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A PUP NAMED SCOOBY DOO IS COMING BACK!!!!! .....sort of.

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So, they're making a new Scooby Doo direct-to-DVD movie featuring puppets instead of animation or actors. And these puppets are modeled after the Pup Named Scooby Doo designs!!




I'm TRYING to hold in my excitement until some information about the writers and voice actors involved is released. But this trailer looks pretty cool so far! It's a Wal-Mart exclusive DVD and it will be released July 23.

Since Pup is my favorite Scooby incarnation ever, I'll share some of my hopes for this thing here:

--I hope they do what the original show did and cast actual children to play the gang instead of the current cast. As mush as I love the current VAs, I'm pretty certain that Grey Delisle is the only one among them who can pull off a convincing kid voice.

--Speaking of voice actors, Scott Menville would be the ONE exception to the rule I just posted. Because that guy STILL sounds just like he did when he originally played Red Herring in the early 90s and I just can't fathom anyone but him as Red.

--I hope it goes with the Pup characterizations instead of the ones that are currently used with the grown-up gang in the latest movies. Specifically, I want the return of Snarky-Daphne, Conspiracy-Theorist-Fred, and Wall-Flower-Velma.
Also, I want to see at least one of these moments in puppet form:



...because these two are still one of my BFF-OTPs!! ^_^;


EDIT: Thanks to ms_verma , I now know the cast list:
Shaggy: Matthew Lillard
Scooby/Freddy: Frank Welker
Daphne: Grey DeLisle-Griffin
Velma: Stephanie D'Abruzzo

It sucks that Velma's actress is the only one getting replaced for this thing (IMO, Mindy Cohn could probably do a more convincing kiddie voice than Welker and Lillard). But Stephanie D'Abruzzo is an interesting replacement (she's a puppeteer famous for helping create the Avenue Q broadway show). I'm curious to see how she'll handle the character.



How Disney's The Little Mermaid SHOULD have ended (take 2)

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I decided to do another alternate ending for this movie because I think it's a comedy goldmine!




Also, I know I can't be the only person who ever thought "why doesn't Ariel just ask for some paper and write Eric a note!?". I vaguely remember being a little kid and pointing out this plothole to my classmates (yes, even then I was a pedantic nerd).


I like the way this one turned out. But I still think my last "alternate Little Mermaid ending" comic was funnier.

First Tablet paint job

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Today a wonderfully awesome person named Diane (aka ichiban_victory) generously donated one of her old Wacom tablets to me. And this was the first thing I attempted to digitally color.

Original sketch



Color test



Obviously, I still have a lot to learn. But hopefully I'll get better as I get used to handling a tablet. It's certainly easier to get colors right on Photoshop than by working with a limited palette of colored pencils

Second go with the new tablet (plus random sketch dumps)

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I think I may be getting better at this! :)




I will say this for digital coloring: it is SO much easier to find just the right color you wanna use! And that'll be useful for varying skin tones on characters!


Original Sketch is here




And here's a random assortment of other related sketches I've done lately....

Sly Cooper/Rescue Rangers crossover

(The first pic was drawn a while ago. But I just wanted to group them together)








More Humanized Carmelita





More subtle commentary about Carmelita's Sly 4 redesign...






And finally, ROMANCE AND FRIENDSHIP FLUFF!!!!!













That's it for now! More to come later!

More of the "Inspector Cooper" AU

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I finally got around to posting more art for the Inspector Cooper AU that earthstar_moon, gullwhacker, and I have been playing around with.

First some re-design ideas for Neyla




I just thought it would be fun to give her a more "ethnic" look. And, since she ends up on the run at some point in the story, a disguise that covers her up more just seems to make sense.


Next up is some more Penelope/Carmelita buddy scribbles.




I dig the idea of Penelope outfitting Carmelita's reading glasses with some sweet features in order to convince her to get over her vanity and wear them all the time.


This next one isn't related to the AU story per se (though it could possibly fit in somewhere). I just felt like drawing some fluffy "nakama" images of the gang








BONUS: Talespin cross-over / AU

Jo recently gave me some ideas for how to insert the Sly characters into the Talespin universe. So I played around with that here.





"Phineas" is a hard name to spell!! LOL

Anyway, since Penelope would likely have to pose as a man in order to work as a pilot without being harassed (yes, sexism against female pilots was a thing in the Talespin series), I decided she should have short hair. And I can see her opting to indulge in very feminine clothes when she's not flying a plane or doing mechanical work

All I did to Carmelita was zip up her jacket and put up her hair. Because why mess with perfection?

