Day 37: Calisto

I doodled this guy earlier. I thought I saw something similar to him in someone else's picture on deviantART. Turned out the actual picture was nothing like what I was in my head but I liked the design enough to doodle him. Dunno if I'll ever use him but I like to give every character I draw a name and he struck me as Spanish-like, hence the Spanish name.

Day 36: Janette

The human characters from [Sketchpad] who VERY LOOSELY based on people I know. Keep in mind that I may exaggerate or completely make up character traits for these people and should no way be reflected upon the person they're based on.

Wrapping up Liz's gang, we have Janette. Sometimes called "Nettey", Janette is kind of like everyone's little sister. Because of this, Liz is a little overprotective of her. She's kind of shy and reclusive but it the absolute nicest person you'll ever meet. Janette is also a big fan of a certain monster battle video game.

Day 35: Marley

For the next few days, I'll be drawing human characters from [Sketchpad] who are VERY LOOSELY based on people I know. Keep in mind that I may exaggerate or completely make up character traits for these people and should no way be reflected upon the person they're based on.

In [Sketchpad], Marley is best friends with Liz and Janette. She's a very happy-go-lucky kind of girl and it's really hard to dampen her spirits. Marley lives her life like a musical, singing whenever an opportunity presents it (much to the annoyance of JD) and is an active member of the Drama department at the school.

Day 34: Liz

For the next few days, I'll be drawing human characters from [Sketchpad] who are VERY LOOSELY based on people I know. Keep in mind that I may exaggerate or completely make up character traits for these people and should no way be reflected upon the person they're based on.

Liz's character was kind of hard to define, as it's really hard to describe her using only a few traits. I used to have it where her and her group of friends constantly plotted new ways to make Ben miserable but I figured with Ariel already punching Ben, I didn't want people to think I was just beating up on Ben's character.

So, what I have as of now is that in [Sketchpad], Liz leads her own little group of friends, Marley and Janette. Liz speaks her mind pretty candidly, generally not concerned to how people will react to her opinions. She also has a habit of jumping into conversations when people use slang or improper grammar, correct that person and leave. Liz is very protective of her friends, especially of Janette and extremely loyal to those she trusts. She also occasionally acts as JD's therapist.

Day 33: Beth

For the next few days, I'll be drawing human characters from [Sketchpad] who are VERY LOOSELY based on people I know. Keep in mind that I may exaggerate or completely make up character traits for these people and should no way be reflected upon the person they're based on.

Today is good friend and ex-girlfriend, Beth Hardison. In [Sketchpad], Beth is portrayed as a shy, mousy, sometimes awkward girl. At the beginning on the show, she moves to town and is kind of forced into the trio's gang, with a lot of persuasion from Ben. Beth talks to Ariel the most since she's a fellow girl and is constantly confounded by all the dumb things JD and Ben do. Depite him being very oblivious to it, Beth does have somewhat of a crush on JD. At the present time, I see Beth having the most character development because I'd like to have her go from being this really shy person to being outgoing and confident by the end.

Day 32: Ariel

For the next few days, I'll be drawing human characters from [Sketchpad] who are VERY LOOSELY based on people I know. Keep in mind that I may exaggerate or completely make up character traits for these people and should no way be reflected upon the person they're based on.

Today is my bestest woman-type friend person, Ariel Stephenson. In the context of [Sketchpad], nicknamed "Fish" (get it?!), Ariel is a very violent and sarcastic little girl. She, Ben and JD have been somewhat of a trio for some time and they do a lot of stuff together. The way I have her written right now, she acts as a bit of a counterbalance to Ben, who's all cheery all the time. In fact, it kind of irritates her. Ariel punches Ben at least once a day. Despite having a bit of an anger issue, Ariel is quite witty and generally has some sort of sarcastic remark for anyone. She's also a bit self-conscious about being short so, yeah, don't mention it!

Day 31: Ben

Happy Zombie Jesus Day everybody. For the next few days, I'll be drawing human characters from [Sketchpad] who are VERY LOOSELY based on people I know. Keep in mind that I may exaggerate or completely make up character traits for these people and should no way be reflected upon the person they're based on.

