit the eye to make it match, so it was merely for my satisfaction when looking at this piece. It's okay to make mistakes everyone, we learn from them!

Imaginary Friends - Mr Tibbles

In December we were blessed with a wonderful animation called 'Imaginary Friends', starring Tomska, Jaiden Animations, LetmeexplainStudios and TheOdd1sOut. I adored this short, it's plot twist was incredibly numerous and character designs were excellent. So excellent that I had to make some art based on the short.

Warning, spoilers ahead in my writing! If you don't want any surprises spoilt, please go and find the animated short on YouTube before you read this!

My focus was on Mr. Tibbles, the floating cat boy. I don't know if it was down to the originality of this character or the fact he was voiced by Jaiden Animations, but I was hooked on this guy. I also like crazy characters a little bit and with a dangerous imaginary friend helping him make bombs, it seems that Mr, Tibbles fits the bill.

I made use of my pastel and skin tone markers for this piece, as well as some pencil for the circle in the background and for Mr. Tibbles. I made sure that Mr. Tibbles stood out from the rest of the piece by having him illustrated from multiple media and having some shading, as well as a bolder outline. I think it works but maybe this piece is a little crowded. Lastly I got to use my white pen and such such a joy creating highlights with ease hopefully I didn't go overboard!

Again, if you haven't watched this video, I sr iously recomend that you do, you are bound to have a laugh about it! Just don't sing the bomb song!

Sailor Who

Animes are no stranger to their magical girls, perhaps the iconic one being Sailor Moon. And the BBC are no stranger to evil pepper pots armed with household utensils, thanks to time travelling Doctor Who. I was bored one day and came up with the reidiculous idea of merging the two shows together to form Sailor Who. In advance I apologise!

I intended to draw a few more Doctor Who characters in this but I decided on just the current doctor and a design for K9 that resembled the cat in Sailor Moon. The costume received a few small modifications to make the design look more Sailor Moon-esque which would include the gloves.

Additionally I redesigned the Sonic Screwdriver, taking a look at Sailor Moon's wand and various sonic screwdrivers that have existed throughout the years. The design I chose largely resembles one of the customisable sonic screwdrivers from the set of three released several years ago.

There's really not much else I can say about this piece, it was just a little experiment that I kind of made myself finish. No doubt someone out there has made a more elaborate take on this mashup, I did at least gain some knowledge of the Sailor Moon style and some excerise for my artistic skills. A better piece will come tomorrow I'm sure!

She Watched The Meteor

After the success of my first water colour piece in the sketchbook, it was time for a second round. Something a bit more challenging this time. The result is this wonderful piece based on some of my own writing. I won't be providing an extract or explaining where this comes from, but I will paint the picture for you regarding what is going on here.

So this girl is one of three siblings and they live alone in an abandoned facility. She is keeping watch while her younger sisters get some sleep, they can keep watch later on. She passes her time by making origami ninja stars and watching the never changing view, alone with her thoughts. Then suddenly a meteor can be seen falling to earth. She has possibly one of the best views man could of this golden rock that glows it's way down from the stars. She considers waking up her sisters in hopes that they will see it to but decides it's best to let them have their rest. So she keeps this magical moment to herself, wondering just where it came from and what it will look happen when it arrives.

I hope you enjoyed that summary of this illustration, maybe it helps to make the piece feel all the more beautiful.

I used the watercolour pencils before I applied any ink to the illustration. I know some artists try it this way and every so often I don't mind trying it for myself, seeing if I can get any better by doing it this way. While I have yet to succeed, it doesn't hurt to come back to this method. I have kept to only four colours for this piece; black, brown, purple and yellow.

It took a few references to get this masterpiece to be possible and I learnt a bit about drawing window frames, which will help with my more realistic illustrations. There is a bit of experimentation to this piece as well as some home comforts. It was enjoyable to make and the result, while not as tidy as the rest of my work, is still lovely to look at.

The Flood

Today we look back to the first watercolour piece in the sketchbook, a simple piece because I was not  sure how well the paper would cope with my watercolour pencils. Appropriately, given the medium, this one is about a flood.

Droey is doing his best to keep his phone from being waterlogged so they could still communicate. Anne was wearing a rain mac that she designed herself, but she never intended for this amount of water! As for John, well he's making the best of a bad situation, in a way that seems way too at ease!

I coloured the floodwater and a background so as to test the water colour pencils and while the paper certainly buckled, it held the colours well enough and didn't bleed the colours through so badly. There was only one blip with the inking which you can probably notice if you look at one of Anne's lashes. Asides from that, this experiment turned out to be a success and the result is a charming little artwork.

Bluebells Forever

We are headed for the spring season so here's something to put a spring in your step! A lovely bit of fan art for a locomotive well associated with flowers of a certain kind.

I have always had a great fondness for this particular engine. I had a VHS tape with an episode featuring him, his last major role in the series in fact, and this is how I discovered Stepney. I also used to collect a range of battery operated toys from Thomas and Friends, Stpeney was the first of that collection. So there is quite a sentimental value held to this character and yet I have never met the real deal, I'll wait until he's repainted back into this colour scheme.

I like to draw my trains in the style of the 'My First Thomas' toy line, a style which with a little more detail was used in many of their books for the youngest audience. Stepney has in fact been drawn in this style before, you can find him in the annual story 'Donald and Douglas' but I don't think he was done justice, so here he is how I think he should've looked.

A couple of days work paid off for the most part, I have never actually drawn Stepney before up until this point and I am glad to make such a fine first attempt at him. My only problem is his face, unfortunately the lower half of his face was drawn completely out of perspective and I didn't even realise until I was almost done with the line art, by which point it was too late.

With that in mind, I would do this again and make sure he is without flaws in perspective. But on the plus side the colouring is some of the finest I have ever done! I used my pastel markers for a base layer and then added pencil shading over the top, my favourite method. I only wish I had taken a picture of Stepney while he only had pen ink on him, so you could see how much of a difference it makes. My white pen was used to write his name, number and add his steam effects and shine.

Hopefully you all had a good winter and now we can enjoy the spring. Expect more good quality content coming soon!