Gladiator

This is (hopefully- time allowing) a work in progress. It helps to post it and then decide what else is needed. I would like to add a crowd and Caeser with his thumb facing down. A bit of dust, some motion blur and perhaps a mangy lion. In the meantime this is my shadow entry for Toon Club, which is really worth checking out.

Cruella De Ville

Sometimes it's knowing when to stop and sometimes it's knowing that you need to start over. I liked the roughness of the last drawing but it was always going to bug me if I didn't do a more finsished version. I think the rough lines are enough- no need to have sloppy painting too. So this is mostly flat colours and a hotch potch of adjustment layers, alpha channels, blending modes and gradients. And just a smidgeon of burn and dodge. Sometimes, with Photoshop, it's knowing when to go aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggggggggghhhhhhhh!

Cartoon Villain - Cruella De Ville

Was there ever a better cartoon villain? Not only does she not like cute little puppies- she wants to kill them and wear their coats as fur! Fur!! And she smokes.

I drew her here in a slightly looser way in an attempt to echo the beautiful flowing drawings of the original. And the backgrounds, wow. I still remember the chair that Mr Darling sat in when he was working. And the luscious hand drawn feel of the lines. If I get the time I'd like to paint in a bit of the background in this one, but for now I hope it helps Cruella stand out. My background is a loose copy of the original sketches for the cartoon. Cruella is more of an interpretation than a copy.

Tortoise & Hare

After the dope testing affair, Tortoise slid down in to an ever deepening depression fueled by cigarettes and alcohol- "It's my family I feel sorry for" he sobbed "I've just let everyone down".

Not Toon Club has exclusive interviews with Tortoise and a word from his erstwhile competition Hare, stay tuned!