Anyway, this dude is based on my best male friend, Ben Helstad. In the context of [Sketchpad], he and JD have been friends since they were little kids and do pretty much everything together. Ben is really smart, so much that he comes off as sort of a know-it-all sometimes. He's a very kind, empathetic, optimistic person and is pretty much friends with everyone. However, Ben can be unintentionally sexist sometimes, in that "women are fragile creatures and need a strong man for protection" kind of way but all in all, he's a good guy.

Day 30: JD (Domino)

In honor of sticking to this blog thing for a month, I decided to do the narcissistic thing and draw myself...kind of. This little guy was how I drew myself back in high school and refer to him as Domino to avoid confusion with how I draw myself nowadays.

Domino is basically the main protagonist of [Sketchpad] and I was waiting to draw him before I explained the basic plot of the show. Essentially, JD (Domino) found a magic sketchbook that somehow transports him to an alternate universe where every doodle he's ever created is a living person and inhabit their own world, dubbed Toonworld. For some reason (still not sure why but I'm thinking it's to cover up the fact that he unintentionally created the toon universe) JD took up the moniker "Domino" so all the toons refer to him as such. Throughout the course of [Sketchpad], Domino hops between the real world, full of teen drama and friend shenanigans and the toon world, where he and his gang (Mog, Tasuri, Mr. Lightning, Jeff, JD Bear and Rocky) are regarded as heroes for fighting monsters and supervillains.

Personality-wise, I try to make Domino his own person and not base a lot of him on myself. Domino is, in his essence, an eccentric, sarcastic idiot. He makes decisions based on impulse and will say a lot of things without thinking about it. Domino can come across as kind of a jerk sometimes but his heart's in the right place most of the time. While in the real world, he spends most of his time with his friends Ben, Ariel and the newest addition to their group, Beth. They do a lot of typical teenage things: hang out, play video games, shoot people with a potato gun from the roof. He constantly tries to appoint himself as group leader, despite being told otherwise several times.

I'm still working out everything about him but I think that gets the point across. For the next few days, I think I'll do some of the more important human characters of [Sketchpad].

Day 29: DJ and Claude

The last forming members of the Villain Syndicate. DJ is JD Bear's cousin. He's not necessarily evil but just kind of a jerk. He and Claude the Crab pickpocket various people and are generally just a minor nuisance. Unlike JD Bear's cretaceous partner, Rocky, Claude encourages DJ's jerk behavior and has a twinge of a French accent.

When Blade began forming the Syndicate, DJ and Claude were not invited but snuck into the meeting anyway and annoyed Blade until he let them join. The only reason they even wanted to join was because JD Bear was part of Domino's gang and the Syndicate was out to destroy them. With their small size, the two are good at stealth and reconnaissance and do a lot of information gathering for the Syndicate.

Day 28: Dr. Braindroid

Dr. Braindroid was once a brilliant scientist...well, technically still is. He wanted to preserve himself for all time so he decided to put his brain in a robot body. Perfectly rational decision, right? The doctor still conducts his weird experiments...though I'm not exactly sure what kind. He does have sort of rivalry with Katherine. Oh, and he has a Gatling gun in his chest. So there's that. I figure I'd just finish out the Syndicate this week, of which Dr. Braindroid is one of the founding members. I'll do the last member tomorrow.

Day 27: Girl Scout Demon

I blame this entry of Mr. Kyle McGowan. I didn't know what to draw today so he suggested this character.

The Girl Scout Demon (GSD for short) is the main villain for Jeff. In the failed one-shot they appeared in, the GSD was just a happy little Girl Scout trying to sell cookies. Jeff told her to get lost and well...GSD always makes a sell one way or another. She morphed into a giant dragon-snake thing and attacked Jeff.

I always thought the idea of an innocent little girl turning into a giant monster was hilarious so she made her way into [Sketchpad]. I imagine her being introduced in a similar way but nothing is set in stone right know. What I do know is that she will become one of the founding members of the Villain Syndicate, along with Blade and Hoagie. There are two more Syndicate members to be revealed, which I'll do....eh, eventually.

Day 26: JD Bear and Rocky

Dammit, I can't wait till I get back home and have a decent scanner. I hate that I have to take all these pictures with my laptop's webcam...

