#I drew her with dreads but after finishing this I think box braids would have better suited my vision 😭

[appallinnballin]

synth based oc concept named Synthia 🎆 is this anything

(no longer Muzix related due to recent news 👍)

[sour-badger]

Art style challenge: reflection

So, during this very challenging months and 3-4 weeks of social distancing I was stuck. Drawing became boring and I was in state of stale purgatory and it was annoying me. However, my sate of monotony came to a halt whenever I watch “Cheer Up!”, a show/DnD campaign created by Wrapped Lamp that was set in the world of JoJo, but in a bleak setting. It's wonderful, and the characters are brilliant. (This a link of the first episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVF6ShkYqU0 )

As I was watching the show I decided to challenge myself, I have never drawn in Hirohiko Araki’s style before. I have never tried to draw like that because it is a simple but complex approach to illustration that is very hard to draw, let alone replicate, but I tried and I proud of the results. So because of this I set myself some rules:

1. The illustrations must be based on the player/character icons in “Cheer Up”

2. They must look like protagonists that could be in the anime but are not copies of existing Jojo characters. (Because that's cheating)

3. Each illustration must be done within 3 days. (A personal thing for me, I get bored of drawing the same illustration for more than 3 days, if you want try this you don't have to follow this rule)

With these rules, Photoshop and google images by my side I was ready. And this is how it went!

 (I am putting each reference of every character in groups of eyes, face, hair and body because I had to to a lot of research for this style, I have put the main influencers down there were more but are not important)

My process 

At the start of all my attempts I create a beginning sketch of original icons. I am going in blind so doing this shows me how they created it without tracing it, sort of like life drawing. I then made a rough line drawing to see what the design looks like without making it official. I sometimes draw a second outline to figure out the details and then I compose the final line work but I also have the original art, the many characters in Jojo Bizarre Adventure and real life examples at all times. Paint the hair, skin, clothes and then create the shading and then they are done.

The first sketch 

rough line work

The final outline with the shading

I also chose to try not to use part 3 as reference material. I personally dislike  the seasons animation and character design. I don't know what happened in that season but they look terrible. It took me 3 tries to finish Stardust Crusaders and the art work was the main reason.

  The Characters  

Isadora 

Played by jay (Stabbyness)

Isadora was the first character I drew. I chose her because the next live “Cheer Up” episode was in 3 days and with that time I decided to give myself a fighting chance by drawing her first (I find women easier to draw than men).

With Isadora I had to also decide what Jojo season they would be in from the start, I wanted consistency because they are the protagonists. I decided to do a mix of part 4 but was mainly based in part 5. For me I liked the colour shading of part 4 but loved the structure and graphic style of part 5. This made shading and highlights easy and consistent.

Because I had never drew anything like Jojo I had to use multiple characters as a frame of reference, (I did not copy the originals, if I did then there would be no point of doing this challenge in the first place). I thought it would be good to show how many characters I referred to to help with this process.  

Isadora was the easiest to draw out of the 4. She has a traditional female design, her only challenge was her eyes. As the first one this one was done in time and and looked good at the time. However now that I have got the hang of drawing in this style I want to redraw her again to show myself how much I have grown during this challenge.

Characters that i used for art style reference

Eyes: Trish Una, Narancia Ghirga and Yukako Yamagish 

Face: Trish, Erina Pendelten, Yukako

Hair: the whole part 5 crew (I had know idea how draw Jojo hair at this point)

Body: Joylne Jostar, Yukako  

 Donna

Played by Will (bigmovingtarget)

Donna was the hardest overall draw. She is a wonderful character but she does not typical female build. She is a MMA fighter, a tattoo, wears a hoodie and jaw that could cut glass. This created some problems, Araki characters rarely wear hoodies and his female characters are not normally drawn with strong features, they don't ever have a massive tribal tattoo. Also Araki’s female cast have a very small range of hair styles so I had to look at the male cast for inspiration and information because donna is an unusual design!! 

Her tattoo was very difficult and I was in a pickle for the whole first day. The original icon has only a few red marks on her face and the thumbnail of “Cheer Up!” (created by Six) depicts Donna with her back to the camera and looking with side of her face without the tattoo! 