I wanted to give Neyla an outfit that was more conservative/traditional (since Talespin basically takes place in the 1930s) but also would allow her to jump around rooftops and whatnot.



RANDOM SLY SCRIBBLES

Just because I wanted to!





Obligatory Bentley/Penelope fluff (Because F**K Sanzaru and F**K the sexist f**king forth game, that's why!!!!)



Humanized La Fwee (I feel like a dumbass because I forgot his left hand was actually a hook/sword thingy when I was drawing it >_< )




And a crappy humanized Doctor M






Oh, and in case you're wondering, this Sly Cooper kick will only end once my brain has been cleansed of the-game-that-shall-not-be-named.  So.....it'll be a while.

Scooby art post (ATTN: RIVKA)

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A friend's daughter made this request:
""Fred and Daphne getting married. I was thinking of having it be under a chuppah""
....and the doodle on the bottom of this page is what I came up with...



...I'll do a more polished version later. But the Pup idea was the first to come to mind.

And here's some extra Scooby scribbles just because!


Cutesy dress designs for Velma (my inner Rarity struck)!




Shaggy/Velma fluff







The above drawing was inspired by the scene in the first episode of A Pup Named Scooby Doo where Velma got scared and hid under Shaggy's shirt (while he was still wearing it!)





Daphne/Velma fluff








More Rivka scribbles to come later!

Tablet Test (Take Two)

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I finished another coloring job on my new tablet. This time, I tried coloring around my original ink work instead of tracing my lines in photoshop like I did in the last test




And here's the original drawing:



I'm not sure which method I prefer. Tracing the linework makes it WAY easier to insert backgrounds (plus, the lines are cleaner and pop out more when they're digital). But hand inking looks better/smoother than my attempts to trace over my stuff on the tablet. So I guess the methods are pretty much equal at this point.

Art Post of Randomness (again)!

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Here's an art post of random silly things I've drawn lately. We'll start with Adventure Time!




Now for some non-fanart original stuff!

===







Back to the fanart!!!

HUMANIZED RESCUE RANGERS

Here's some half-finished "Humanized Rescue Rangers" doodles that I forgot about until I dug them out of one of my MANY "unfinished ideas" folders. LOL

==






Yeah, I've shipped Gadget/Dale since I was four-years-old. I still think they're WAY more compatible than Chip/Gadget because their individual flavors of dorkiness compliment each other so well. But maybe that's just me.

Also, my idea when humanizing them was to make Zipper into a parrot. I still dig that idea.
.....I REALLY need to revisit this idea and finish the damn thing! Believe it or not, I put this on the back burner because Chip's fedora was hard to draw and I ended up getting frustrated and quitting. I WISH I was kidding! -_-


Humanized MLP sketches

The Rarity & Sweetie Belle scene is my fave!


==


DC Comic Girls

==



Fat-Amanda-Waller is still the BEST Amanda Waller! ^_^


Final Fantasy X

I don't care how stupid it is, I still love the heck out of this game!


===


Cardcaptor Sakura


Just because I was feeling nostalgic!



---

Anatomy of a comic page

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I drew most of my recent "How the Little Mermaid should have ended" comic on my lunch breaks at work. My co-workers saw me working on it in the break room and they were actually pretty fascinated/shocked to find out that so much planning and math goes into making a comic page (they saw me using a ruler and calculator while drawing and thought that seemed weird). So I stopped to explain to them that I had to measure how much panel/paper space I was working with and figure out how much space each panel needed to get the point across. I also explained the process of trimming the dialog and scenes in order to figure out how to get the point across in just one page. To my surprise, they found it to be really interesting; so I thought I'd put my scratch pages with the measurements here just so you guys can see it, too.


Initial Idea Page

This is where I brain-stormed my idea for the comic and which scenes I wanted to include.



As you can tell, this page started it's life as a simple Velma drawing. But my muse had other ideas. LOL


The "Planning Page"

This is where I started measuring how much panel space I would need (I measured for both a vertical and horizontal layout), how the panels should look, how many panels there should be, and which ideas needed to be cut to make the joke come across better. It's also the step where I start trimming the dialog so the comic doesn't end up being too text-heavy.




The finished comic (pre-inking)





Finished comic!




Well, there it is! That's my creative process. I typically don't show off my brain-storming doodles because they tend to be ugly and boring. But my co-workers thought that the comic-making process was interesting. So I figured I'd share it here, too.

Caption: LARPing

SCANS: Talespin #7 (aka the closest thing we've got to a "final episode")

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So, I FINALLY got my hands on an issue of the old Talespin comic series that I've been trying to find for ages....



