Sunday Sketches -- Disney Un-Disneyed VI (D)

(^ Oops, I guess not!)

Hey! It's Christmastime! So to celebrate... I'm going to post a few more Disney Un-Disneyed Sunday Sketches! Because that's what Christmas is all about (?). Heading through the '90s now! The middle one is kind of a stretch, but since The Lion King is (loosely but also exactly) based on Hamlet, it seemed like that would be a fun addition to the series.

Aladdin (reviews here and here)

Hamlet, for The Lion King (review here)

Pocahontas (reviews here and here)

Merry Christmas, everyone! (And at this point I'm actually almost done with this series, so I'm just doing some catching up now!)

Sunday Sketches -- Disney Un-Disneyed V (D)

Here's another cycle of Sunday Sketches inspired by the source material for Disney's animated movies!  This is the start of some of my favorites in the whole series.  It's pretty difficult to create a new design for the Beast, since Disney seems to have perfected it, and it's hard for me to look at Oliver and not see a Hobbit, but he has the look anyway.

Oliver Twist (review here)

The Little Mermaid (review here)

Beauty and the Beast (reviews here and here)

More on the way shortly! I really meant to post these over Thanksgiving break, so maybe I'll post another one sooner than I had planned.

Sunday Sketches -- Disney Un-Disneyed IV (D)

We're definitely getting into the later years now!  Here are the next set of Disney Un-Disneyed Sunday Sketches, crossing from the '70s to the '80s, and from June to July of this year.  The second one is kind of a stretch, since I learned The Great Mouse Detective is actually based on a series of books which were based on Sherlock Holmes, and not on Sherlock Holmes itself, but it was still a fun opportunity to draw the famous detective, along with his pint-sized professional admirer.

Robin Hood (review here)

The Black Cauldron (reviews mostly here and here)

Basil of Baker Street (reviews here and here)

Stay tuned!  We're drawing close to some favorites.

(No pun intended.)

Sunday Sketches -- Disney Un-Disneyed III (D)

Time for another batch of Disney Un-Disneyed Sunday Sketches!  We're shifting from the late '50s to the '60s, and also from May-June 2014.  A couple of these have been posted before, but I'll post them again here in the spirit of continuity.

Sleeping Beauty (reviews here and here)

The Sword In the Stone (review here)

The Jungle Book (reviews here and here)

That should hold you all for the next couple of weeks.

Sunday Sketches -- Disney Un-Disneyed II (D)

Here's another round of my new designs based on the source material for the Disney animated canon.  So, without further ado, here they are!  This was a fun group based on some old favorites.

Cinderella (reviews here, here and here)

Alice's Adventures In Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass (review here)

Peter Pan (reviews here, here and here)

That's it for now, but I'll be back with more in no time!

(Part I here.)

Sunday Sketches -- Disney Un-Disneyed I (D)

People who know things about me often will know that I love a good series, especially a self-imposed one.  This year I've been doing a series of readings/drawings based on the source material (where applicable) of the Disney animated canon.  I've been meaning to post these as I go, but never found the time for whatever reason, so I'm just going to start posting them now, a few at a time.  Basically the premise of this sequence of arts is that I read the origin of each of Disney's animated movies, and then draw my own version of the main character/s, based sometimes on the time period or historical setting or whatever (usually, as it happens, on Sunday).  It is sometimes harder than I expected, because Disney seems to have designed certain characters just right, but it's still a fun and occasionally challenging project.

So then, without much ado, here's my take on the first few (done in January):

Snow White (book reviews here, here and here)

Pinocchio (book review here)

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (review here)

More to come!

Chelsea and Jared (D)

One of my coworkers is getting married next week, and my manager asked me to draw up a Happy Wedding card on behalf of the team to post on the G+ group.  I have no idea what her styling or colors actually are, so I just tried to guess what I thought went with what I know of their style.  It will be fun to see how close (or not) I guessed.  I like doing little side projects like this, it breaks things up a little to do something for work other than the usual.

Chelsea and Jared, September 2014, Photoshop

May their union be forever blessed.

ArtCorgi News

Recently we were both added to the roster of artists for a new commission liaison website called ArtCorgi.  They're a fun startup business that has a lot of potential, and a lot of really great artists are involved.  You should check them out sometime if you're looking for an original artistic rendition of you or your friends or family.

If you're interested in seeing some of our rates and sample pieces, you can find J's page here, and D's page here.

That's all for now, just a little announcement.  More arts on the way!