Anyway, today I finally round off the main toon protagonists of [Sketchpad]. JD Bear and Rocky, like Mog, are characters who weren't based on a drawing. These two are actually based on two stuffed animals my stepmom has. Long story short, she makes them "talk", which I believe is tied to some unresolved childhood issues. It was cute when I was 10-11 but I kind of just ignore her when she makes them talk at me. Moving on, when I was a naive little kid, sometime after I was done with The Unfamous 5, stepmom suggested I do a comic about JD Bear and the various other stuffed animals she had. In retrospect, it probably wasn't a good idea to encourage her but I did it, spanning roughly 100 poorly conceived 6-panel comic strips. There were times I just made up the stupidest thing I could think of because I knew no one but her was gonna read it. I stopped doing the comics because...well, let's just say that my feelings toward my stepmom aren't exactly very positive anymore. However, I decided to keep the characters and some of them got merged into [Sketchpad].

In the context of [SP], JD Bear is a very self-centered, arrogant coward who will try to run away at the first sign of a fight. He's quick to boss other around and complains when things don't go his way. He's basically like any 6-year old (which is roughly how I write his personality). The only reason JD Bear is kept around because Domino (I'll explain him another day) has a sentimental attachment to him. In the show, the JD Bear character was a childhood toy of Domino's. Moving onto Rocky, first off, he's a lobster. I've had a lot of people think he's a bug, which is understandable, I guess. I like to think of Rocky and JD Bear's moral compass. He's quick to jump in when JD Bear is being a jerk or about to do something stupid. For being so small, he's actually a very wise character. When backed into the corner, however, JD Bear can use Rocky as a whip to fend off enemies.

Day 25: Tasuri

Seriously, why did it take me this long to draw Tasuri? Anyway, she's here now and that's all that matters. Tasuri is one of the main protagonists of [Sketchpad]. Tasuri is a very kind-hearted girl. She's very friendly and tends to worry over the well-being of her friends, leading to her being dubbed the "group mom". Tasuri is very in-tune with nature, being able to communicate with animals and some plants. She has the power to control the wind and channels it through her spear.

As I mentioned earlier, she and Mog are city-lisenced heroes, fighting the monsters and supervillains the cops just can't handle. They're also roomies! I like the ideas of putting those two as partners; Mog being a big machine and Tasuri being a nature-loving Native. There backgrounds are very opposite but they're very good friends. In contrast, she seems to have a bit of an issue with Jeff. She finds his laziness and sarcastic attitude very rude and offputting, causing the two to get in many arguments.

Tasuri is a Native (I don't say "Native American" since Toonworld doesn't exist on Earth) and in the daughter of her tribe's chief, effectively making her the princess. She left around 18 years old (she's supposed to be 22-23) as she wanted to explore the world instead of living her life in the tribe. Tasuri returns every no and then but her relationship with her father is...well, strained. That'll be explored later on. As previously mentioned, she does have a pet bush-monster, Bushle.

Day 24: Random Girl #1

Ok, today contains a sad personal fact. Being single for...well, the majority of my life, I find myself occasionally doodling girls I'd think would be cute...in other words, women who don't actually exist and will never probably see. So yeah.

Day 23: Mog

Mog is kind of special since he's one of the very few characters I've created that didn't start out as a drawing. The original Mog was something I accidentally made out of tinfoil and black duct tape at camp one year. We had gotten a hold of said materials and I just started taping stuff together until it ended up looking like Mog. Because he was so shoddily put together, I interpreted him into drawing form as a very incomplete character; the one eye, the cannon for an arm. I wanted him to look like he was stuck together accidentally. Sad to say, I lost the foil-tape Mog figure ages ago.

In the context of [Sketchpad], Mog works as a city-licensed hero (a concept I recent came up with and one I'll explore later on) and works with Tasuri. He is very emotionless most of the time (except has no probably exerting rage during a fight) and has an hard time understanding why non-mechanicals emote as much as they do. Mog is also a bit self-conscious about his appearance, thinking of himself as some sort of freak, which may be a source of his anger. A cool thing about Mog is that he has the ability to ghost through solid objects.

Day 22: Blade & Minions

I actually did a drawing before this one without Blade's minions but I love drawing them so I redrew it and it became this.