This was driving me crazy.

In the end I had to reference real life tribal tattoos and the famous tattoo  from the movie “Dusk till Drawn”. I like the result. 

Her hoodie was also an unusual problem because I couldn't find a single character in the cast sporting a hoodie at the time of drawing her. So I wanted to draw her with a hoodie that the cast would wear. So when I was looking at fashion editorials I found Billie Eilish wearing the perfect hoodie and had to try to replicate it. (Elle 2019 interview, just incase you want to find it. Its the red coat!!) I also referenced part 1 and part 2 for her body because the those characters where drawn to fight, they are not frail and fawn like in appearance and think that is perfect donna. 

Characters that i used for art style reference

Eyes: Josuke Higashikata, Yukako, Lisa Lisa and Gyro Zeppeli 

Face: Gyro, Jolyne and Lisa Lisa 

Hair: Enrico, Yoshka Kira, Caesar Anthonio Zeppeli and Koichi Hirose

Body: Lisa Lisa, Gyro, Leone Abbacchio and Jolyne

Jack 

Played by Christian

Jack was easy to draw because he looked like a Jojo character. Like Isadora, Jack has a typical male design for Jojo. This meant I had a pool of reference material for him and had finished him in 2 days, the only real problems where his hat, stubble and jewellery. Lucky most of Araki’s cast have jewellery and chains and Jotaro Kujo has hair as a hat! Jack was heavily based on Jotaro Kujo but I made sure that he wasn't a copy! 

Stubble...stubble doesn't exist in Jojo.

Jojo’s Bizzarre Adventure has magnificent beards or clean shaven men, and sometimes they have facial hair. This was the main issue with this character because with stubble you don't have Jack.  So I had to take the beard of Joseph JoStar and looking at real life stubble finally got his lovely 9 o'clock shadow that we have now. 

 Characters that i used for art style reference

Eyes: Joseph Jostar (part 2), Jonathan Jostar 

Face: Leone, Jotaro Kujo and Burno Bucciarti 

Hair: Jotaro and Robert E. O. Speedwagon

Body: a mix of the cast of part 5 with a little bit of Johnny Jostar (like Isadora)

This one was the start of really using real life as a reference. Although really started using them in Donna illustration, drawing men has always been a challenge for me so drawing from real life actually made it more like Araki’s style. I realised that Jojo art style is based in realistic body proportions. I honestly think that this looks better than the other 2 because of the life drawing I had to do.

JJ

Played by Arimnaes

This was the last Icon I had to draw. I left this one last because I needed the practice to give this guy any chance of working. 

his face and body were not the issue because most of the main casts (in their respective seasons) have similar features but slightly different body heights and proportions. However, JJ’s hair was a difficult.

 In my research I found a total of 2 characters that could have his ethnic style  or texture for his hair. They were Enrico Pucci and Muhammad Avdol, and no one else. This ended in failure because their hairstyles are wacky and imaginative and JJ’s dreads just flat out don't exist in the Jojo universe. If they have his hairstyle then I must of missed it because I wasted a whole day solely on research!!!  Anyway, after that that I looked at male braiding and box braiding to figure out the hair line. Although I had the hair problem with Enrico I personally loved his design, he was drawn with an attitude and I thought it worked for JJ.  

Characters that i used for art style reference

Eyes: Enrico, Bruno, Joseph, Gyro and Giono Giovanna

Face: Enrico, Muhammed Avdol, Johnny and Bruno

Hair: Giono and Josuke, 

Body: Enrico, Bruno and Caesar 

Reflection 

Although the process was difficult, I had fun drawing these characters and have gained new techniques in drawing that I struggled in the past. I can draw stylised shading, tattoos, clothes and male characters better than I could before. I also learnt that I can draw surprisingly quickly and had finished both Isadora and jack in 2 days. After this challenge i also gains a new appreciation for Araki and the show Cheer Up and the number of literal hours it must of taken them to create an immersive show. 

However now I have to find something else to do whilst being stuck indoors!

[rootbeergoddess]

A Night at the Bar

A long overdue commission for @thekraziesreside featuring her OC Em and Dr. Drakken.

