... this blogger should have given to thee...
... ten tiny treats...
... nine creative weirdos...
... eight things I loved...
... seven shoes to choose from...
... six party dresses...
... five gold rings!..
... four favoured films...
... three rosy bubbles...
... two iterations...
... and a tale for tugging heart strings.
Spring has sprung, the grass has riz and for Day 11, after putting it off so I could get the maximum number of spots, I'm going to post some fan art, and I'm going to fly my geek flag by keeping it specifically to TV shows, films and characters I love...
... and the impetus for this post started with Bob's Burgers.
During a monthly ramblings that never appeared, I started collecting together some fan art for the show, and this was because there's something lovely about seeing people creatively enthuse over a show you love. Bob's Burgers taking this even further during "Brunchsquatch" the first episode of Season 8, in which they used their fan's artwork, submitted to the Bob's Burgers Fan Art AKA Fart contest, as inspiration for the continuously changing animation style within the episode.
With 62 different artistic styles, the episode was a beautiful homage to the fans that loved the show. Ironically, Erin Humiston's animation style isn't one you'll see featured...
... missing the deadline might have been a loss to the fan art episode, but I absolutely love his drawing of Bob and Teddy. Humiston's vaguely Disney-esq style manages to capture the personalities of the two characters in this mundane scene, Teddy leaning over the restaurant counter excitedly as a weary Bob doesn't have the energy to deal with his most loyal customers exuberance. It's not that he doesn't like his friend, he's just tired.
I've looked at a lot of Bob's Burgers fan art, but this one always stuck in my head as something special. I just love the sketchy appearance, the look on both their faces and how happy Teddy is to be being given his burger of the day.
It's lovely.
Link || Erin Humiston (Basakward) || Website || Instagram || Twitter || Facebook || DeviantArt || Tumblr || YouTube
Another lovely series of fan art illustrations is by J Shari Ewing and feature the internet's favourite new character, Baby Yoda from The Manalorian.
I'm not actually the hugest of Star Wars fans, I never got into the films and as cliched as it sounds, I was always more of a Star Trek fan, but much like the rest of the world, I've become obsessed by the Baby Yoda...
... he's just so stinking cute! And actually it's the first time I've actually fancied watching something Star Wars related in a long time, and it's mostly down to this little guy. Plus the fact that it doesn't looks quite like the same old same old we expect from the movies, I'm certainly more inclined to give it a go.
Ewing's illustrations of the character primarily involve him thoroughly enjoying various snack foods, and I look forward to his smiling, happy face appearing in my Instagram stream. He's just happy and they're beautifully drawn, and even if you're not a Star Wars fan, I think these illustrations stand alone as something really special.
Officially the most watched show on Netflix in 2019 was Stranger Things season 3. It broke all previous records for the streaming service with 40.7 million subscribers watching the show in the first four days it was online, and 18.2 million of them watching the series in its entirety within those first few days. By the end of the first month 64 million households had watched it... that's kind of nuts, but as I was one of those who binge watched it as soon as it was available, I can't really comment.
The show is unashamedly 1980's, full of tropes and homages to the era and I love it.
In season three there were a few new characters, and by far my favourite addition was Robin (Maya Hawke) who works alongside Steve at Scoops Ahoy, the Star Mall's ice cream parlour. Quickly she gets sucked into the world of the Upside Down, demogorgons, body snatchers and Russian spies.
Alongside Steve, Robin provides a lot of the comic relief in this instalment of the franchise and I think that's why I am particularly fond of the character. She's sarcastic and doesn't let him away with shit, but quickly gets engrossed in the antics he and Dustin get involved in, and this is a balm to the more serious story lines of the other cast members.
It's not surprising that some of my favourite fan art is of Robin and Steve in their ridiculous Scoops Ahoy uniforms...
This illustration by Vannie Ven is just perfect, it's a chibi style illustration, meaning the characters are generally between two and four heads tall, and have an overly large head and features for they're short stature, and they really reminds me of the illustrations from a kids book. I can just imagine the Scoop Troop Go To The Mall, The Scoop Troop vs. The Russians, The Scoop Troop Get High...
... I would love a series of Scoop Troop books, and I love this illustration and how different it is to the darkness of the source material and the 80's sci-fi horror style it pays tribute too. Instead it's light, fun and childish and reflects that side of this particular pairing and the fact that they're stuck in those ridiculous uniforms throughout the entire series. Not even Steve Harrington can make it look cool.
