The Jasmine Dragon

"The secret ingredient is love!"

I've been in a Avatar mood recently...So I did two (count 'em, two) more "Mega D" Iroh drawings for my sketchbook. They're also posted on my DeviantArt gallery. Also, check out some of my thoughts on the Christian themes in the show at Here I Stand.

As pictured here, Iroh is dressed in his tea-shop uniform from Book 2, when he opens the Jasmine Dragon.

Sweeney Todd in "Living" Color

Sorry if some of you think this illustration is just creepy. It is, but I'm just trying to stay true to the musical. Check my previous post to read more on this.

On another note, I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE using the computer to add color to my ink drawings! It makes for a much cleaner final product. Thanks to my big brother for giving me a computer drawing pad for Christmas! 

Attend the Tale of Sweeney Todd

Yesterday, I watched the Broadway production of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street with my family. I decided to do a creepy, stylized version of the impeccably shaved serial killer for my sketchbook. A great thing about being a Concordia art student is that I have to produce work prolifically. I'm hoping to add some color to this ink drawing on the computer and get some experience using my tablet pen.

Pride and Prejudice

For Valentine's Day, here is a sketch of Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy, Jane Austen's classic caustic couple.

The Dragon of the West

Uncle Iroh is my favorite character on the Nickelodeon show Avatar. He is kind, wise, and possesses a wry wit. I've drawn him here in an anime style called "Mega D." I believe the Japanese call ridiculously small and cute characters "chibis." So this is "Chibi Iroh!"

The Scarlet Pimpernel

"We seek him here, we seek him there,

Those Frenchies seek him everywhere.

Is he in heaven? Is he in hell?

That demmed elusive Pimpernel."

(Baroness Orczy, The Scarlet Pimpernel, "Chapter 12" )

Answer Came There None

I doubt there is any character in literature more fun to caricature than Horace Rumpole. Rumpole is a frumpy British barrister, and the central figure of John Mortimer's Rumpole short stories. Rumpole is old, weathered, skilled at cross-examination, enjoys the occasional cheroot and bottle of Pommeroy's plonk, and is fond of reminicing about his greatest success: the Penge Bulgalow Murders, which he won "alone and without a leader!" The Rumpole stories are a must-read for those interested in the legal profession, or for anyone who loves a good mystery, especially Sherlock Holmes. Or you might check out the television series, with the great Leo McKern as Rumpole.

Are You Looking at my Nose?

One of those wild swashbucklers in a masque -
Hat with three plumes, and doublet with six points -
His cloak behind him over his long sword
Cocked, like the tail of a strutting Chanticleer -
Prouder than all the swaggering Tamburlaines
Hatched out of Gascony. And to complete
This Punchinello figure - such a nose! -
My lords, there is no such nose as that nose -
(Edmond Rostand, Cyrano de Bergerac, Brian Hooker
Translation, Act I)

This is the second installment in my new series of portraits of memorable literary characters. And who is more memorable or more of a character than Cyrano?

Constant Vigilance!

. . .it was a face unlike any Harry had ever seen. It looked as though it had been carved out of weathered wood by someone who had only the vaguest idea of what human faces are supposed to look like, and was none to skilled with a chisel. Every inch of skin seemed to be scarred. The mouth looked like a diagonal gash, and a large chunk of the nose was missing. But it was the man's eyes that made him frightening.

One of them was small, dark, and beady. The other was large, round as a coin, and a vivid, electric blue. (J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, 184-185)

My interpretation of Mad-Eye Moody, from the Harry Potter series. Bye bye, Mad-Eye. . .