....and I've been wanting to find it because this story was written by one of the show writers and it gives us some back story on Kit and Molly that the show never touched on. And, IMO, reading this comic felt like getting the finale episode of Talespin that never happened (and likely never will considering the legal limbo surrounding the Jungle Book characters and the fact that BOOM Comics is no longer allowed to touch the Disney titles).

I think every fan of the series needs to read this. So I scanned it and put it here.

WARNING!
If you love the show (and if you're a big fan of Kit and/or Molly) you might wanna have a tissue or two handy.

On to the scans!

==





I wonder if Kit suspects that the "business trip" is just an elaborate ruse to cover up the fact that Baloo and Rebecca are going on an overnight date (and he's just too polite to come out and say it). ~_^


.

I love Molly's warped view of what it's like to have a brother.







Yep. This comic features a child having traumatic, PTSD flashbacks! O_o




That was a VERY effective callback to the first episode.

And I really like how the writers use subtle little details (like Kit commenting on how much stuff he has now) to show the contrast between his old life and his life with Baloo.









I like that Molly (who is only about 6-years-old in this series) is the one to tell Kit, "Stop freaking out and tell him you LIVE here, you moron!". She really is her mother's daughter. LOL

And I can understand why Kit opted to leave instead of just telling the social worker "I live here now. I have a parent. Go away"
IMO, he uses "freedom" as an excuse. But he probably figures that the social worker would never allow Baloo to have custody of a child (and, to be honest, the social worker would kinda sorta be in the right to do so). So Kit figures, if he's going to have to leave anyway, he'd rather do it on his terms.



Molly insisting that Kit is her real brother (even when she's angry at him) is just freakin' adorable!












Get your tissues ready, folks! The next few pages are doozies!




First off, Molly is awesome! She's stuck on a slave island and surrounded by scruffy older men (a situation that would terrify most GROWN women), but she's STILL focused on convincing Kit to stop being a stubborn idiot and come home with her

Secondly, that story about the model airplane is cute! ^_^




Those first two panels....*sniffle*

Trivia: According to the Talespin show bible, Rebecca is a widow. This comic is just the only time it's said in canon.

I figure Molly doesn't remember much about her dad (since she must have been very young when he died). So, the one really sad thing she and Kit have in common is that Baloo is basically the only father they've ever known. And she's determined to keep Kit from leaving because she just can't stand to lose another "family member" again.
....or maybe I'm just over-thinking this comic. ^_^;

Also, it's nice to finally know exactly how a good kid like Kit ended up on Don Karnage's crew.








Wow. Hobos are stupid. :P









Oh my gosh, that ending is freakin' adorable! Those two are my new favorite fictional siblings!


IMO, this story would have made for a great final episode. But having it in comic form is pretty awesome, too.


There's another story in this issue. It's not quite as emotional. But it's still pretty cute.







LETTERS PAGE!

I love the punny "Mail Spin" title!




The listing of other Disney titles available at the time




Ad for "original editions" of classic Disney titles. This is how collectors found stuff before the internet.






AD PAGES










MOVIE ADAPTATION COMICS





These movie adaptation comics were actually important back in the day when not everyone could afford a VCR and just watch these movies whenever they wanted.
.....wow. Now I feel old. :(


I hope all the old-school Disney Afternoon fans got a kick out of this. I've been tracking this comic down for AGES and it was worth every bit of effort!
....and, believe it or not, I only paid $1.60 for it! SCORE!!!!

Sexism in Gaming: Why I will NOT buy Sly Cooper 5 if it gets made...

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This particular essay caused quite a wank storm among Sly Cooper fans on both Tumblr and Deviant Art. So I thought it would be interesting to see how it's received by the friends I have here who are mostly unfamiliar with the Sly Cooper franchise (save the two poor saps I recently roped into playing the original trilogy ~_^)

Basically, I believe that Sly Cooper 4: Thieves in Time perfectly encapsulates what is WRONG with the current gaming industry and culture vis-à-vis female representation. And this essay explains why.

FYI, The essay contains MAJOR spoilers for all four games. So if you want to play the original trilogy before reading about how Sly 4 took a steaming dump on it & locked the female characters in the fridge, go do that now. The essay will still be here when you get back.


I want to start out by saying that I adore the Sly Cooper series. Sly 2: Band of Thieves is my favorite game of all time. And it always pained me that this franchise never got the praise and recognition that it so richly deserved. So you’d think the recent release (and overall good reception) of the new forth game would make me elated. And at first, I was elated! I pre-ordered it despite some of my reservations about it (more on that later…) and was happy to see that Sanzaru Games (the developer that took over after Sucker Punch ended the series) did a good job of recapturing the feel and gameplay of the trilogy that I love so much.