We Have To Go Back! (D)

YIKES, it's been over two months since our last post!  This is unacceptable.  I'll just have to make up for it by posting a lot of arts in the coming weeks.  In the meantime, this week marked the ten-year anniversary of the premiere of LOST (a.k.a. the best show in the history of television).  To commemorate the occasion, I didn't have the chance to do a new drawing, but here's something I did not quite ten years ago of the principal cast circa Season 2 (and didn't post, since we weren't artblogging back then).  It's interesting to see how many of them were pretty prominently featured from start to finish.

I love this show SO much.

Until next time!

Draw It Again!

For my June pencil drawing, I decided to revisit some familiar territory.  Back in 2002, I spent most of Black Friday drawing this portrait of Boromir on giant paper.  Look at this slightly blurry, partial photo of it:

Obviously this was back in the day when I 1) drew on giant paper and 2) could do a whole giant drawing in one day.  Now I am slower and smaller and...better?  Well, I thought another Boromir portrait would turn out AMAZING by comparison and in the end he just turned out okay:

When I finished, I realized that he looked like cartoon Boromir.  His face is off, and I think I COULD fix it, but with pencil there's always the risk of ruining it, especially since my paper doesn't erase very well.  So...this is where my Boromir drawing skills will stand, for possibly another twelve years (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!). 

I do like how his clothing turned out and it's always fun doing LOTR characters.  Maybe some more will pop up before the end of the year.  Maybe even some...Thorin...?  MAYBE.

Sunday Sketches: Recent Reads

A while ago, I read some books that I liked--The Scorpio Races and A Company of Swans.  So I drew the main characters from each. I also drew some water horses, in the only way I can draw horses...

Puck Connolly and Sean Kendrick from The Scorpio Races on the left.  I could picture Puck pretty clearly, but Sean was a little more nondescript for me.  On the right is Harriet and Rom from A Company of Swans.  Again, I could picture her clearly, but I couldn't really remember what Rom looked like after the fact--you know, aside from good looking.  Is it wrong that I like the horses best?

...

Hello, D here.  I've been reading through the source material for the Disney animated films chronologically, which of course led to doing sketches of my own designs of the well-known characters (cleverly termed "Disney Un-Disneyed').  Though I haven't found the chance to post some of these sketches until now, I thought this would be a good time to share a couple recent ones based on some classic literature, drawn around the same time as J's book-based sketches above.

The Wart (rhymes with Art, short for Arthur), from T. H. White's The Sword In the Stone, The Once and Future King

Mowgli from Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book, The Second Jungle Book

I'm liking how this series is turning out, I'll have to post more.  The fairy tale ones especially have been fun to try to re-envision.

Sunday Sketches -- Father's Day 2014 (D)

This is my Father's Day contribution for this year. (I actually drew it a little while ago, but it was time to tidy it up and post it somewheres). Of course The Boy is almost always a total delight, but there was that one night when it was just the two of us for dinnertime and things weren't going SO swimmingly. I think most parents (especially new ones) can relate to this feeling.

(Mother's Day sketch here.)

Turtle Power!

As I mentioned last time, my monthly pencil project for May was a sizable undertaking.  But let's back up to my thought process:

There's a new Ninja Turtles movie coming out.  I'm sure I will see it (because how could I not), but based on, well, pretty much everything about it, I'm not too optimistic about how good it will be.  *single tear*  So I thought to myself, that new movie comes out in May and in retaliation, I will bust out a big TMNT drawing, like the days of ye olde 2007.  

But guess what!  The new movie doesn't come out until August.  Oops.  So...this is my preemptive strike?

I totally underestimated how long this would take.  In the end it was upwards of 20 hours, four different drawings and a lot of Photoshop pasting together.  A bit of a time investment, but it was a fun project.  Michelangelo and Leonardo turned out the best, I think.  And poor Raphael.  For being my favorite he doesn't ever seem to turn out as good as I hope for.

(Seriously though...the new movie looks bad.  Am I right or am I right?)

Monthly Pencils

At the start of the year I made a goal to draw a pencil portrait each month.  Nothing fancy, just something quick to practice my skillz.  I'm glad I've followed through because besides this project I have had the BIGGEST art block in the world and these are basically all I've drawn all year.  Lame. O.o 

Anyway, here is where I'm at so far:

January was Katniss.  I have to make an effort to draw the ladies.  I like how this one turned out, especially since it's a more quirky angle of her face.

In February I returned to Harry Potter fanarts with Sirius.  I still don't think the resemblance is quite there, but I like how this one turned out.  I wasn't so sure in the middle of it, but yeah.  High fives, Sirius.

In March it was Obi Wan's turn.  I think my brother asked me to draw this picture about ten years ago.  Better late than never?

