Sunday Sketches -- Halloween Edish (D)

If I love anything where reading is concerned, it's a good theme/marathon/series, so when it came time to choose some seasonal reading this Halloween I decided to re-read/read some of the classic monster literature. It was interesting to read the source material for so very many famous stories and characters and movie adaptations to know the true literary origins (and to note just how far dramatized/cinematic versions can sometimes stray from the originals, while sometimes staying surprisingly faithful in some ways).

So now, I present character sketches from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (review here):

... Bram Stoker's Dracula (review here):

... and Guy Endore's The Werewolf of Paris (review here):

I had read both Frankenstein and Dracula in my teenage years, and enjoyed them (probably a little more than I did this time around), but I had never even heard of this Werewolf of Paris thing.  I read it mostly because it reportedly does for werewolves what Dracula does for vampires, and it was the closest I could discover was the "literary origin" of the werewolf character.  It was pretty interesting, but at times surprisingly unsettling, though that probably shouldn't have been that surprising.

As a side note, these were also suitable reading for our recent Mediterranean cruise.  They just seemed so European, and covered so many countries and even continents.

Happy Halloween*, everyone!



* And remember, it's pronounced "Hallow-een", not "Hollow-een".  Just one of my favorite seasonal pet peeves.

Sunday Sketches -- Thomas the Third (D)

As I continue my epic Year of Hardy, I have another round of characters from the next three books (previous posts here and here have art from the first six novels).  Here are a few drawings that were done on Sundays from August to October.  These kind of run the gamut as far as my reactions go, from one I liked pretty well to one I thought was so-so to one I loved.

The Trumpet-Major (1880)

Those Loveday Boys, or, Beware Fess Derriman and That Sassy Matilda!

 A Laodicean: A Story of Today (1881)

Paula the Powerful, or, What's a Laodicean Anyway?*

 Two On a Tower (1882)

Tabitha Too, Just Because, or, Yes, the Tower Is a Character Too

* By now I know what a Laodicean is, of course, but before I read it, the reference was forgotten and therefore lost on me.

Sunday Sketches -- Neverending Characters (D)

Although I have seen The NeverEnding Story movie many times (who hasn't?), I had never until very recently read the book on which it was based.  I had mixed feelings on it overall (see my review here), but there were some great characters.  Yesterday I did some drawings of a handful of them:

Poor Artax.

Starting at the top left, clockwise: Bastian and Bastian (I know it's confusing, it kind of is in the book too), Falkor, Gmork, Artax (Artaaaax!  *sniff*), Atreyu, the Childlike Empress, Xayide.  I'm not terribly satisfied with Falkor or Xayide, and I don't like how Atreyu looks kind of like a girl, but I like the others all right.

If you haven't read it, you should!  You could probably just stop at the halfway point and be just fine, but still, it's a nice little fantasy story.  (And, contrary to reputation and title, it does eventually end.)