However, even though Sly Cooper 4: Thieves in Time is a great game on a technical level, I simply cannot recommend it. And I came to this conclusion for one BIG reason…
As a woman, I felt like this game was actively alienating me in a way that the previous Sly titles NEVER did. I’m sure this wasn’t an intentional move on the part of the writers and artists at Sanzaru; but I felt actively uncomfortable during many points of the game. And that feeling made it difficult to enjoy all the things that Sanzaru did right.

My main beef is with the sexualization of the only two major female characters in the series (Carmelita and Penelope). While all the Sanzaru re-designs of the MALE characters were mostly unchanged from the classic Sucker Punch look; Penelope and Carmelita look so different that they’re virtually unrecognizable!
For those unfamiliar with the series, here's the difference between how the girls looked in the original trilogy and how they looked in Sly 4....

Carmelita




Penelope




...and the girls stand out a LOT because, aside from normal stylistic tweeks, all the male characters retained the same basic appearance and wardrobe from the past games. And the sexualized redesigns of the girls combined with their new personalities just left a bad taste in my mouth.


I’ll start with Carmelita:
I see a lot fans defend her re-design by saying things like "Carmelita wasn’t exactly a nun in the other Sly games" or "The boys don’t even wear PANTS! So what does it matter if Carmelita runs around in a mini-skirt and high heels?”. And I think the major difference is this…
While the original Carmelita design didn’t wear very realistic police-lady attire; the character was never drawn, posed, or characterized in a way that felt like it was ONLY there to titillate the male furries. Her character was always treated with respect and, aside from the dopey corset-top, her clothing wasn’t ridiculous or laughably impractical (and at least Sucker Punch had the courtesy to give her a turtleneck during the one level in Sly 2 where she was wandering in the snow). Her body was drawn to look strong and athletic. She almost always saved and/or assisted Sly in the final boss battles. And even in the few instances where she needed to be rescued, she never came across as a wimpy damsel-in-distress who needed her manly love-interest to rush in and save her.

As for her personality, she always came across as professional and driven by her love for her job. And she always behaved like a mature adult who was torn between her law enforcement career and her growing infatuation for a brazen, unashamed criminal like Sly.


Compare this to Sanzaru’s treatment of her…
Her design looks like one of those “stripper/slutty cop” Halloween costumes you see on the shelf every October. Her re-design was clearly more focused on looking sexy than looking strong. Not only was her outfit insanely revealing and impractical; but she was also slimmed down to the point where she looks like she could be knocked down by a strong breeze. And the outfit design is made even more ludicrous by the fact that a later level has her get indignant over having to put on a “revealing” harem girl outfit that covers more of her body than her cop uniform (and is also more sensible for crime fighting because it has a more practical pair of shoes).

As for her new personality, she continually acts like a surly, unprofessional brat for no good reason. And her relationship with Sly feels like it came out of a bad high school drama. For example, she snaps at Sly constantly and flirts with most of Sly’s ancestors in a pathetic attempt to make him jealous instead of just talking to him like a grown up. And in the Pre-Historic level, she chooses to leave the gang’s safe, warm hideout (not to mention the security of “safety in numbers”) and go out into the tundra dressed in a mini-skirt and a bra just because she’s pissed at Sly. And she doesn’t tell them where she’s going, what she plans to do, or when she intends to come back. So they’re stuck worrying about her and can’t ethically return home (or continue their time travel mission and their search for Penelope) until she sorts out her emotions and comes back. Regardless of how Sly hurt her or lied to her, the old Carmelita would not be that stupid, petty, or inconsiderate. ESPECIALLY when there are lives at stake!

Basically, Sanzaru reduced Carmelita to nothing but shrill furry fap material. She behaved like a whiney teenager instead of a grown-up professional cop. And the harem scenes were just disgusting and degrading. Not only was the player prompted to use the sixaxis controller to make her shake her ass for horny thugs (while they throw money at her, no less!); but one scene toward the end has the Big Villain taunt Sly by feeling her up in front of him while she was tied up and helpless. Just….*shudder*



Now, let’s move on to Penelope:
While her Sanzaru design wasn’t as blatantly sexed up as Carmelita’s, it tried it’s darnedest to make us forget that Penelope was a frumpy nerd in the last game. They slimmed her down and changed her design so much that I didn’t realize it was supposed to be her when the first few Penelope screenshots from Sly 4 were leaked! But the new look is honestly the least of her problems.