Em took out her compact mirror and looked at herself. She thought she looked cute; one of her friends who were more make-up savvy than she was had helped her with her look. She was wearing a simple yet elegant black cocktail dress and matching pumps. Still, she wasn’t 100 percent sure. Dating was not her thing. Yeah, she dated, but she would rather be at home working on her latest project.

“Well, I’m here,” She put her mirror away. “Guess I better try this mixer thing out.”

Em stepped into Dr. Brew’s Bar of Evil. The name was a bit much, or at least she thought so. It was mostly a place for henchmen and aspiring villains to hang out. There wasn’t anything really evil about their activities, though. Most people went to the bar just to relax. Or in the case of tonight, attend a singles mixer.

It was good that Em was going out; she had been in her lab all week. It wasn’t right for her. According to research, it was important for young women her age to socialize. Em did have friends, of course, but most of them didn’t understand her work, and they usually would instead go clubbing. Hell, going to a bar was rare for Em. She was only here because her friend Nicky suggested it. Both of them were single, and they were both free on Friday. Em had no good excuse, so she had agreed.

“Em, over here!”

Em felt reassured when she saw Nicky. They were polar opposites; Nicky was an artist while Em was a scientist. Nicky was wearing a bright, pink dress with lime green heels and yellow earrings. Of course, she was, and Em was happy about that. Em needed someone bright and bubbly like Nicky in her life. Nicky ran over to Em and gave her a hug.

“It’s been such a long time,” Nicky said.

“You saw me last week,” Em replied.

“Emmy, come on,” Nicky sighed. “Talking to you on the phone isn’t the same as interacting with you in real life. You know that, right?”

“True,” Em followed Nicky to a table. “But isn’t talking on the phone enough?”

“I can’t hug you over the phone,” Nicky continued. “And when I do call you, you always seem so distracted by your work. Speaking of which, did you finish that latest gadget? What was it?” “I can show you,” Em said, reaching into her purse.

“Let’s sit down first,” Nicky said, pushing Em into a seat. “I’ll order you a drink, what do you want?”

I’ll just take a water for now,” Em said, taking out a small box. “Now look.”

Nicky opened up the box. She made an ‘oh’ noise when she saw the golden bracelet lying in the box. Carefully, Em picked up the item and slipped it on Nicky’s wrist. Nicky smiled as she held it up, taking a look at it. Em leaned over, pressed a button on the side, and a dart flew out. It flew past a few patrons before sticking to the wall.

“Wow!” Nicky giggled. “So, the person who asked for this is making a store of jewelry that doubts as a weapon?”

“Basically,” Em said. “Not only does it have darts, but it also pepper spray and a mini taser.”

“Can I order one? I’d love one of these,” Nicky slipped it off her wrist. “Em, you really a genius.”

Em blushed a bit. She knew she was smart, but it was always so strange hearing it from her friends or others. She didn’t know why. The waiter brought their drinks, and to avoid saying something stupid, Em took a long sip of her water. Thankfully, Nicky continued the discussion.

“I still can’t get over how well the lock picking ring you made me works,” Nicky tapped the ruby ring on her finger. “Haven’t gotten caught once. Managed to snag a nice set of jewels this week too.”

“I saw that on the news,” Em said “You did a good job. You’re one of the best thieves in this town, probably the best.”

“Thank you, Emmy dear,” She said, looking towards the bar. “Oh, look!”

Em followed Nicky’s finger. That blue skin was hard to ignore. The one and only Dr. Draken was standing at the bar. Everyone in the villain community knew who he was. Opinions on him varied differently, but he was still respected. No one teased him about being beaten by a cheerleader; every villain in Middle had dealt with Kim. Em was somewhat surprised to see Draken at the club. She had never seen him here before. “I wonder if Shego is with him,” Nicky said. “I’m telling you Em; she looks killer in cocktail dresses.”

“Oh, not again,” Em sighed. “Nicky, you have to stop lusting after that woman.”

“When she gets less hot, maybe I’ll do it,” Nicky stuck her tongue out. “Oh, the event is starting soon.”

