#the first ones actually a vague redraw from 2017

[amoebeau]

they are my comfort characters and i can draw them as many times as i want

[biolizardboils]

Crumpled Up Pages: Old Captain Underpants WIPs #1-4

The First Epic Movie turned 5 earlier this month, and I dug through some old folders to write this post about it. In the process, I found some fanfic ideas I’d written down, fleshed out a little, and then forgot about for years. So while hyperfixation still has its grip on me (and while there’s still some extra activity in the tag), I figured I’d finally set these dust bunnies free!

A few ground rules before this deep dive descends:

When I say “fleshed out a little,” I’m putting major emphasis on the “little.” Some of these docs contain detailed notes and snippets of dialogue, but others are just a title and a vague one-sentence summary. I’ll be transparent about what each one contains, and try to fill in the bigger gaps by memory.

If you were around for the CU Fandom Renaissance of 2017, some of the ideas here might sound familiar, ‘cus I refitted them into fanart and headcanon dumps that actually got posted. I’ll link to those where they’re relevant.

These were all written and abandoned months before a CU show was even announced, so there’s no Epic Tales content or characters in here. Sorry if you were expecting any!

I’m splitting this into two posts cus it was getting and taking too long. This first part will cover the 4 simplest, fluffiest WIPs; the second one will tackle the 6 sadder, more character-heavy ones. And with character-heavy stuff comes spoilers for the movie and books — especially the books. If you haven’t read all 12, you’re probably wondering why anyone would care about Captain Underpants spoilers. First off, your loss; second off, BEWARE!

And finally: if you write fanfiction and feel inspired to use any of these ideas? You have my permission to do so! Seriously, steal anything here and put your own spin on them! I don’t care much for credit, but if these old things help fuel someone else’s creativity, I’d love to know!

That’s enough prep, probably. Plug your nose!

WIP #1: Inspiration

It can come from even the worst of places. ...And people, in this case. [Book!Verse, pre-Book 1.]

This document contains a long script, but no context; I can remember the gist though, so I’ll insert that in-between dialogue. Basically it’s third grade, and George and Harold are in detention again. They cheat to fill up the blackboards like usual, but they’re too bummed out to start a comic afterwards. George sits around stewing in his frustration while Harold angry-scribbles Mr. Krupp yelling.

“...Why does he hate us so much, George?”

“I dunno. Maybe ‘cause he can’t handle our coolness? …Nice drawing, by the way.”

“Thanks. …It’s making me sad just lookin’ at it, though.”

“Yeah, me too. …I wonder what he’d look like if he smiled.”

“...?”

“...I mean, like, a real smile, not an I’ve-got-you-now smile.”

“Oh. Hmmm…”

Harold erases Krupp’s wide yelling mouth and draws a goofy smile in its place.

“Aw, man, now it’s just creepy.”

“Darn.”

The boys keep editing the drawing until it stops being creepy and starts being funny. George erases Krupp’s toupee, remembering the time they stole it and the teachers couldn’t take him seriously without it. Harold draws one of his office curtains around his neck, adding more color and kinetic energy. Soon they’re struggling not to laugh out loud, but they manage to calm down… until George gets an idea that takes the sketch from great to legendary.

“Waitwaitwaitwaitwait. Remember what my pop said about Superman yesterday?”

“That he looks like… DUDE. Duuuuuude.”

Harold redraws Krupp’s entire lower body so he’s only wearing underwear. Then with a flourish, he adds the finishing touch – two dots on his chest – and they both lose it. All their laughter finally prompts the real Krupp to check on them, and predictably, he rips up the drawing. It upsets the boys in the moment, but they’re still in much higher spirits than before, and brainstorm a new comic about their new creation as they skateboard home.

“You think we should make his origin issue first?”

“Naw, let’s get right to the action! His outfit’s already the perfect hook – finally, a superhero who actually does fly around in his underwear!”

“Yeah, and he could fight with Wedgie Power!”

God, rediscovering this gave me the most uncontrollable grin. From the date it was last opened, I think this fic was meant for September 1st, 2017 (Book 1’s 20th anniversary), and I gave up after missing it. For shame, 2017!me. For shame.

——————————————————————————————————

WIP #2: Untitled Boomer One-shot

Harold won’t admit it, but he’d slay a dragon for his little sister. [Book!Verse but only cus this scene was deleted and is thus dubiously canon]

This doc’s nothing but notes, so I’ll paraphrase the plot: Ms. Hutchins takes Heidi and Harold to Boomer the Purple Dragon: Live! Harold was gonna stay with the Beards but they cancelled last minute, and he’s grumpy about it the whole time. When the show ends, kids gather in front of the stage to meet Boomer; Ms. Hutchins suddenly gets an important call, and makes Harold walk Heidi up there. 

