Sunday Sketches -- Baudelaires and Friends

It's been a while, but it's time again for more Sunday Sketches! My contribution this time around is based on a favorite book series that The Wife and I just finished re-reading together, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events.  I just love these Baudelaires so much!  They are such charming and resourceful and reasonably attractive children, each one unique and full of personality, and they really care about each other.  Confidentially, this is also a tease for a possible future post featuring a lot more artistic documentation of the Baudelaire variety...

And The Wife had another foray into the world of Pen and did another batch of delightful pen people.  Some of them were inspired by recent movies and/or TV shows we've been watching (can you spot them?), and others are original characters.  I love her pages of little peeps!  They're so tiny but they have a lot of personality.

Wee Little Pen People

This weekend we got a new scanner to replace the technological headache that is our old scanner. I tell you, Internet, that Epson does some beautiful scanning. Plus it scans wirelessly which means I can sit in the living room and direct my indentured servant/husband which pages to put in the scanner for me. In conclusion: Epson, you are mighty indeed and I will never betray you again in the name of getting a bargain.

ANYway, would you believe I haven't posted on here since June? What a sad sorry state of affairs. Luckily Mr. Gra-ham has been keeping up with things better than I have on here. Anyhoodle, one of my goals for this year was to a) draw people with bodies and b) draw people with bodies that move. If you haven't noticed, I tend to do a lot of heads and perhaps a little bit o' shoulder. One evening as I began drawing random heads and shoulders, I did some mental manhandling and switched gears. I did a few that night and some more in the weeks that followed. This is what I have to show for myself:
They are all pretty small, only like an inch or two tall (I made the one large in recognition of her being first), which is nice because they are quick and I don't get caught up giving them detailed faces. ALSO, I drew them all in pen. Not using an eraser is a big deal for me. I love erasers. Anyway.

Unfortunately when it comes to poses, my creative juices have run dry of late but STILL. Progress. Right? Right, Internet??

Happy Birthday, Harry!

There's been a lot of Potter-related excitement in the Pen and Pencil household this summer, what with the final film being released (which we loved!), so there's understandably been a fair amount of Potter-related artwork done as well.  Some of it hasn't been worth posting, but yesterday to celebrate Harry's birthday, I thought I would try to do something that could be posted here.  (This doubles as a Sunday Sketches post, I should say.)  I have done drawings celebrating Harry's birthdays in past years, usually of Harry gleefully looking at a cake that Ron and Hermione have prepared for him, but this year I wanted to do something a little different, inspired by something Hermione said in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1.  I was just a little disappointed that we didn't get to see Harry's birthday in the movie, but at least Hermione made reference to it.  And here you can see her and Ginny making their festive plans:

"We prepared a cake!"

I bet it was quite delicious.  Maybe they'll make another one for his 18th birthday.

And now, because a Harry post wouldn't be complete without a picture of Harry, here's a quick sketch I did a couple weeks ago inspired by the penultimate scene in the last film.  Big decision you had to make there, Harry.  Well done.  Though you might have fixed your wand or repaired some of the castle first... Just sayin'. (Though I guess the wands of the survivors could probably handle a good deal of the repairs, except of course Filch's...  lousy Squib.  Ha.)

The Boy Who Lived Becomes a Man

Zee Fruits of Bad Writing

Recently I read a series of books that should have been amazing, but instead were kind of terrible.  It's called Kingdom Keepers and tells about a group of kids who are projected as holographic versions of themselves into the Disney theme parks while they're asleep as an effort by the Imagineers to prevent the baddies of the movies and attractions from taking over the world (or something).  The premise was pretty cool but the execution was sadly really bad.  The characters were flat and unpleasant, the plot meandered and didn't really make sense, and the technology and mythology didn't make sense and contradicted itself continually.  Worst of all, this book series referred often to characters who already exist in Disney films and rides such as Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty, Chernabog from Fantasia, and any number of audio-animatronic pirates and small world dolls.  While this isn't inherently a problem, especially since the books take place in Disney parks, and it's sort of the idea, so you expect Disney characters to appear, the problem arises because the author evidently felt no need to stay true to the personalities of the characters that had already been painstakingly and expertly developed by filmmakers and authors and artists, and this lack of respect for others' creations extended to their physical descriptions.