In my opinion, the main thing wrong with the "Penelope is evil" twist in Sly 4 (aside from all the gaping plot holes) is how it treats her like she’s just “Bentley’s Girlfriend" and not a member of the Cooper Gang, a friend to Sly & Murray, and an independent character with or without the romantic link to Bentley. In Sly 3, she showed strong, platonic bonds with the rest of the team. They weren’t just her boyfriend’s pals, THEY WERE HER FRIENDS, TOO! We saw her have fun with them and connect with them one-on-one way before she and Bentley became an item. And Sanzaru expects us to believe that she just randomly decided to hate them all one day? Or that she was just “faking it" throughout Sly 3 because she was a gold-digger and believed Bentley’s brains could somehow make her a rich weapons dealer?

Also, the betrayal twist might have actually had an impact if the other characters had shown more than a modicum of concern for her well-being when she was still missing. But Bentley barely expressed concern for her safety (morosely glancing at photos/videos in one cutscene doesn’t count) and Sly & Murray acted as if Penelope was just their bro’s bitch and not someone that THEY CARED ABOUT, TOO! Hell, these guys showed more concern for her in the pirate level of Sly 3. And at that point they still barely knew her!


It’s clear Sanzaru just didn’t like Penelope and thought the best way to get her out of the main cast was to use her as a cheap plot device. Otherwise, they would have at least spent more than 5 minutes thinking of a plausible explanation for her betrayal. Hell, I just thought up a more plausible “Penelope betrays the gang” plotline and it took me less than 5 minutes. Here it is:

=======================================
Even though she never let it show, Penelope was extremely disappointed when the Cooper Gang disbanded just a few short months after she gave up that lucrative con job in Holland to join up with them. Yeah, Sly left them with enough cash to live comfortably for the rest of their lives. But she expected a glamorous and exciting life of awesome heists upon joining the gang. And, although she loved Bentley, their relationship cooled off after the honeymoon phase was over. And he eventually got buried in his time machine research and started treating her like his “Lab Assistant With Benefits” (that is, when he bothered to pay attention to her at all).  And for a woman who managed to use her wits to conquer a village in Holland when she was still in her teens, simply being known as “Bentley’s Girlfriend” was kind of degrading. And she eventually grew to resent Sly for disbanding the team because it felt like she was recruited to The Cooper Gang under false pretenses.
=========================================


See! That wasn’t so hard! It still doesn’t jive with Penelope’s characterization in Sly 3. But at least it’s free of plot holes and it’s better than Sanzaru’s stupid (not to mention sexist) explanation for Penelope’s betrayal. Sanzaru’s explanation was basically…

“Penelope was just a gold-digging slut all along! And she spent YEARS in a (presumably) intimate relationship with a man she didn’t really love just because she wanted to use his superior brainpower to build super-weapons/get rich/take over the world/whatever. And she couldn’t do any of this without help from that loser La Paradox because her feeble female brain isn’t capable of much more than putting on tight clothing and stealing shit that doesn’t belong to her!
And poor Bentley was the saintly and totally blameless victim of a deceitful whore! That’s why the player should feel no discomfort whatsoever when Episode Four’s boss battle compels them to have Bentley beat his diminutive girlfriend unconscious while making jokes about how much she sucks at evading his punches! Because domestic violence is HILARIOUS when the dude is a dorky cripple and the ‘bitch’ has it coming!!!!”




Now, before people start throwing words like “feminazi” at me, let me clarify that I do NOT believe that the people at Sanzaru are misogynist monsters intent on rolling back the women’s suffrage movement via lame video games. On the contrary, they seem like perfectly nice dudes in all the interviews I’ve seen them in. However, I don’t think any of the (mostly male) writers and artists understand just how alienating all this stuff can be to long time female fans who dug the Sly Cooper series precisely BECAUSE it was one of the few modern games out there that was both well made and completely free of gratuitous nonsense like rail-thin female cops dressed up in fetish attire.

In conclusion, I don’t wish to waste my time and money on games that seem intent on reminding me over and over that I am NOT the target audience and that my gender is only good for titillation and/or lame plot twists. And that is why I will not purchase a fifth Sly Cooper game if it gets made. Which is a shame because Sanzaru actually did a good job with most of the gameplay elements (ie all the stuff that didn’t involve the stupid PS3 motion controls). But Sanzaru MAJORLY bungled the story and female protagonists. And I honestly don’t see how they can salvage the mess they made of these great characters (unless they do "The Dallas Dream Ret-Con”).