But the dragon’s mascot suit is big up close for a 6-year-old, and Heidi gets so scared she starts crying. She’s rooted to the spot and waves her arms in panic, but “Boomer” thinks she wants a hug and waddles closer and closer... until Harold kicks him in the groin. Their mom understandably grounds him for it, but Heidi is grateful and calls him her hero :)

This one was based on the classic “kid hits mascot in the weak spot” genre of AFV, but also on an early memory of mine! My sister and I loved Arthur as babies, so our mom took us to see this thing. The characters suddenly being real (and huge) was so upsetting that we scream-cried until she took us home early. (Speaking of Arthur, it’s a shame Heidi’s never really done anything in canon, I can see her having big DW energy.)

——————————————————————————————————

WIP #3: When Worlds Collide

It was less “love at first sight” and more “love at first squawk.” [Book!Verse, Book 7.]

A quick refresher: George told Harold to take Crackers back to dinosaur times, but he left her in the treehouse with Sulu instead. Later in the book, they’re shown snuggling in their sleep 🥺🥺 Anyway, this fic was about what they got up to in between! It’s actually the most complete of the lot, but only because it’s so short and simple.

It opens with Harold introducing them to each other, leaving out some treats for them (hamster food for Sulu, crackers for Crackers), then telling them to play nice until he comes back. They do not. Crackers pulls a Thunderclap the moment Harold leaves, Sulu karate-chops her throat until she spits him out, and they wreck half the treehouse in the ensuing chase.

Eventually they settle for standing in opposite corners and hissing at each other. Then Sulu… *squints* …records Crackers’ hisses with his bionic ears and plays them back so they can communicate? …Yeah, okay, why not. The outline ends after this sudden development; I’m guessing they talk things out and start to catch feels, before settling in to sleep. Anyway here’s the few sentences I actually wrote out:

Harold opened the door, Sulu got on the floor, and in walked the curious dinosaur.

[…] As predator and prey faced off, a little boy and his mother happened to be walking down Vine Street. “Mommy,” said the little boy, “I can hear a bionic hamster and a pterodactyl fighting in that treehouse!”

“Oh, please,” his mother scoffed. “How do you even know what that would sound like?”

The boy considered pointing out the CHOMPs, SQUEAKs, and SQUAAAWKs emanating from the tree in big blocky letters, but decided it wasn’t quite worth the trouble.

The doc ends with a reminder to not refer to Crackers with any pronouns until the two pets can understand each other. Also I was gonna title this after a Tony Orlando and Dawn song as foreshadowing, but I couldn’t choose one, so instead I went with this Spongebob song lol.

——————————————————————————————————

WIP #4: Untitled Tommy One-shot

The school’s been near bully-free ever since Treehouse Comix Inc. was formed. Tommy reflects on this from the safety of his locker. [Movie!Verse with a hint of Book 9. CW: discussion of bullying.]

A Kid I Never Named knocks on Tommy’s locker and offers to trade Pilkeymon. They have to be sneaky, because it’s the 90′s and they have to slip a Link Cable through the locker vents without being spotted.

As they trade, the other kid asks Tommy why he hides all the time. He explains that it’s a habit from when Kipper Krupp terrorized the halls. But Kipper left four years ago, and the legend of Wedgie Magee has kept other bullies at bay ever since; the other kid points this out and asks why he still hides. This led into “a somber discussion on adverse school experiences and the long-lasting coping mechanisms they cause” (exact words from the doc). Unfortunately 2017!me never wrote any dialogue, and I’m mad at her for that.

Trivia drop! I used the Pilkeymon joke a few times at @treehouseblogsinc, but it’s way older than that, and also not mine: Pilkey.com used to have a coloring game named Pilkeymon’s Paintbox. It even had art of Dav’s old spiky-haired avatar with Pikachu ears! There’s no trace of it on the Internet anymore, but I swear I’m not making this up.

I left a note here to add that Tommy has glow-in-the-dark stickers in his locker, which ended up in this headcanon dump. There’s also a list of last names I came up with for him but never chose between: Chambers, Lakatos (which I shared once here), and Lockenspiel. Right now I’m leaning towards the last one, it rolls nicely off the tongue.

——————————————————————————————————

That’s it for now! Not gonna lie, I’m still nervous about posting the other 6 WIPs. Most of them deal with Book 12, and all the tough subjects that that entails. But hey, I made this bed, and by God am I gonna lie in it. Thanks for reading so far!

