Pete and Penny Penguin

I've always been a fan of theme park characters. I don't know why exactly. There's just something... I dunno, "magical" about standing next to some stranger with a big foam head. When I was a kid, I actually got butterflies in my stomach while walking up to meet one at whatever theme park I was at. What am I saying? I STILL get the butterflies! It's weird.

I don't know if they're still around or not, but SeaWorld used to have "Shamu and Crew" which were their Meet-and-Greet characters based on the beloved Orca and several other sea animals. My favorites were Pete and Penny Penguin. There's no real reason why they're my favorites, I guess, other than the fact that I like penguins and they're penguins.

Dolly the Dolphin would probably be my second favorite, simply because
of her incredibly creative name.

And so, as is the case with many little pieces of yesteryear floating around in my head, I decided to draw Pete and Penny. I wanted to give them a new look, so I slightly morphed my Penguin Suits design. Who knows? I might try my luck at doing more Penguin Suits someday with THIS type of look. It's like Superman's dad said, "The son becomes the father, and then the father..."

Meh. Whatever. Now I'm just rambling.

Here! Penguins!

Labeling Mr. Potter - PART TWO

As promised, here are my set of disc labels for "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets."

I first read the Harry Potter books back in 2007. I had seen all of the films up to that point, and thought I'd give the books a shot since there was such so much hubbub being made. However, instead of sitting and looking at actual pages like some medieval neanderthal, I joined the digital age and listened to the audio books.

While I loved the story and the superb way it was read by the great Jim Dale, I thought the labels for each of the discs were a little... lackluster. But since I'm a nerd, Problem SOLVED! And thus I was inspired to create my own disc labels with J.K. Rowling's wonderful characters!

I figure this will be a sort of on-again off-again project for me, so who knows when I'll get around to the Prisoner of Azkaban. I will eventually, I'm sure.

Chamber of Secrets - Albus Dumbledore

Here's the last in my Chamber of Secrets lineup, (finally, right?) Albus Percival Wulfric Bryan Dumbledore.

Now, to tear myself down a little. I tried to make Dumbledore resemble Merlin from Disney's "Sword in the Stone" because I always kind of pictured Dumbledore as Merlin-esque. Although, after the fact, I think I made him look too much like Disney's Merlin. Dumbledore has a much sweeter demeanor than Merlin, and I don't really feel like that is conveyed well here. In fact, you could replace Fawkes with Archimedes the Owl, and this wouldn't look like a Harry Potter pic at all.

Ah well. This sort of self-criticism is one of the reasons I'm drawing these guys in the first place. Hopefully, my Dumbledore will improve when I revisit him some time down the line.

And now to give myself a little pat on the back... I think Fawkes looks awesome!