Anyway, a little backstory on Blade. Keeping with the recent string of Unfamous 5 pictures, Blade is the main villain of Unfamous 5 and also of [Sketchpad] (for the most part anyway). I like Blade because he's been constantly evolving ever since I created him back in middle school. Originally, he was just a rip-off of Teen Titans' (a show I was a fan of back in the day) character Slade but he's deviated soooo far from that. Blade is basically a character that is too smart for his own good. He's a criminal mastermind, a master swordsman and a brilliant roboticist but his intellect and ego often get in his way, leading to his inevitable defeat. As a bit of a spoiler, later on, Blade will form the Villain Syndicate (as briefly mentioned in the Hoagie entry).

Helping Blade out are his faithful minions. The ones pictured are just one of many. Blade has an entire legion of identical robots and ninja bunnies, all serving Blade's various nefarious needs.

Day 21: ESP

Firstmost, ESP is Burner's partner and his power revolves around drawing his psychic energy into his hands to make superpowered slashes. After my recent declaration on Facebook to bring back The Unfamous 5 this summer (hopefully), I've been thinking about which villains from the old atrocity should come back and, of course, ESP and Burner are high up on the list. Now, what's interesting (well, not interesting but whatever), in the old comics, ESP used to just be a naked stick guy. He wasn't "naked" per se but he was one of the many stick-figure characters who didn't have any visible clothes. The other day, after drawing Burner, I started doodling a few different versions of what ESP would look like with clothes (ya know, to spice him up a little) and I ultimately settled on black pants. I think it's fitting for him.

Day 20: The Unfamous 5

There are very few people that know the origins of Mr. Lightning. It all started back in middle school; 7th grade to be precise. Two old friends, Brandon and Joe (who sadly I don't talk to much anymore) made up a few random characters for a few different projects in Health class. These five character became what was known as The Unfamous 5. Since I was pegged as the artistic one, I was coerced into make a short comic about these guys. I intentionally meant it to be a one time thing; just a short 5-6 page one-shot comic but I had so much fun with it that I decided to continue.

As for the actual plot of the comic, it basically centered on the Unfamous 5, a ragtag team of very dumb superheroes with even dumber supervillains to fight. I have the whole rouges gallery drawn on a single page somewhere.

Over the next year or so, we gathered more people and started adding more characters to the team, reaching 10 team members at one point (we made a joke in the comic about this). Through 7th and 8th grade, I managed to crank out 24 ill-concieved issues of the series. Seriously, I just made the plot up as I drew. There was absolutely no planning to this thing at all but we were middle schoolers so we all thought it was hilarious. What was even funnier, to me at least, was that we actually had a voice cast, as if we would some day make the comic into a cartoon. Everyone had a part and it was cool for a while.

There was plans to go even further with it. I had plotted out another 2 seasons (12 issues to a seasons; it was just easier to think that way) and two "movie" comics. Unfortunately, after middle school, the old gang kind of split up so my motivation for continuing kind of dwindled. Though recently, I've been thinking that if I ever get off my lazy ass and start a webcomic, I should just reboot Unfamous 5. I already know the characters really well and I can reuse/expand some of the old plots and make it something decent. I dunno, I could just be talking out my ass again.

Day 19: Mr. Lightning (Future)

With [Sketchpad], I want to make it as cliche-free as I can or if I do a cliche, I want to at least poke fun at it somewhat. There are so many cliches in cartoons today and there are 3 that I simply refuse to do: shrinking to explore the body, weight gain/health message and body swapping. They've been done to death so I don't feel [Sketchpad] would break any new ground going there. However, there is one cliche that I'm simply fascinated by and, if you didn't guess by the picture, it's time travel. I really love when character go back or forward through time and see other versions of themselves. I may have made mention to something like this in an earlier post.

Getting to the point of this post, with Mr. Lightning being my declared favorite character, I wondered what he'd look like in the time travel episode. Basically, I've always known the next evolution of Mr. Lightning would involve him putting on pants. I think the pants make him look taller. I have a few other future designs that I may do for future blog posts.

Day 18: Hoagie Kankles

I like drawing Hoagie, mostly because it's easy. He is one of the founding members of what will be known as the Villain Syndicate, a league of sorts that some of the villains in [Sketchpad] are in. I haven't worked out all the logitics but through some sort of incident, Hoagie's entire body was made invisible...everything but his face. He can also produce purple energy spheres and hock at 'em at people. I'm kind of leaning towards making him some sort of magician or something. I dunno, I'll figure it out.