[coles-scythe]

Very very rough WIP of my man 2D for a redraw of a redraw of a screenshot of a virtual live performance. Sharing on here bc I don't want this to get much attention and I wanna gush about him a lil. Old art + screenshot and f/o gushing under the cut.

AAAA the improvement from the sketch alone holy cowwww. The drawing is August of 2019, so nearly 4 years ago. Very excited to finish this one, hopefully I can tomorrow.

Anyways-- I wanna talk about my history of listening to Gorillaz and my slowburn crush on 2D. Plus a little of what I've figured out about my S/I.

2D is one of my older F/Os by technicality. I never actively self shipped with him until recently, but I've had that big crush on him since I was a freshman in high school. So around 2016/17. I was vaguely aware of Gorillaz before then, but only because my cousins had shown me two different music videos. One of Clint Eastwood, and the other of Devil Inside by Slipknot. Watching those back-to-back + having a phobia of eyes did not turn out well and for the longest time I was terrified of 2D because my cousins told me he didn't have eyes at all. I later learned from a friend I met in my freshman year that isn't entirely true, his eyes just have eight ball fractures and are drawn to look like they're gone. I had also apparently confused the Slipknot music I had heard for the Clint Eastwood video, so that friend made me watch the video again with them and I realized I actually really like the song lol. From there I fell down the whole rabbit whole for Gorillaz and 2D quickly became one of my favs. Russell is sorta still my fav because I'm biased towards drummers, but Stu is a very close second LOL. I read a bunch of fanfiction, mainly X Readers of him on Wattpad. Fun fact, this is also around the time I started seriously questioning my gender, and started reading/writing male readers to explore those feelings lol.

So then I listened to their music and doodled them occasionaly when I was first starting art in my sophomore year, but I didn't really get involved in the fandom or anything besides reading fanfiction on Wattpad. 2017 was peak for me since they dropped Saturnz Barz after years of silence from Plastic Beach. Despite all the new music I was constantly listening to, my mini-hyperfixation on the bad quickly faded. Two years passed before I realized it, it was suddenly 2019 and I was a fresh high school graduate with a massive hyperfixation on Splatoon. Phase 5 had concluded a few months prior and my brain decided it was a great time to have a little redux of my Gorillaz hyperfixation.

I started drawing them, mainly 2D, more often and got very into the fandom on Insta and Tumblr. Met some pretty chill people, a few of whom I'm still mutuals with on my main :D!! But the entire time, I was still in my "self ship is cringe" phase and kinda ignored anything I was feeling towards 2D. I was still reading and contemplating making my own X Reader fics of him on Wattpad, but that was all irrelevant to me I guess. Eventually that hyperifxation on them passed and I returned to my regularly scheduled Splatoon hyperfix.

Fast forward to another year later in 2020 and into 2021, I finally embraced my cringe and started self shipping again for the first time since I was like 9. First with Erik from Dragon Quest, then several Persona characters (most importantly Adachi lol), then Happy Chaos, and I've been jumping around from crush to crush I've had since I was a kid. Very good for the soul, 10/10 would reccomend reconnecting with childhood F/Os lol. As of a few months ago I starting thinking of 2D as a potential F/O before officially naming him a romantic F/O!!

All this time I've been tossing around different ideas for a self insert, but haven't really explored it until I named him my F/O. I'm still figuring that stuff out, but I at least know they knew each other before D-Day! Not too sure about Phase 1 stuff, but I do know they'll reappear in Stu's life during the band's break between Phases 1 and 2 and maybe they start dating each other by the time Phase 2 does roll around OwO. And then my insert also gets kidnapped by Murdoc and gets shipped off to Plastic Beach with 2D. They become the stand-in drummer for the band while Russ is MIA. Then for Phase 4 and beyond? I have no idea lol.

Sorry for just rambling about this, but I like sharing the origin stories for my F/Os and 2D is one of those that has a very long and somewhat complicated story. I've liked him a lot since I really got into the band's music, but I was so absorbed into cringe culture and avoiding being called cringe that I just ignored any potential story I could tell between us. Plus all the gender dysphoria and less than stellar reactions I got from my friends didn't exactly help matters lol. But I'm no longer an egg, those unsupportive friends are out of my life, and I am cringe and I am free babey!!!

[digitalgate02]

#KizunaCountdown day21

You know there’s so much I’d like to talk about but no actual idea.

Day 21 - Ni’s Bonus choice for the free day.

I pick... Talk about how much important tri. was to lead us into Kizuna.