Link || Vannie Ven (Smol Artist) || Instagram || Twitter || DeviantArt || Tumblr
For a long time, I teased my little sister for loving the TV show Supernatural. Then I figured I should probably watch some of it before judging and made her the deal that if I watched all of Supernatural, she would watch all of The West Wing. I figured she was getting the better deal, and I'd at least be legitimately teasing her about her rubbish taste in television... then I liked it.
I still feel mildly dirty about it, but I had to eat my words and say it wasn't a terrible show, and it was actually really silly and fun and ludicrously stupid. And over the years I've become very fond of it. It's a guilty pleasure.
"Supernatural Time" by Vincent Kao (TheK40) is probably one of the most fitting pieces of artwork I could have found to show the ridiculousness of the Winchester boys. They're drawn in the style of the animated series Adventure Time (which I also love, who wouldn't when the first episode of a show starts with zombie candy people?) and I can just hear them screaming "Sam!" and "Dean!" over and over again in the ridiculous way they do as they hunt demons, monsters, witches and angels...
It's a weird show and this is a weird cross over, but it's also perfect. From the king of hell, Crowley, looming over head as demons spew out from hell, to Castiel just standing stiffly in the background wondering what these silly humans are up too.
You can practically hear Carry On My Wayward Son by Kansas playing on the Impala's stereo. This is really a ridiculously accurate portrayal of a ridiculous TV show. It's perfectly done fan art and a cross over I never knew I needed.
This is another cross over I didn't know I needed until I'd seen it. And a twofer when it comes to my fandom love, one being the American version of The Office (original British version be damned) and the Disney Short, The Paperman.
It's such an obvious crossover when you think about it, The Office, a.k.a. Dunder Mifflen Paper Company, sells paper, and The Paperman is all about love from a distance, love which is eventually brought to fruition. Much like George and Meg, in The Office, Jim watches Pam from a distance, trying not to make his love for her too obvious and failing miserably.
Recreating scenes from the animation, Patricia Diaz (Mhaikkun) did something that I really appreciate, she didn't illustrate the scene where George and Meg are standing side by side on the train station platform. The reason I appreciate this, is because I've seen versions of this scene over and over again, featuring Peggy and Steve from Marvels Captain America, Mulder and Scully from The X-Files, Ted and The Mother from How I Met Your Mother, as well as many other incarnations. Instead Mhaikkun chose two more dynamic moments, one where Pam/Meg finally notices the lipstick stamped paper plane, the other where Jim/George is trying - and failing - to stop the paper planes from pushing him forwards, and by treating them so sympathetically it makes them even more attractive illustrations.
They're also just really beautiful illustrations and if I was going to have a piece of Office fan art on my wall, I would love one of these. They're obviously the characters of Jim and Pam, but it doesn't scream The Office US, even when in the background of the Pam/Meg image, Mhaikkun has added as blurry background character, Kevin. Which I didn't notice the first time I saw it and I think is just an amazing detail to add as another nod to the show.
For a character who spends less than two minutes on screen, the worm has to be one of the most beloved characters in the whole of the film, Labyrinth (1986). He meets Sarah as she's barely started the Labyrinth and, already frustrated, he offers her to "come inside and have a nice cuppa of tea". But something never occurred to me until I found this illustration by Cathy Clark-Ramirez... how does he drink his cup of tea, when he doesn't have hands?
A straw of course!
This is so stinking cute, I can't quite get over his overjoyed little face drinking his tea through a straw or the fact that this had 1) never been a question that came into my head, or 2) been the logical answer if I had thought of the question.
Fan artist: Answering question you never knew you needed answered.
Link || Cathy Clark-Ramirez || Instagram
Another beloved character is the A. A. Milne's classic, Winnie-the-Pooh. Personally I love the both the original E. H. Shepard illustrations as well as the Disney animation most people will associate with when thinking of the characters from The Hundred Acre Wood.
And this is a piece of fan artwork I actually own! This "Doctor Pooh" print by Krista Brennan, is obviously a cross over between the Pooh and Doctor Who. Yes, I also have a soft spot for Doctor Who, blame my mother for my sci-fi leanings, but I love that Brennan has taken the classically E H Shepard characters, and dressed them up as seven of the thirteen Time Lord's we've come to know as The Doctor.