Art Exercise: "Draw to Music"

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I've seen some artists try the "Draw to Music" exercise. So I tried it at work a while back. I just drew whatever came on the office radio (it was set to an oldies station), and this was the result (please ignore the random pretty boys on the top of the first page ^_^;).

First up, my interpretation of "I wanna dance with somebody" and "Hotel California"



...I admit, I cheated on the Whitney Houston song and just drew from my memory of the cheesy 80s music video. ^_^;

Also, the fact that "I wanna dance with somebody" is now considered an "oldie" made me feel very old and sad. :(


Next up is my artistic rendering of "Let's Groove", "Don't Stand Too Close To Me", and "You are my shining star"

==




As you can tell, I had to ask a co-worker what the title of "Let's Groove" was because the lyrics don't give it away. Lucky for me, she was an Earth, Wind, & Fire fan.



Next up is "Sweet Home Alabama", "I'll Stand by you", and "Another one bites the dust"

More anthro-humanizations: RESCUE RANGERS

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My muse is REALLY into this "humanizing anthro characters" thing right now. Go fig. :P

My current targets are....The Rescue Rangers (my previous failed attempts at it can be seen here)



ARTIST'S NOTES:

--Yes. Dale/Gadget was one of my first fictional "OTPs" (I remember wanting to see them get together when I was little). And I still totally dig it.

--I opted to make Zipper a parrot here because I think it just makes sense.

--Gadget and Monty have one of the cutest "surrogate parent/child" relationships ever. And I really like how the show conveyed it by showing their interactions instead of spelling it out for the audience.


Next up are the minor characters....



The name of Gadget's evil Hawaiian twin is impossible to spell! >_<


BONUS SLY COOPER CROSS-OVER!
Because I couldn't resist....

==


ARTIST'S NOTES:
-In case you're wondering what the "Baby's First Ship" line is all about....
Dale and Gadget were one of the first fictional couples I rooted for (DON'T JUDGE ME! I WAS 4-YEARS-OLD!). And I'm still really fond of them despite the fact that 90% of the Rescue Rangers fandom seems to disagree with me.

Honestly, I don't get why the fandom for Dale/Gadget isn't bigger. They're both insane nerds! And I always thought they had better chemistry together than Chip and Gadget. But that may just be my inner 4-year-old fangirl talking.

50 Shades of Azula


Art Post: "Inspector Cooper" doodles and Sly 2 epilogue comic

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I brainstormed some ideas for how to handle the ancestors in my cathartic re-write of Sly 4 (aka the-sexist-fucking-game-that-shall-not-be-named!!!!) that I'm doing with earthstar_moon and gullwhacker.

I felt this warranted it's own post (even if only two people are really interested in it ~_^)

First up, the drawings inspired by this exchange:

Also, Stu and I were plotting and we got an evil idea for Sly's viking ancestor. We figured we need to have Sly see one of his ancestors get killed by Clockwreck to start the plot of him deciding to just get rid of him altogether which cause the Inspector Cooper AU timeline.

So, the guys go and find the viking ancestor who is married and has like ten kids. He's one of the few ancestors that instantly believe Sly and starts to act very fatherly to Sly.

Viking: So, you are grandson?
Sly: Well, several times great grandson, but yes.
Viking: AH! Then you are family! *ropes Sly into a bearhug*

Thus, he and Sly get a little bonding time, but then during the heist/battle of the level Clockwreck attacks and kills the viking ancestor who give some comforting parting words to Sly before he dies. Thus, this begins Sly wondering if perhaps he should go back and get rid or Clockwreck altogether.

Like I said, it's evil, but it would be fun and fitting.



I decided to take Slaigh McCooper (the Scottish-looking ancestor from the vault level in Sly 3) and work him into Jo & Stu's "Viking Cooper" idea.

This was the drawing I did when replaying the vault level to check out Slaigh's portrait:



Slaigh's altar in the Cooper vault has a lot of bowls and spoons around it. It stood out among all the weapons. And it made me think that maybe the guy was really into cooking (and that would be a fun thing to work into the AU). Like, maybe he didn't care much for thievery and just wanted to be a chef and cook lots of food for his friends and family.

Some cutesy character doodles





And a brainstorm of what his kids look like



...I'm thinking that seeing these kids mourning their dad the way Sly mourned his parents will get to Sly almost as much as witnessing Sleigh's actual death.


Next up, the Pirate Ancestor Henriette "One-Eye" Cooper
These drawings were inspired by this exchange:
By the way, Stu and I had a thought for a scene for our Sly 4 AU. Like in the game, Carmelita gets accidentally sent to the past without Sly and the gang knowing about it. However, Carmelita ends up meeting Sly's pirate ancestor who likes her "spunk" so much she makes Carmelita her new first mate.