Day 17: Burner

Apologies for the late entry...wait, no one comes to this blog. Who am I apologizing too? Anyway, here's Burner, the evil counterpart to Mr. Lightning and partner-in-crime with ESP. He's kind of a dick, a psycho and hates Mr. Lightning for no discernible reason. So, yeah, there ya go.

Day 16: Knightzor

Knightzor is in a group I called my "doodle characters". I doodled him once and liked how he came out but have no idea what I want to do wit him. I don't know how/if he'll appear in [Sketchpad]. I'll figure something out.

Day 15: [Sketchpad]: Time Travel Issues

About every day, I think of some scene or line from [Sketchpad] (my animated series I hope to one day create) that I think would be funny or cool to put in. I found today's scene to be pretty humorous so figured I'd doodle it.

Basically, the premise is that Domino (pictured) somehow gets tossed into the future and is told by his allies in the future that they have no means to send him back to the present, with the TARDIS and DeLoreon in full view in the background.

Day 14: Pokémon - Kanto Team

I was stumped about what to draw today and my friend Liz told me to draw Pokémon. So, here's my team I used in Kanto!

• Blazegirl the Charizard
• Doc Thunda the Raichu
• Phantom the Genger
• Aero the Pidgeot
• Starboy the Starmie
• Skullkid the Marowak
  

Day 13: Bushle

Bushle is the pet of one of my other characters, Tasuri. He's been with her since she was a little girl and it part of the reason she can communicate with nature so well. She rides him around occasionally (the sticks in his back are used as handlebars). Bushle's nature is the mixture of a dog, cat and bull...if that makes any sense. Also, he has the powers to grow his "tails" to attack people and burrow underground.

Day 12: Boggar

I like toying with Boggar. I'm still trying to figure out how to make him the anti-hero of [Sketchpad]. Right now, he's in a gang that commits crimes but has his occasional moment of good. I'll work it out eventually. I do know that he has a weird obsession with playing chess.

Day 11: Allison Swash

Just a heads up, I'm going to be switching to this from now on. Drawing/coloring in Flash was taking way more time than it should and I like how my physical drawings look better anyway. I may do color drawings every now and then.

Allison is one of my favorite secondary characters. I mean, come on, she's a hot, badass pirate chick! At present time, I know that she served under Cpt. Deadbeard (I'll draw him eventually) until she mutinied and went off on her own piratey adventures. As I mentioned earlier, she and Rick are on opposites sides of the law so their relationship is a bit...strained, I guess? Rick wants Allison in custody but she always manages to escape or does something good, causing Rick to let her go. Allison is still under development and I'd like to explore the relationship between her and Rick more. No romance for them though.

Day 10: Rick Rosco

Decided to take a break from drawing people for a little while. There's tons of more people who need drawn.

Rick is probably the character I fiddle around with the most in my head. I can never decide on a personality for him. Some days he's a total badass, others he's socially awkward. Hell, I can't decide whether he's some sort of lizard (gecko, chameleon), an alien or what. All I know is that in [Sketchpad] (my show idea), he works as a cop, is pretty good at his job and that he has a like/dislike relationship with Allison Swash.

Day 9: Brittiny Hines (Cy-San)

Brittiny (Cy-San) was the first person to declare herself a fangirl of mine...or at least for my character, Jeff. Brittiny has such an awesome art style and it really fun to talk to. Been meaning to do a full-body drawing of her toon version so...yeah!

Day 8: Leigh Way (AngelCrusher)

My friends from across the pond. I met Leigh (AngelCrusher) through his annual character fighting competiton, AngelCrusher Fighting League. Through that, I'd like to think Leigh and I have become friends. He's also kind of like a mentor, in a way. Usually when I try to make artistic decisions (a lot regarding commissions), Leigh has a advice to dole out and it's really good advice that makes me completely rethink what I want to do. Leigh's also very supportive of my artistic endeavors. I thank him for that.

Also, I have no idea what Leigh looks like from the waist down so I can't safely judge his height but I dunno, I always think of him as this tall, skinny dude.