This is a risky subject but I daresay tri. causing a lot of hurt for people helped to make Toei take new actions to recover the lost audience.

“But Ni, tri. was a success!” are you sure? While yes, they went well in all movies, they were released close to other big movie/franchise names enough to not be very well. Not to mention the huge breaks between each movie -- having like, starting in 2015 and ending in 2018. While we had two movies in each 2016 and 2017, I consider those pauses too long to a story like that.

The story has the weight of a 50-part episode, some things were left open. Too many of them in my opinion. It’s not the format, I swear. They simply had taken bad choices, like the unnecessary scenes/fanservice which would’ve been toned down and add things the fans wanted to know -- about the 02 kids whereabouts & status, Maki and Daigo’s backstory, Alphamon’s role, and who the heck was Mysterious Man (which I assume is neither a Gennai and that Gennai form is just another identity he stole)

Most of the fans who disliked tri. were turned down by something. That being 02 kids, portrayal or not enjoying the art style, etc. Those critics, as much they sound selfish or stupid, were valid feelings. In my opinion, most of the characters were acting differently -- some I liked, some I disliked so much -- but the 02 kids being treated like that was disrespectful with the original sequel and its fans. Art style, on the other hand, I loved so much. But back to what I meant: People were disappointed with something in each movies the feeling of betrayal by the writing caused so many angry voices on the net.

Okay so... why those were so important? While tri. was in the last movie, Kizuna was in development. That, according to Kakudou vague tweets about a project he was helping with but decided to quit due to artistic clashes. He did not mean those as “this project sucks” and also had to explain himself on his blog saying “people who liked tri. might enjoy the project”

You know the internet had evolved very fast and on our current days there’s a very much strong connection between producers, staff, and fans right? So, if you go looking at every interview about Kizuna, you will realize Toei has been listening to our complaints. They saw what went wrong with tri. and what went well. I daresay tri. mistakes led Toei to pull another Adventure movie to not just grab money with but ALSO to make peace with OG!Adv & 02 fans.

What choices are so blatant from tri. to Kizuna? 

1- Art Style

One of the complaints for tri when the first key art got revealed was the faces. You could find a lot of “fix-it” redraws and edits of the characters. While I loved the art style... I didn’t like how Joe’s hair became black blue and how Yamato’s haircut made him look like an older Takeru twin. Mimi’s hair worked sometimes but some material had it pretty bad. While they fixed one of my complaints about Hikari’s design in 02, which were the big forehead she had.

What Kizuna staff did? They got the original character designer from OG!Adv and 02 to work in the movie -- if you look at the artstyle for Kizuna, they have some signature parallels with OG!Adv and 02.

Some people didn’t like the design, but most of the fans did like -- at least the crowd I saw by myself. And, while it’s the same artist, you can clearly notice his improvement from 1999 to 2019~2020.

Now, a comparison between those:

OG - 02 - tri. - Kizuna (To Sora short)

Can you notice the difference? Kizuna may not be very much the same as OG, but when you look at...

You can clearly realize the huge development of the designer’s style & art. (Sorry I’d call him by his name but sadly I’m not good at typing his name yet orz)

2 - 02 characters official return

Believe me or not, MANY PEOPLE (me included) wanted to see Daisuke, Miyako, Iori and Ken back. Not only in the west but also in the east too. When tri. omitted them in art & promo art, plus in summaries... People were upset. Then, Reunion opens with that tragic scene. VERY BRILLIANT but they wasted time and movies. The fans were concerned with them, when tri. staff wasn’t expecting for that. Not even Toei I guess. The huge disappointment with the lack of them was clear. And the fact the last movie had so little about them... Sad huh?

Sad enough to make people NOT believe when the 02 kids were announced in Kizuna, with legit design, new voices and the return of the 02 digimon cast. They made it a BIG BIG DEAL, as I point out the official announcement was a SUPRISE of DigiFes2019. 

Also let’s not forget that one of the newest content after the very first trailer released on Anime Expo was...

...the clip shown on DigiFes2019. Yep, the special sneak peak of the babies.

So I consider tri. the cause of Toei’s realization that 02 and 02 kids -- not just Ken and Daisuke -- sell. They’re beloved, people want them and I know a LOT of people who were screaming and crying when the announcement was in fact real.