Internally, Em groaned. She was dreading this. Yes, she needed to get back into the dating scene, but she wasn’t sure about this. Nicky had assured her that these things were fun, and it was a great way to meet people. The problem was that Em wasn’t good at dealing with people. She could handle Nicky, but other people seemed to want more. They demanded a lot of her, wanting her to be conventionally attractive or play dumb; Em refused to do either.

“Okay, so we get to sit down for this,” Nicky said. “We have this little piece of paper, and it has the names of all the guys who come by to talk to us. We rate how we liked them, turn this in at the barn, and then they set us up with who they think our perfect match would be.”

“That sounds simple enough,” Em admitted.

Sadly, it wasn’t simple.

The first issue was all the men were so unbelievably boring. None of them wanted to talk about science or inventing, and they wanted to use bad pick-up lines. While Em found the bad pick up lines funny, Em still wished they were interested in talking about anything. If they did ask Em did and she revealed her talents, they all commented the same.

“I dig nerdy chicks.”

It took all of Em’s power not to throttle them. She was actually thankful that the men were more interested in Nicky. Nicky had done these things before, and she was good at shutting down rude remarks. Em was jealous, wishing she could do the same. She would deliver a simple ‘No,’ and that was enough to stop these men in their tracks. How did she do it?

“Alright, ladies,” Dr. Draken suddenly sat down in front of Em. “I’m here!”

“And I’m out,” Nicky rolled her eyes. “I’ll go see if Shego is around.”

“Wow, Dr. Draken,” Em was in awe. “I can’t believe it, I’ve always wanted to talk to you.”

“Who wouldn’t want to talk to me?” Dr. Draken grinned. “I am the great Dr. Draken, after all!”

“I’ve always wanted to talk to you about science and your inventions,” Em continued. “I remember that amazing buggy car you made.”

“Oh, really?” Draken looked surprised. “You---follow my work?”

“Yes! In fact, I’m an inventor myself,” Em reached into her purse.

She pulled out a lipstick tube. Draken looked unimpressed as Em took off the cap and then aimed it at a bar patron. She pressed a button, and a ball of putty flew out of the tube. It hit the man at the bar, wrapping around him. The man toppled out, shouting out in surprise.

“Amazing!” Draken exclaimed.

“Oh, really, it’s nothing,” Em blushed.

“Nothing? My dear, that invention of yours is brilliant!” Draken said. “I’ve never met someone who could challenge me intellectually, but you? You might come close! Tell me, what is your name?”

“It’s Em,”

“Well, Em, I want to know what else you have. You could possibly help me with my plans for world domination!”

Em could feel her face getting redder. She couldn’t believe that this was happening. Draken was someone she had always admired. Talking to him was something she had dreamed of. A long time ago, when he was just Drew, they had met in college. She had liked him enough, but when he became Draken, things changed. Getting to talk to him and have him praise her inventions was more than she could have hoped for. They spent the rest of the event talking, exchanging ideas, and plots for defeating Kim Possible. Em didn’t realize how much time had past until Nicky returned.

With Shego’s arm wrapped around her.

“Well, it looks like you two are getting on like a house on fire,” Nicky chuckled. “But the bar is closing up, so we should probably head out.”

“It is? Oh, how long have we been talking?” Em felt somewhat embarrassed.

“Who knows? Shego is going to walk me home,” Nicky said with a grin. “So, I’ll catch you later, Em.”

“Goodnight, Doc,” Shego waved to her boss. “If you need anything, ask someone else.”

“Bah, who needs her?” Drakken sniffed dismissively. “They can go do what girls do when they’re together. What do girls do when they’re together? Braid each other’s hair?”

Em was 100% percent sure no hair braiding would be going on, but she decided not to tell Drakken that.

“We’re people of science! We have minds that many people can’t fathom! We scare people,” Drakken continued. “So, why don’t you show me more of your inventions? Maybe we could work on something! I even have a new idea. Pigs with laser guns!”

“Um---how would they hold the lasers?”

Drakken paused and then frowned.

“Nuts,” He grumbled. “I didn’t think about that.”

