Come On In! The Water's Fine.

Summer, Summer, Summer-time!

OH WEEE-OH, OH WEEEEEEE-OH, OH WEEE-OH, OH WEEEEEE-OH!

Early on, I used to watch the Wizard of Oz. Like my first memory is the music from the Wizard of Oz, early. My cousin thought it was crazy that my parents let me watch it. He thought it was too scary for me. He forgot I had an older brother and was going to see things earlier than I probably should have all my life.

With fewer and fewer days left of summer, best to enjoy some fun in the sun pool time with your crew while you still can.

This is part of my Truce series - where enemies become friends.

I thought putting them in a fun pool time scene would work to introduce as much of their personalities as possible. The Wicked Witch is scared of melting, Tin Man is scared of rusting, Cowardly Lion is just scared and the Scarecrow is slipping in the water! It’s fun to have Toto chewing the slippers and Dorothy cluelessly trying to bring everyone together.

Onto The Process Already!

This piece is inked with a brush and india ink traditionally on 14x11 bristol board over non-photo blue pencil. The fence is inked with an 01 micron with my grid ruler. Being an artist means you are excited about things like grid rulers or pencil extenders. Hmm…I really do love my pencil extender.

Sketching out a piece can be frustrating sometimes but inking a piece is always bliss! Whether it is a brush, a tombow or a nib scratching away, thin to thick linework is my happy place. Live in your happy place as much as you can, people.

Easter eggs include the flying monkey stuffed animal, the picnic basket and ruby slippers. Plus the watering can as the oil can - sorry, no way to justify a kid holding an axe! Unless it is Axe Body Spray but I no one deserves that.

There are Dunkin Donut munchkins in the picnic basket but I didn’t feel like getting sued. I can add them if Dunkin would like to sponsor this piece for the future! Hit me up!

How About Some Thumbnails?!

I say thumbnails but it’s really concept art. This is how the art sausage is made in a sketchbook. This is how a sketchbook should be. Failures upon failures. I like to think of the poses as thumbnails too. Sometimes it’s barely an 1/8th of a page to figure it out and other times, it’s two pages trying to figure out a body pose or a hand gesture. The importance is figuring it out and bringing your idea to life.

If you’d like to see more in this series, check out Spidey and the Goblin calling a truce below!

Well until next time…Be Smart. Be Kind. Stay Safe. Stay Well. Do Some Amazing Art!