3 - New characters [SPOILER FREE]

Okay, tri. had very cool concepts but we had so little new content with the new characters and somehow they were badly done -- Like Daigo spending most of the movie being clueless and futile, and when he finally gets a big role & action (movie 5) he is killed in the last movie. While yeah, Daigo’s death was so important for Taichi’s development I believe it would’ve been better IF we had seen more of Taichi-Daigo and Daigo-Taichi interactions. Daigo had so little importance to the plot in my opinion. Also Maki had one the most unsatisfying closures, as I’ve mentioned before here.  Meiko is the catalyst of the plot, being Meicoomon’s reason to evolve and go on rampage, and in the end she loses Meicoomon and what they do with her? Send her back to Tottori. Yup.

The PVs for tri. has a mysterious girl and cat under the bridge, and that gave a lot of ideas about her and her role as well.

While... Kizuna someone makes clear the new characters have a strong role in the plot -- Bellucci and Imura are researching about the Chosen Children and Digimon Partners’ bonds. The PV featuring her makes her get no mysterious girl vibes, she’s shown with her name voice and her role. She’s a key character, and you know that.

The reduction of the number of parts for the plot is a good point I guess. While I feel tri. long pauses ruined the conception of the plot and drama, I hope Kizuna being a standalone movie makes things straight.

With this, I conclude saying tri. is good yeah, but its mistakes made Kizuna be real. So I thank tri. for the efforts and for letting Toei make one more movie with the original Adventure series.

Peace~

[doodlenab]

Speedpaint: https://youtu.be/OtwGNRE4-9g Prints: https://www.redbubble.com/people/doodlenab/works/33318378-aesling-the-neck-stabber-fanart-thrilling-intent A redraw of two old artworks featuring Ashe from Thrilling Intent! The original drawing is from November 2016, the first redraw I did of it is from June 2017, and the newest one was drawn yesterday (August 2018) Fun fact, the first redraw of it was actually what lead to me changing my lighting and shading style to what it is now, as someone on Instagram commented a very vague two word criticism of it and I practiced it specifically out of spite.

[ahshesgone]

2017 Creators Tag

Rules: It’s time to love yourselves! Choose your 5 favorite works you’ve created this year (fics, art, edits, etc!) and link them below to reflect on the amazing things you’ve brought into the world in 2017. Tag as many writers/artists/etc as you want (fan or original!) so we can spread the love and link each other to awesome works. <3

thank you for tagging me @skadventuretime! these are also in chronological order because growth or whatever:

This Thing, inspired by @marshofsleep‘s If Only Tonight We Could Sleep. I guess this is as good self-reflection time as any: Kudos for managing to convince myself to try my hand at a vague background, but still, too lazy. Also, the characters look like like they’ve been pasted from different works onto this one, and there’s no actual connection between them. Ideally they’d be more interactive with each other. Not necessarily actually touching, but indicating that they are, in fact, acknowledging one another. Other than that, good job on Maka’s pants and intense face, me.

This here, which was my first semi-serious attempt at comic-ing, I guess. If I were to mess with it now, I would: redraw Soul, colour correct quite a bit, and be way more specific with my values. If I black-and-white this, there will be little to none value variation. Other than that, good job on the cinematic blerg passage of time, me, well done.

This Thing ...which is also from a @marshofsleep classic, Swallowing the Brimstone. Marsh fic always gets all up in my business and intrudes and when I manage to draw it out, I sometimes like the results. I still like this, and I don’t think I’d mess with it. This is still good. 

These sketches. These were over and done with really fast, and I really managed to convey what I was feeling at the time. I was feeling scratchy and murderous and also beat up. Good job on feeling, me. Soul’s face could do with a bit more definition, and top Maka’s face could do with a bit more VALUE VARIATION, thanks.

Finally, this. When I was sketching this out, or thinking that I wanted to do something like it, my one rule to myself was ‘you don’t have to get it done in one sitting, you can take your time with it, and make it good’. I got tired by the end, and I can see that at the bottom of the Maka piece and with Soul’s shirt. I spent more slow time on Maka, and it shows. Soul was more impatiently done. Better values on Maka. Soul’s face needs a re-distribution of light, and also wtf is going on with hair, when his forehead is so dark, me? Anyway, good job on managing to tone down the rush, good job on sticking with it. Please, sit your ass down and do more things like this in the future.

The greatest of my tumbler art of 2017, though, the people who tag my art. Thank you. It gives me life. 

Interestingly, these were all done in the March-June bracket, which was, historically, a bad time to be me. But, it was around the time @sahdah and I started talking, which I sincerely think helped, and still helps, a lot with coming to terms with drawing? and feelings, in general. So, thank you for being my friend, and can you believe you also made it into my arts? I’m so lucky. 

tagging @sahdah, @eisschirmchen, @innocentcinnamonbun, @whos-that-foxi-lady and sorry for tagging you guys also (madi already did) but @expshared, @marshofsleep