Just a little something to let everyone know I'm still alive, though I'm still mostly doing stuff for work. I haven't forgotten about you, DJ the Stick, or you, cyber95.
This book was a great reference, because it shows Charlie Brown comics from from their creation as the "Lil' Folks" comic, up through the end of the 1990's, with comments from Schulz himself.
My favorite part? Reading that the title "Peanuts" had been foisted onto him by publishers, and that he had been mightily pissed (as well as confused) by the title. This confirmed something that I had thought since I was old enough to think: The name "Peanuts" doesn't make sense, doesn't really fit, and it should just be called "Charlie Brown".
Apparently, Mr. Schulz thought so too.
Although I used existing Peanuts comics in the making of this image, I thought it was worth showing because 1) I did it without using a computer at any point and 2) it resembles something Charles Schulz might have done. I had a small collection of Charlie Brown books as a kid, and although my interest had waned in the last 20 years or so, I had a lot of fun doing this image, trying to get it as close as possible to the artist's own hand, and I think I did pretty well. I made sure to get the right crinkle in Charlie Brown's grumbly mouth, the right size and bend to Snoopy's mischeivous grin, and made sure to leave the reflection off Snoopy's nose (which is only shown on side-views, for some reason).
I have to thank my coworker, Dee, for the idea for Charlie Brown's Halloween costume. I had been planning to leave him un-costumed, but she mentioned that she always thought he ought to wear a dinky little cowboy hat. That, with the addition of a couple of minimalistic pistol-holders and a badge, and I had a costume for him that was a departure from his classic "ghost with too many eyeholes", but still captures the essence of Charlie Brown's existence with the hat that's too small.
The most difficult part wasn't actually the drawing but the lettering. I finally had to give up trying to imitate his distinctive and incredibly even nib pen style. I'm not crazy about the lettering I used, but it'll be okay. If I had had all the time in the world, I would have cut and pasted individual words to get the look right, but without a computer at work, the lettering would have taken hours by itself, and the fact is that my ubermanager's just not that fussy.
I did this drawing as a quick thank-you note for someone helping me out at work the other day. I actually don't know her that well, so I stuck to nice, safe subjects that very few people are allergic to. I was surprised at how readily identifiable the brownies are: I hadn't expected them to look so much like brownies. I win!
It's been another fairly long week at work, but at least the good is seeming to balance out the bad, and I actually have 2 different art projects going at the same time, so unless they absolutely can't live without me doing something else, I've been working on those.
It occurred to me that one reason I'm starting to feel a little down is because I haven't made time to do any drawing just for fun. So during the times when I wasn't working on a project for work, I decided to do this fun little design, partly just for the fun of it, partly to give one version or another to my good friend Dee when I move to another department next week (she's sad about that) and partly to make fun of people who start flapping their hands and ducking crazily whenever a bee shows up.
I never knew I had much of an interest in bees, or any insects, for that matter. I guess it just kind-of snuck up on me as diverse outside influences happened to suggest bee-related ideas. In this case, I mostly included the bee as something to draw a wild, overdesigned frame around a simple iconic subject.
The fun of drawing a piece like this is partly in allowing it to grow organically: I start out with just a few simple concentric circles and maybe X and Y axes through the center, and then I just start adding elements, filling in and connecting and repeating patterns but not worrying too much about perfect symmetry and simply incorporating any imperfections in the symmetry rather than trying to fix them or cover them up.
The design of the bee itself was inspired by the bees that are sometimes found in Gir's head. I even included Jhonen Vasquez's signature square eye-centers. Naturally, I also gave it a nice goofy and unfocused but happy expression.
Finally I'm done with both art projects I was working on for my job! It's been a lot of fun, but because of those I've barely had energy to do any personal art. It was worth it, though.
The first piece I did after the Charlie Brown one (posted here Oct 1) was a picture of Lucy. I didn't think of Wonder Woman immediately, but once it occurred to me it seemed like such a no-brainer, it was so perfect for her! She's one of the only characters I bothered putting in her own picture, but, hey, it's Lucy. She'd want it that way.
The other character who got his own drawing was Linus. Once I'd gotten on the superhero costume track, it was hard to get away from it, but Linus using his blanket as a Superman cape was so obvious and timely, I had to use that idea. Luckily, I also found this great picture of him in the pumpkin patch which I was able to replicate with the addition of the costume.
One idea that popped into my head almost immediately when I started thinking of superhero costumes was Peppermint Patty and Marcie dressed up as Batman and Robin. I loved the idea because I can totally see Patty wanting to dress up as Batman, and naturally Marcie would just go along with it in the sidekick outfit.
I had fits trying to figure out how to get Batman's cowl on Peppermint Patty and still have it obviously be her and keep the drawing looking as authentic as possible. I realized that it would make just as much sense with her not wearing the cowl, having it thrown back and checking out her candy haul and making comments to Marcie.
Once I got started on the superhero costume idea, I started casting about for some way to get Spider Man in there somewhere, since he's also widely recognizable as well as one of my favorites. I didn't want to repeat the mask-off trick I did with Peppermint Patty, so I thought it was especially appropriate to have Pigpen in the Spider Man costume, since he's one of the only characters who would be easily identifiable even if his costume covers him head-to-toe.
I wanted to have a second character there actually seeing Pigpen in his costume. Since I hadn't done any X-Men costumes but their movies have been popular lately, plus Sally's hair already resembles Wolverine's, I thought "Why not?"
The last piece I was able to do before my time ran out featured Snoopy, Woodstock and Snoopy's brother, Spike. I had played around with the idea of putting one of the kid characters in a mummy costume. Since I had already used the Pigpen for the Spider Man costume, I thought about putting the mummy costume on Snoopy, who obviously has a distinct silhouette. But after I decided on a little bat costume for Woodstock, having Snoopy in anything other than a Dracula outfit didn't seem right, so I recruited Spike.
I feel somewhat conflicted about how I'm supposed to feel about these drawings. Obviously, stylejacking Charles Schulz isn't the most difficult job because of his characters' simple designs and the finite number of poses he uses. On the other hand, I guess it did take some creative energy to match the different characters up with appropriate costumes. At least I can feel good about being the person on my job site who could have done a project like this, and that I was chosen to do it.
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Um, thank you! . . . Just wondering, why'd you repost that pic?
Oh, okay! Hee hee! Thanks!
Finally I'm done with both art projects I was working on for my job! It's been a lot of fun, but because of those I've barely had energy to do any personal art. It was worth it, though.