Starbuck popped up in April (or maybe the start of May...).  For how much I love Battlestar, I draw it very little.  I also kind of phoned in her uniform.  All those lines!  Wahhh.

For May I've been working on something BIG!  Literally big because it's on three separate pages right now and there will be a fourth before I'm done.  More on that to come!

Sunday Sketches -- Mother's Day 2014 (D)

I promise J will post some arts soon, but in the meantime here's a seasonal selection, my Mother's Day-inspired sketchbook entry last Sunday. Oh, these two. The Boy has lately taken to turning his head to "kiss" your nose if you put it against his cheek.

Snowy Sisters: A Follow-Up (D)

A while ago I posted some arts of Elsa and Anna from Frozen, and after conducting a sort of experiment (which had mixed findings), I decided to finally paint Elsa, and then I thought, why not, have a sketch version of Anna too.  It's fun to compare the rough version to the finished product.  Here they are!

And there you go!  Elsa is live in living color at last.  It's fun to see how alive they come once you add some colors and such.  Her dress was a labor of love.

P.S.  I promise J is going to post some arts soon!  She has arts happening, she just hasn't been satisfied enough with anything to feel prompted to post them.  But sooooon!

Charles Carmichael Etc. [Incorporating Sunday Sketches] (D)

A few weeks ago we finished watching Chuck (I was a little late to the game on this one).  I liked it a lot, and I miss it a lot, and therefore it inspired some arts.  First, a slew of Sunday Sketches featuring the principal cast over the five seasons:

And, just because it was floating around in my head and therefore demanded to be released, this little portrait of Charah (not the best mash-up name ever, but it's better than Suck....).

The last show that received similar treatment was Alias.  What will be our next binge-watch show???  Time alone will tell...  Stay tuned!!!

(Stay tuned also for more arts from J, I promise she's been working on lots of great things and that I'm not trying to hijack the blog.)

Laddie (D)

Once it was January 2013 and I started doing a random piece of fanart of the hero from my favorite Disney movie. Then before I had the chance to finish it my computer screen died, and it was several months before it was fixed. THEN it was several MORE months before I finally sat down and finished it at last!!! And here it is.

I'm glad that 13 months later I still more or less liked the art in the first place. Really it only took two days of work, they just happened to be over a year apart.  This is also I think the one and only piece that I've done from start to finish on MY laptop (with J's old tablet), which is probably why I waited so long to finish it, so I could do it all on here instead of taking it to another machine.

I'm so glad you could finally see the light of day, Al!

Sunday Sketches -- For Narnia and the North! (D)

Over Christmas and through the start of the New Year I (finally) re-read The Chronicles of Narnia by the inimitable C.S. Lewis.  This naturally inspired lots of more recent character sketches (I did a few about a decade ago, but they were due for an update).  Instead of doing one montage from each book, and in order to avoid redrawing a lot of repeated characters, I decided to do one major splat of all the major characters from the entire series, drawn over the span of several Sundays in January.  Some of the repeated characters blend a little bit into the ones from the next book, but mostly it's a fun, semi-counter-clockwise journey through the chronicles (in their original publication order, which I would say is the preferred order).  I love them so.

If you click for the full view you may get a better idea of who's who and what's what.  I was going to write a chart indicating who everyone is, but that would take forever and be confusing as to how to organize them, and besides, sometimes I like to try to figure out these kinds of things on my own.  Have fun guessing!

A Baby For the Drawing (D & J)

We have this baby, and he is a delight.  As for myself I don't think I draw him nearly as much or as often as he deserves, but the time had finally come to immortalize him at this stage in the way that only a digital portrait can.  So here it is, The Boy, happy as can be, at approximately 8 months:

And now, a word from the mother of this child:

I must confess that I also do not draw this baby as much as I should.  Of course there are lots of things I think I should ("should") be doing, but this is one thing I REALLY think I should do more.  As for cleaning the baseboards, well, I'll let those wait.  Anyway, I recently colored up a little doodle from a while ago.  Sometimes when he is asleep he lays on the boppy pillow like this, with his legs scrunched up and his bum out and his hands by his face.  It's one of my very, very favorite things that he does, and it will be a sad day when he grows out of it.  Baby proportions are still a tricky business, but I like how this one turned out. 

But at least now I've made record of it!  Also, I love these jammies.  Claws on the toes??  Come on.

Snowy Sisters (D)

It's high time I did some more Frozen art!  It's been running around my head for ages, I just never took the time to put them down.  But now I have!  Here are a couple that I've been working on in Photoshop for that last little while.

Anna

Elsa

Sisters do as sisters should.  I love the snow.