They're playing dress up with Christopher Robin as the assistant, and it's sweet and lovely, and I have it framed in my room and it makes me smile. That's what fan art - in my opinion - is meant to do.
But, I'm being lazy, I think I may have posted this before, so here's another mash up, this time of Winnie-the-Pooh and Star Wars too, by illustrator James Hance from his Wookie-the-Chew series, which I completely adore.
Again I'm not the hugest Star Wars fan, but I absolutely and utterly love these hand drawn and painted illustrations, because they're so beautifully drawn. I also like that Hance has drawn his inspiration from the Disney version of Winnie the Pooh, because I actually really like both incarnations and yet I still feel like he brings in a little hint of E H Shepard's original too.
Both are lovely, and for this one, you get two pieces of fan art for one.
Link || James Hance || Website.co.uk || Website.com || Instagram || Twitter || Twitter II || | FacebookUK || FacebookArt || Tumblr || YouTube
Over the Garden Wall has been a relatively new watch for me. The miniseries revolves around two half-brothers, Wert and Greg, travelling through a dark forest, trying to find their way home. Each of the ten episodes is only eleven minutes long, I finished it the same morning I started, as I sat putting on my makeup and procrastinating because I didn't want to go out to the supermarket, and do the shopping... oh how I'm missing that now as we're over a week into lock down.
As an animated series with a very specific and simplistic style, it would be understandable for fan art to stick with this, and simply just recreate their favourite scenes or where they wished the story had gone. However often when they stray away from the expected style, use their own or even stray into cross overs and other shows animation styles, this is when these new illustrations become something special.
This minimally coloured illustration by Alyssa Tallent is just that. It takes and elaborates on the simplistic style of Over The Garden Wall, but doesn't take it so far that it loses it completely. Tallent did actually elaborate on this hand drawn sketch, creating a digitally rendered full colour drawing of the scene, but actually, I don't like it as much, this sketch from Inktober 2017, drawn in brush pens and colouring pencil, is in some respects more emotive to me, even though it isn't as dark and ominous. By having The Beast, the big bad, looming over the characters, and that being where the bulk of the darkness actually appear, makes the character seem more threatening than the digital version, where it blends into the background and at least to me, doesn't have the same effect.
I think this is really beautiful, and is a testament to the fact that pen and colouring pencil, tradition mediums, can be just as, if not more effective than modern digital ways of drawing. I love both styles, but in this case, it's the sketch that evokes the show most accurately to me.
And for the record, don't watch this while you're putting your makeup on. It made me cry and tear and mascara do not mix.
Link || Alyssa Tallent || Website || Instagram || Twitter || Facebook || DeviantArt || Tumblr || Etsy || Redbubble || Society 6
I couldn't really write a post without including some sort of zombie based TV show or movie's fan art. And I chose this one by Rebecca Crane (Cranesketch) because despite it's wreath of zombie heads and arms, this was one of softest Walking Dead illustrations I found, and that's what I find really attractive about it.
Crane's style reminds me of Raymond Briggs illustrations for the Christmas favourite, The Snowman. I can't fully explain why, there were no zombie snowmen as far as I remember, none of those who gathered at the party with Santa were drinking frozen margaritas made of their friends, the boy wasn't running a Mr. Frosty machine to make tasty snow cones with a carrot garnish...
... but there's something about the faces of Rick and Carl ("Coral!") that I find really reminiscent of the Briggs drawings, especially Carl's pointy little nose and their black dot eyes.
And anyway, anyone who can make a garland of zombies look soft and pretty is pretty awesome to me and deserves to be mentioned.
For the penultimate on the list, I give you what it would look like if 17th Century Dutch Impressionists painted Audrey II from the cult classic, Little Shop of Horrors (1986)...
The 1986 film is one that absolutely deserves the status of a cult classic, and it's a film I've loved ever since I was a kid. Of course when I was younger I just thought it was a funny, kinda scary musical about a giant puppet plant who liked to eat people, and had the dad from Honey I Shrunk The Kids (1989) in it (Rick Moranis). I didn't even know it was a remake until years later.
The reason I love this piece of fan art by Julian Callos - which my little sister found on Twitter and kindly sent me - is because of the contrast between the beautiful boquet of flowers with a curious statment bloom, and the curious statement bloom looking less than innocent as he sees Seymore and the potential for him to have a snack.
