Chamber of Secrets - Gilderoy Lockhart

Well, I'm here with my first post of 2013! And it's back to the 'Chamber of Secrets' gang with Professor Fancy Pants himself, Gilderoy Lockhart!

In a society where almost everyone wears long robes, it would be difficult to stand out as a "fancy pants," but that Gilderoy pulls it off easier than planting a mandrake during the winter solstice! Which I assume is easy. Since I'm not a wizard, I have no frame of reference.

Lockhart is known for his smile, and I tried to make that stand out here. I also tried to give him, (with clothing and such) a slightly heroic look, but with a twinge of phony oozing out.

This post is also a two-for-one special, because Gilderoy Lockhart without Cornish Pixies would be like the Hufflepuff basement without a Fat Friar!

...again, I have no frame of reference.

"Attaboy Clarence!"

It's Christmas Eve! And here's the last of my "It's a Wonderful Life" characters! That silly little angel, Clarence Odbody.

I drew Clarence listening to hear a bell ring, which of course, signifies an angel getting their wings. In his hand is his copy of "Tom Sawyer." I'm not really sure why Clarence carries around a Tom Sawyer book, but I think it gives the character a nice touch. Maybe it helps show his innocence or something.

It's probably a first edition, which would be worth a lot of money for George Bailey. Then again, the little personal note Clarence scribbles on the front page probably lowers the value quite a bit. Wacky angels.

I hope anyone that has been checking this blog out for the past month has enjoyed my little depictions of these characters. Have a merry Christmas and I'll see you all next year!

"This is a Very Interesting Situation!"

And next from Frank Capra's holiday classic, "It's a Wonderful Life," is the main character whose life is the wonderful one which the title refers to... George Bailey!

There are several variations of George since the film depicts him throughout his entire life, but every time I think of the guy, this is the image that pops into my head first. It's from the scene where George is walking Mary home from the dance. The expression he has on his face while he harmlessly bullies Mary cracks me up every time. I'm not sure if I did it justice with this drawing or not.

One of the things I love about the movie is just how "realistic" the romance between George and Mary seems. I'm not saying anything new when I say that Jimmy Stewart is one of the greatest actors of all time, and his and Donna Reed's rapport is, (for me at least) the number one reason this movie is so good.

"Hello, Georgie."

Next in my lineup of favorite characters from "It's a Wonderful Life" is the lovely Violet Bick. Violet isn't a very big character in the film, but still an important one. George Bailey doesn't really do much that would directly affect Violet, and yet even her life is different without him. I think this shows how you can have a positive impact on someone's life just by generally being a good person.

As far as the drawing goes, I can't help but see how much room for improvement I have when it comes to drawing women. One of the goals in drawing these characters was to capture the recognizable traits of the actor in a "cartoony" style. However, the more I tried to make this look like actress Gloria Grahame, the more and more hideous she became. In other words, the LESS she looked like Gloria Grahame. While I like the final version, I think she comes across as a little too generic.

Hopefully, next week's character will be a different story.

"I'm All Right! I'm Aaaaaaaall Right!"

It's the craziest thing! There just isn't that much fan art for "It's a Wonderful Life!" Go figure.

This holiday classic is, I have to say, my favorite movie of all time! If you haven't seen it, then OMG, as the kids say, Netflix that badboy ASAP! Hopefully you'll love it as much as I do.

Since it is my favorite movie, and since the Christmas season is my favorite time of year, I thought I'd spend this month drawing some of my favorite characters from Mr. Capra's masterpiece.

First up is Uncle Billy. Played by the great Thomas Mitchell, Billy Bailey is the uncle of main character George, and although he's pretty scatterbrained, he's lovable and loyal to a fault. He also has a couple of strange pets that he lets live in his office. I thought it would be fun to have them in here as well, including Jimmy the Raven, which was actually a good luck charm for director Frank Capra, having appeared in several of his films.

I'm starting to sound like Robert Osborne now, so I guess I'll give it a rest. Come back next week for the next in the lineup.

Chamber of Secrets - Dobby

I guess most major franchises have their "Jar Jar Binks." You know what I'm talking about, that one annoying character that's just sort of there and could easily be left out. The Lord of the Rings has Pippin. Thundercats has Snarf. Star Wars has... well... Jar Jar Binks. For Harry Potter, in my opinion, it's Dobby. I'm sure some could argue that Dobby served a purpose of some kind, but I just seemed to wince every time he showed up.

Aunt Petunia's Pudding, on the other hand, I feel is the very core of the entire Harry Potter series. Don't ask me why.

Don't.

This is going to do it with the Harry Potter stuff for a while. I wanted to do something different for the holidays, but worry not! I'll have the rest of the Book Two gang after the New Year!

Chamber of Secrets - Hermione Granger

Ah... Miss Granger. I had a lot of fun drawing this one. Hermione's hair, in general, is fun to draw! Hermione as a cat... that's fun! Plus, since she's supposed to be disguising herself as Millicent Bulstrode, I got to color her robes with that cool Slytherin green. Again... Fun!

Chamber of Secrets - Ron Weasley

Continuing with the brilliant characters from J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets," we have the one and only, Ronald Bilius Weasley!

This was a real fun one to draw, even though I had to have gone through about a million rough drafts. Albeit entertaining, drawing a person vomiting can be a little difficult. 

This is from the scene where Ron is hit with an aptly named Slug-Vomiting Charm, which (in my version at least) causes him to hork up very muppety looking slugs.

Hork... That's a fun word.

Hork.

H is for Halloween

I'll get back to the Harry Potter stuff next week.

This being the week of All Hallow's Eve, or Halloween to all you sellouts, I thought I'd share this piece I made for a friend of mine.

He's a school teacher collecting alphabet art for his classroom (A is for Aquaman etc.) and requested I make him one for Halloween. Here's what I came up with.

For the little trick-or-treaters, I decided to use some original characters that have been bouncing around in my head for a couple of years but never really made their way to paper. I'll introduce you to them as I develop them more later on.

Hopefully my friend liked this, as I hope you do too. Happy Halloween!