And later, when Sly and the gang meet up with the pirate and try to get her to believe their from the future.

Sly: You have to believe us!
Female Pirate: Arrg! That's a wild story, but ye do like like me? What say you first mate Fox.
(Carmelita steps out)
Sly: Carmelita! What are you doing here?
Pirate: Ye know this man lass?
Carmelita:....Yes, Captain I do. (looks to Sly and grins) He's a well known conartist and thief.
Sly: (annoyed)Carmelita...
Pirate: That so?
Carmelita: Yes, captain, you better lock Sly up in the brig.
Sly: Come on you can't be serious!
Carmelita: *smirking* Should have thought of that before forgetting our anniversary.
Sly: Not my fault! How an I suppose to keep track with the timeline changing so much?! (And then Carmelita tells the captain the truth, but could you blame her for wanting to troll)

He he, Stu and I just thought it would be fun if the girls bonded with the female pirate and also that the entire pirate crew were women. It would be awesome
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Henriette has two official Sucker Punch designs that look pretty different from one another (one is the vault painting, and one is her "ninja" look in the Thievius Racoonis book). So I decided to merge the two together:

Practice Page


Brainstorm page



Scribble of Henriette with Carmelita and some members of her "Girls Only" Pirate Crew!



Yeah, I know. I should have put more effort into Carmelita's pirate outfit. :P

BONUS COMIC: SLY 2 EPILOGUE!

I was on an art roll yesterday and drew this while at work. Basically, it's my idea of how Bentley ended up in the prison hospital after Sly 2.

This comic is a rough outline. I normally don't post outlines because they tend to be ugly and hard for anyone who isn't me to follow (since I use them to brainstorm how the comic should be laid out). But it turned out surprisingly good for something I drew while I was on the phone (plus, it might take me a while to draw a polished version because I'm working 7 days a week now ^_^;). So I decided to post it anyway:

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I think a scene like this makes sense. Bentley and Murray always had an unfair sense of hostility toward Carmelita. So I like the idea of her being the one to help Bentley get the medical attention he needs and keeping that fact a secret between her and Murray. And I imagine having to turn Bentley over to Carmelita (aka the cop they're ALWAYS running from) to save his life would be a major factor in the guilt Murray felt in the comic books and the third game.

Also, it might explain why Murray got super defensive when Sly joked about Carmelita being "the gal we all know and love". XD


And I like the idea of Carmelita having a moment with Sly's crew that shows them she isn't just an anal-retentive, bitchy cop that Sly has the hots for. The second game had that little moment in Canada where she brought Murray jelly beans when he was hungry. But that happened after she had shot him with a tazer and locked him in a cage. So I don't think it helped Murray warm up to her very much.

TALESPIN LOVE

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Now I'm targeting my crazy doodle pen at the Talespin cast! And I'm humanizing them because I'm still kinda crappy at drawing animals/anthros



I think it came out pretty good considering I didn't use reference pictures (I did this at work)

Yeah, I had no choice but to change up Rebecca's hair. But the Betty Paige bangs still kinda work for her. And, hard as I tried, I couldn't keep human-Wildcat from coming out looking like Shaggy from Scooby Doo. LOL

Oh, and Becky/Baloo was one of my first OTPs. Anyone who watched the show knows why.

And I did another design page later on because I had different ideas regarding Baloo and Shere Khan:
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I thought that, since Baloo and Shere Khan retained their Indian names from the Jungle Book, that it would be interesting to humanize them to look Indian. Though, once I got home, I felt kinda dumb for forgetting that Shere Khan is supposed to be HUGE and intimidating physically (my drawings make him look totally skinny :P)

Making Don Karnage look like Desi Arnaz is a no-brainer because I once read an interview with Jim Cummings where he says that Arnaz was a BIG inspiration when coming up with that voice.


Sly Cooper/Talespin cross over

This was totally inevitable!

earthstar_moon inspired this one with some nifty ideas she threw at me.



I did this at work, so I didn't have any reference pics handy (which is why Kit looks terrible LOL). And I tried to give the Sly characters outfits that would fit in better with Talespin's 1930s setting. So I used Sly's bomber jacket from Sly 3 and gave Carmelita a more conservative outfit and hairstyle.

I had Kit act antagonistic toward Sly because, given his history with Don Karnage and how messed up he was before he met Baloo, I think it makes sense. And the idea of Molly fangirling all over Carmelita is just too cute for words!