It's the contrast - again like the Walking Dead illustration - of a soft illustration of something grim.
Let's face facts, there's nothing sweet and innocent about this little blood sucker in his coffee tin, and I like that the illustration, while looking like an old school Dutch painting, captures that moment just as the Audrey II goes from curious house plant, to over grown mass murderer.
And now I need to watch the film again. What a hideous way to while away an hour or two while self isolating...
And finally, fan art for something which I think is almost certainly one of my favourite things on the planet right now, the Bon Appétit Test Kitchen...
This beautiful illustration by Kenny Leoncito is of the whole BA staff and I love it.
I've gradually become more and more obsessed by the YouTube based cooking show from the test kitchen of Bon Appétit magazine for the past couple of years, and whenever they upload new content it brings me eminence joy. To the point where I couple happily spend a day watching their content on random, and in fact recently it's the only thing I've felt like watching at all. I use it as a way to relax and silence my brain when it's freaking out about what's going on.
It's one of my happy places, and that's because of the personalities of the staff in the test kitchen and the shows they've created for the channel such as:
Gourmet Makes, in which pastry chef Claire Saffitz tries to recreate well known foods and snacks, such as Twinkies, Starburst, Skittles, Hot Pockets and Pocky, and tries to make the gourmet version, while the three day curse always seems to trip her up, and her colleagues both troll her because she's taking shortcuts and rally round as her biggest supporters. (If you're going to give BA a go, start with Gourmet Makes.)
It's Alive with Brad, a series about the joys and experimentation when using fermentation in cooking. This series is presented by Brad Leone's, who is essentially an overgrown puppy, excitable and easily distracted, he just loves fermentation and while that could sound boring, it's not. Brad is basically a funny and chaotic and the editing style of the show reflects that.
And if those aren't enough there's Reverse Engineering with Chris Morocco; Alex Eats It All with Alex Delany; Every Way to Cook with Amiel Stanik; Back To Back with Carla Lalli Music; Pro Chef Makes with Molly Baz, and recipe after recipe with the rest of the staff who I can't get enough of.
They're funny and supportive, and if I was to recommend anything online, on YouTube or (partially) on Amazon Prime, for you to watch, it would be Bon Appétit . Whether you're interested in cooking or not, it's possibly one of the nicest, most entertaining and positive shows I've come across and as the world's on lock down (including the BA staff, though they're putting out content from their homes to keep us entertained), it's what I've been watching on repeat and what makes me laugh and smile and feel better.
I've even got both of my sisters addicted to their antics and I'm not sorry about it.
Link || Kenny Leoncito (Ke.ne.su) || Website || Instagram || Twitter || Facebook || Vimeo || Pinterest
...
Fan art is a wonderful. It gives people who love and adore something a way to express that and then, if they're so inclined, share it with other people online who also love the same things. Seriously, there's nothing I like more than going onto Instagram or Twitter and being surprised by a beautiful piece of fan art for something I love, from an artist or illustrator that I'm subscribed too or hearing my iMessage bong because on of my sisters have sent me a link to some piece of artwork that they think I'll appreciate. It's like being part of a club.
We're all kind of part of a club right now, seeing we're all stuck inside self isolating from one another, and these little conspiratorial moments where we can recognise a mutual love of something, can bring a little joy and fun to your day, especially when you're trying to avoid getting sucked into too much talk of doom and gloom.
And these were just illustrated fan art. Just because you don't draw doesn't mean you can't show your love and appreciation in other ways. Sculpt, knit, felt, make films, write stories, record music or just give someone a recommendation. If there was any time to find mutual enjoyment in something and find something to talk about, it's probably now.
So if you feel like it, if you read this and like anything I've posted, feel free to give me a recommendation of something you think I might enjoy.
“Pass the parcel. That's sometimes all you can do.
Take it, feel it, and pass it on.
Not for me, not for you, but for someone, somewhere, one day.
Pass it on, boys. That's the game I want you to learn. Pass it on.”
(Alan Bennett, The History Boys)
It's April tomorrow, so happy April and I hope you're all okay! Part twelve and this years posts soon...
..................................................................................
Listening: Fans - Kings of Leon
No comments:
Post a Comment