So, I was reading along in the fourth book in the series when I came across the following passage (the background is that one of the characters has somehow "crossed over" into one of the Disney parks one night, even though there's supposed to have been a block preventing this from happening further):

        "Close zee ranks!" came a heavily accented Frenchman's voice.  Willa didn't see him at first; she was far more concerned with the circle of green Army Men tightening around her.
        Then she spotted him: a man in a red velvet dinner jacket, beneath which was a frilly white shirt and a bizarrely large black bow tie, the tails of which disappeared into the velvet.  His pants were three-quarter length, tight around the calf, and puffy on his upper legs, with hook-and-eye laced brown leather books spit-polished to gleaming.  He had long curly hair--a wig, perhaps--beneath an exaggerated hat like those worn by the Three Musketeers."

At this point I already had a really hard time picturing what this character looked like and who he could be, though I had my bewildered suspicions due to the cover art of the book.  And then came the next line:

"Judge Claude Frollo from The Hunchback of Notre Dame."

Like... you know, Frollo.  Then I had a really hard time reconciling the character I have known for the last 15 years and this description.  Not only that, how in the world would Willa have recognized him as Frollo when he is not at all how he appears in the movie or the parks??  I mean, besides it being way too much description writing-wise, can you possibly get that picture in your head from reading that paragraph?  It was such a bizarre thing to me that (at J's insistence), I just had to put the discrepancy down on paper.  It looks like this:

The tray of champagne and glasses was a personal touch, a suggestion from J.

So yes, how in the world is the man on the left supposed to pass as the man on the right?  Besides the obvious character differences that manifest themselves as the pages go by, including that ridiculous accent and invented background, the image is completely different in just about every way.  It just seemed kind of offensive and I had to do something about it.  You can't just mangle characters that people spent months and years creating and developing, even if you think you're creating a more period-accurate one (which is the only reason I can possibly think of for this nonsense).  This was just one example, but probably the most ridiculous.  J thinks I should post it somewhere online where I'm sure the author will see it, because authors who do stupid things, especially with well-known and well-loved properties, should be called on them.  We'll see.  I'm not ruling it out.

Don't read the books, by the way.  They're not at all as good as they should be with an idea like that, and not anywhere near as good as the fans deserve.

Half Shell Hero

I took a nature appreciation class in college, where I learned so many fascinating things about the animal world, past and present. In that class there was one of Those People who is always asking ridiculous questions. One day the topic was turtles and she raised her hand and asked, "So do they have, like, a little body in there? Can they crawl out of their shell and walk around?" No, young lass, real life is not Looney Tunes and turtles live in their shells. DUH.

The point of that story is that, well, turtles can't crawl out of their shells. But while we're talking about turtles, let's talk Ninja Turtles. They're my original favorite fandom, and I'm still a big fan. Now and then I like to draw the characters as they look in the latest movie (which I love). I use screen shots because, to be honest, I have always been confounded by drawing turtles freehand. Here is my latest TMNT effort:
I did this with my trusty mechanical pencil in my sketchbook...it's fun to do something with pencil that isn't as involved or time consuming as M. Legolas. Maybe a little Raphael next...?

PS: It's Leonardo, for you people not in the know.

The Noxons

Several months ago an old friend of mine and his wife tragically lost their twin sons due to complications of premature labor.  He asked me to do a drawing of their family as a surprise for his wife, and I really dragged my feet for a while--how could I approach such a personal and tender subject and give it the care and respect it deserved?  We talked back and forth several times about more complex concepts and other ideas, and finally his persistence paid off.  After a few drafts and a few abandoned ideas, we ended up with this:

The Noxons, Photoshop

Jeff has written a beautiful post on his own blog about the process, from inspiration and development to completion and delivery, which you can read here.  I'm so glad it turned out, and that this family was so pleased with the result.

Sunday Sketches -- Dancing Princesses (and a Random Pirate Captain)

A little while ago we posted our submissions for a coloring context celebrating the release of Entwined.  Though J was awarded Honorable Mention, we sadly didn't win, but we bought a copy right away anyway.  We both really enjoyed it  (you can read my glowing review here), and today I just felt inspired to draw, well, the entire principal cast.  J has also done some beautiful character sketches that perhaps will be posted at a later date.  I loved all the characters, and although there were many (twelve sisters are quite a handful), they were all so distinct and evenly-handled.

You should read the book so you will know who all these delightful characters are.  It was magical and mysterious and all that.  Some of them turned out on paper exactly as I pictured them in my head!  And most of them even look like sisters.  Maybe we're among the first to do fanart for this book!

And now for good measure, not at all in the same vein, and just because we recently saw the new (so-so) Pirates of the Caribbean movie, I present my very first-ever drawing of Captain Jack Sparrow.

Aye, avast!