Random Sly re-designs for the Talespin universe



These are my ideas for adapting Sly and his pals into the Talespin universe....

--Since Penelope would likely have to pose as a man in order to work as a pilot without being harassed (yes, sexism against female pilots was a thing in the Talespin series), I decided she should have short hair. And I can see her opting to indulge in very feminine clothes when she's not flying a plane or doing mechanical work.
Also, I'd use the male alias instead of The Black Baron disguise because her biggest obstacle in the Talespin universe would be her gender, not her age.



--Since Talespin is a world dominated by air travel, Penelope would be a more integral member of the team (and she'd be recruited to the team much sooner). And I see her having to cross-dress a LOT more often because of the previously mentioned sexism against female pilots.
And perhaps the main reason she joins Sly's Team is because they don't care that she's a woman and joining them allows her to work as a pilot without having to live a lie 24/7 and constantly worry about being "outed"


--All I did to Carmelita was zip up her jacket and put up her hair. Because why mess with perfection?


--I wanted to give Neyla an outfit that was more conservative/traditional (since Talespin basically takes place in the 1930s) but also would allow her to jump around rooftops and whatnot.

Art Exercise: 'Draw to Music' (part 2)

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Here's the link to my first "Draw to Music" exercise.

This is the result of me drawing whatever came on the office radio...

First up, is a picture inspired by Madonna's song 'Dress You Up In My Love'



Yeah, this song TOTALLY fits them! XD

Next up is 'Uptown Girl' and 'Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now'

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The movie Mannequin was a HUGE guilty pleasure for me as a kid (and I still enjoy how insanely stupid and cheesy it is)! And I still love the hell out of that song! XD

Here's the Mannequin trailer for those who want to see just how stupid the movie really is...





Next up is 'How Will I Know if he really loves me", "It must have been love", and "Holiday".
Nothing much to say about these because they pretty much drew themselves. :P



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Caption: Pizza breath

Ducktales Remastered Review

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Please forgive my incompetence at drawing Duck characters. But I just had to express my love for them in art form!




I've beaten this game twice already. I bought a PS3 just so I could play it and it was worth EVERY PENNY!! It's like experiencing a lost episode of the original cartoon!

If you love Ducktales, Disney, old school gaming, and/or beautiful hand-drawn animation, BUY THIS GAME NOW! The sprites are GORGEOUSLY animated and replicate both the look of the cartoon and the feel of the 1989 video game flawlessly. And, for all the people who just want to experience the story without the sadistic old-school NES difficulty, there's an Easy Mode available to play.

And yes, the iconic money bin is a mini-game that you get to swim around in! :)


RANDOM GUSHING!!!

---The new music is appropriately epic and fun. But there is an option to play with the original 8-bit tunes for all the purists out there. And the soft piano remix of The Moon that plays over the ending credits is just beautiful. It seriously almost made me cry!

---The sprites are hand drawn and animated. And they look AMAZING! The little animations have so much character that I often found myself doing things like letting Scrooge get caught by a killer plant just so I could watch the animation of him smacking the plant around to free himself.


---The replay value comes in the form of unlocking things by buying them with the money Scrooge collects in the game. And the stuff you get to collect is more pretty artwork and music. This made me happy! :)


---Best of all, all the surviving voice cast returned and they sound fantastic. Special props go to Russi Taylor (the actress behind Webby and the nephews) because she still sounds exactly the same as she did back in the day. Just....wow.

Most of the replacement actors do very well. I didn't dig Fenton's new voice (though the actor sounded better as GizmoDuck). But I'll cut the new actor some slack considering how unique the original voice was and how hard it is to parrot another actor's sound.

The replacement that surprised me the most was Mrs Beakley. She was voiced in this game by Wendee Lee. Yeah, Faye Valentine is playing Scrooge's chubby, elderly maid (and she emulated the original actress so well I didn't know she had been replaced until I saw the credits)

As for Alan Young, he may sound noticeably older than he did in the original cartoon (understandable considering he's now 94-years-old). But when he needs to sound enthusiastic, he sells it. And his Scottish brogue still sounds like perfection. And I absolutely love the idea of Scrooge (the most badass old guy character ever) being played by a guy who is awesome enough to still be working well into his 90s. And June Foray (who is the same age as Alan Young) still rocks at playing cackling villains. But June Foray's awesomeness is a surprise to no one.


In short, BUY THIS GAME AND BUY IT NOW!!!!
It's hella fun. And if it sells well, maybe we'll get a remake of the equally awesome 1989 Rescue Rangers NES game. And I want this to happen more than you will ever know!! ^_^
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