“Well, they wouldn’t have to hold the guns per se,” Em said. “Maybe you could have a headband, and the lasers are automatic?”

“That’s brilliant? See?” Drakken leaned closer. “You and me? We’re genius together! Think of all the things we could do.”

Em didn’t really care about taking over the world. She didn’t want to rule, that was too much work. She was fine with working with Dr. Drakken, though. While somewhat overzealous, he was a smart man. It was also refreshing to find someone who didn’t expect her to be stupid and didn’t mind that she had a brain.

“What other ideas do you have?” Em inquired. Drakken beamed like a kid in a candy store. Em glanced at her phone. It was a text from Nicki. She smiled as she read it.

Hey babe! U alright? Dr. D better b treating you, right! Shego and I had a LOT of fun if you know what I mean. ;)

Em chuckled as she replied.

I’m fine. Dr. D and I have been up all night planning.

For hours, after leaving the bar, Em and Dr. Drakken had schemed. Dr. Drakken had taken Em to his lab, and since Shego was out, the two of them have plenty of time to themselves. All night they drew up schematics, made models, and planned for the future. Em didn’t realize how early it was until the sun had risen. She felt tired, yet awake at the same time. She could have kept going if it wasn’t for the hunger in her stomach.

Her phone pinged again.

Look @ u! I told u that mixer would be fun and I was right

Em smiled.

I’m glad I went. We’re going to have breakfast right now.

She was shocked to learn that Dr. Drakken could make pancakes. Usually, Shego did the cooking, but he could make a mean flapjack. As Em texted Nicky, she stood up and headed into the kitchen. The smell of chocolate greeted her nose. She smiled at Dr. Drakken placed his last pancake onto a plate.

“We can’t scheme on an empty stomach,” Dr. Drakken said. “Orange juice or lemonade?”

“Orange juice please,” Em said as she sat down.

“This is so much better than making breakfast for Shego,” Dr. Drakken poured a glass of orange juice for Em. “Just wait until she sees all the work we’ve done!”

Em decided not to mention that Shego and Nicky probably had their own fun. “I think I’ll use the pigs the next time Kim Possible comes and tries to foil my schemes,” Dr. Drakken handed the glass to Em. “Oh, I can’t wait to see her face!”

“Shouldn’t you plan your next idea for world domination?” Em suggested.

“Once again, you’re right!” Drakken took a bite of his pancakes. “So, got any ideas?”

Em was shocked. Dr. Drakken wanted an idea from her? She felt flattered. Not many people asked for her ideas. It had been a long time since someone wanted her input too. She sipped her juice, thinking. Did she have any ideas she could offer? What was something that hadn’t been done?

“Well, first, you’d probably want to make sure you could get rid of Kim,” Em began. “Like we could use teacup pigs. They’re cute, and girls like cute things.”

“Do they? I don’t know much about ladies,” Drakken blushed suddenly. “Don’t let Shego know I said that.”

“Your secret’s safe with me,” Em said. “Believe it or not, I’m not that great with guys. I only went to the bar last night because Nicky pushed me to go. Nicky is always trying to get me to go out and do more things.”

Em was surprised she was telling Drakken this. It seemed easy to talk to him. That would probably shock people seeing as how Dr. Drakken had a reputation for being a bit of a jerk. Yet despite what she knew about him, she was enjoying her time with him. Maybe it was because they both enjoyed science and knew what they were talking about. Either way, for the first time in a long time, Em was happy. It was nice to talk to someone else besides Nicky.

“Bah, no wonder Shego likes her so much,” Drakken said. “She’s always going on about how I need to go outside or saying how I need to get some sunlight because it’s what normal people do.”

Em chuckled. No wonder they were getting along so well; they were really similar.

“Anyways, enough about that,” Drakken took another bite of his pancakes. “Let’s finish up these pancakes, and then it’s back to the lab!”

Em finished up her pancakes. Once she was done, Drakken took them to the sink, and then they headed back to the lab. Em was happy to spend the rest of the day in the lab, coming up with plans and planning for world domination. This was one of the few times she was happy that Nicky had dragged her out of the house. She was going to have to thank her later. But for now, she would focus on finalizing the details on the laser pigs.