fowlfish

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"Do you feel it? The very air dances around us! The long night is come!" Good ol' Elysion from Dragon's Dogma. An eloquent and bombastic cult leader who loves speechifying about the end of the world and transcendence... I always find this character type entertaining! Traditional inks and digital color.

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It's time for an underrated character from an underrated show! Heinrich Mueller from "The Goode Family."

I seriously enjoyed this show; I found all the main characters really enjoyable and likable. But my favorite part was in "Freeganomics" when Heinrich shows up and gives his bombastic, pretentious rants to the meek and well-meaning Gerald. I loved seeing such an intent character play off such a meek one. You can tell the writers had a ball coming up with his pompous yet poetic & elegant speeches!

That episode is a good example of how this show was a counterpart to King of the Hill, where the antagonist is a morally grey figure who has funny flaws, while raising fair points. Also the voice actor did a terrific job with his intent German accent.

Traditional inks, digital color.

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An intense cultist, complete with both cloak and dagger.

I drew and inked this on a tight deadline, but it was still a treat to work on this with the inkbrush and shape it up! Fun times.

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Broom Hilda and her vulture pal Gaylord. After finding the strange old 1970s "Fabulous Funnies" cartoons featuring these characters, I had to play with them for a bit!

I get a huge kick out of the weird tone one finds in old '70s cartoons, especially when the animation is janky 90% of the time but has brief seconds where the characters turn smooth and expressive. That mix of good & bad quality stirs my creative mood!

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"Leap!"

This is why I love character designs with gangly proportions; such fun sweeping shapes one can use so elegantly!

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"Hail to the King"

One of the illustrations I did a while ago for my book. Abstract and energetic!

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Another batch of sketches. I gotta love playing with abstract yet still fleshy faces! And a hint of elegant costume going on in the bottom right. Fun stuff!

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Sketches I had on my comic site a while ago. I've removed some of the old "intermission" pages I had on there so that the story won't have interruptions, but I'm still happy to share these!

There's quite a mix here, both some fun concepts, as well as some intriguing explorations I can still build on in future. Keeping it varied.

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A preview from an upcoming page of my webcomic, Castle Obrio.

Weekly updates have resumed on the story, so I invite you to check it out here!

Detailed crowds are always a treat for me to draw. I'm excited to unfold the story of Obrio and its bizarre characters! And I hope people enjoy its darkly comedic fantasy saga.

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Baku and the little Ice Dragon, from the old NES game Cocoron. Retro games were a good medium for whimsical dreamland settings, and Cocoron is an underrated, charming example!

In-game, Baku is a nod to the mythological dream-devouring beast, but he always appears as a rather innocent-looking tapir.

A cool lesser-known video game villain. Even with the very light story one expects from games of the NES era, Baku has a very memorable charm and whimsy to him.

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Great character and a great episode from Clarence.

"One good trick deserves another... One good man deceives his brother."

I actually drew this a long time back but I always liked it, so it was worth cleaning it up and giving it the proper treatment!

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"Spigot and Dunder"

I finally got around to watching Talespin, and I seriously enjoyed the Thembrian characters most of all. Hapless but very dedicated characters in a militaristic bureaucracy are always compelling underdog characters for me.

Colonel Spigot and Sergeant Dunder are both extremely entertaining and underrated characters.

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"Castle Obrio: Happy Halloween"

I drew this for Halloween 2023, featuring the cast of my comic, Castle Obrio, all dressed up for the holiday! This was a fun chance to pick various things I wouldn't normally draw fanart of on their own but which combined with my characters nicely.

Their costumes come from a pretty broad palette of inspirations, but mostly fantasy and horror... And with Bristol being so lazy, of course she'd just wear a Space Invaders mask.

Identify all the costumes and you win! Some are more obvious, while some are pretty niche.

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"Emiko Screws Up the Universe"

The third in my series of tribute drawings to cartoons that never became full series: Mud, Tischele, Tim, and Emiko from Emiko Screws Up the Universe.

This one was a partially-made pilot that never saw the light of day. After Matt Wilson ended Bonus Stage, he had some big ambitious ideas for a quirky series about a group of weird kids, including a conspiracy theorist and a robot. There are probably a lot of good reasons the project got the axe... but younger me was struck by the creator's short-lived but infections energy, and the colorful characters stuck in my memory!

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"Oh Yeah Elise"

Second in a series of tribute drawings to cartoons that never became full series: The title character from Elise, Mere Mortal, created by Guy Vasilovich.

The pilot episode aired on Oh Yeah! Cartoons, and it was like a more cartoony variant of the slice-of-life genre. It had Vasilovich's playfully dark design sense (he's probably best known among cartoon fans for creating Moville Mysteries), but it had some charming subtlety in its very understated, quirky and moody protagonist.

There was a very interesting blend of zaniness and "quiet outsider teen" sincerity going on. Definitely a charming and underrated pilot in my opinion!

The most convenient place to view it is in this compilation, where it shows up at the 6:54 mark.

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"Rock Shrimp"

First in a series of tribute drawings to cartoons that never became full series: Lieutenant Rock Shrimp from "King Crab Space Crustacean", a cartoon created by the greatly talented Bill Wray!

You can see the full pilot episode here.

The whole thing is a very fun and dynamic work of cartooning, but I especially like this character. This surprisingly twisted and scheming second-in-command would've been a very intriguing and entertaining role to follow if the show had made it to full series!

My kind of fun character dynamic, marching to his own drum on the side of the main plot.

[fowlfish]

"Anyone for Cricket?"

"BAT!" -Mr. Gristle, 2014. Yet another take on Mr. Gristle, this time with his trusty cricket bat.