#15minfanart Roundup - Week 3

Week 3! An unintended consequence of taking on a challenge is the temptation to constantly one-up yourself. It certainly keeps the project interesting and fun, but it also adds pressure! Knowing that the Flying Toasters that closed out Week 2 would be hard to top, I approached this week with a bit of trepidation.

Expelliarmus!

Since wordplay and goofy juxtaposition seemed to work so well previously, I decided to ease into the week by having a some fun with a little overly-literal interpretation.

What if the disarming spell didn't work quite the way that we think it does?

"It's only a flesh wound..."

Krang-nam Style

By this point, my brother had discovered that this project was underway and he started to offer a number of ideas of his own. He was most insistent about this one.

This is arguably one of the strangest things I've ever drawn, which in the context of this project is probably saying something.

Earlier in the week, a friend on Twitter suggested that I draw something to do with Thor.

This was a very broad request and it took a couple of days to come up with something. Even so, this was done rather on-the-fly. In free-associating, there seemed to be something of a connection with Rapunzel, particularly the one from Tangled, what with the flowing blond hair, the fondness for blunt instruments...

I'm still not entirely sure if it makes any sense, but I'm pretty pleased with how it came out!

"I wear a cunning hat now. Cunning hats are cool."

Since the beginning, I've wanted to draw the Doctor going hat shopping and to have him wind up with Jayne's hat.

What I hadn't considered was how many hats and pieces of headgear I would have to leave out because they just wouldn't fit.

Post-its are small, you guys.

I miss including the Sorting Hat most of all.

 


In my mind, Coraline and The Nightmare Before Christmas both exist in the same world (the Selick-verse?) and it's such a shame that they're so rarely brought together.

I should think Coraline's skepticism of Sally is well-justified.

Also, it was fun to draw a bit of background scenery!

In honor of the Iron Man 3 premiere a few days earlier: The Iron (Man) Giant.

(Hooray for more scenery!)

Men in Black and The Princess Bride are two of my favorite movies. I will watch them pretty much whenever they're on. I just had to have the Men in Black meet the Man in Black.

"From now on, you will be referred to only as 'R'."

"No one would surrender to the 'Dread Pirate R'"

"Sure they would! Arr!"

Perhaps not.

(There was also temptation to include The Woman in Black, but that just seemed...silly?)


 Working on Week 3, the fun of trying to outdo each previous entry, or at least make them different, definitely outweighed any "stress" (and really, how stressful could drawing goofy pictures be?). However, it also required much more time. As the ideas have become more elaborate, so have the drawings and more time is needed to to plan and think and draw. This has been a tricky aspect of the challenge since Week 1 and, by now, the 15 minute guideline is pretty much gone in favor of ensuring something (hopefully) decent is posted every day. Increasingly, though, there has been the risk that the drawings won't be done in time! There were a couple of close calls this week and it's definitely something to keep in mind as I approach Week 4.

The final stretch approaches. So many ideas still to do and so many more yet to discover! (Perhaps this project might even be extended?) As always, suggestions and feedback are welcome here or on Twitter (@TeamStripeySock)!

#15minfanart Roundup - Week 2

One of the biggest fears in working on the #15minfanart challenge has been the possibility of running out of ideas...which, of course, is ridiculous when you consider the sheer number of fandoms and combinations of fandoms possible! In beginning the project, I did have a few ideas in mind, but on the most part I've been winging it day-to-day. And thinking up what to draw is hard.

So, I'm happy to recruit other people to help come up with ideas whenever I can! Beyond this, suggestions from others often pose additional challenges which prompt more fun and interesting results than what I would've dreamed up alone.

HULK SMASH! Next time, we play Candyland

Coming off the high of completing the first week and fully in the grip of no-idea terror, I asked Kitty if she had any requests. She suggested something in the superhero genre...and perhaps they could be playing board games. Or making sandwiches.

Seeing as how Team Stripey Socks has actually played Jenga with Hulk Hands, this doodle seemed to be the only natural response. Sandwiches, sadly, did not make the final result. That idea is safely tucked away for the future.







Looking to who else might offer interesting suggestions, I reached out to a friend's awesome preschool-age son who has delightful taste in geekery. Surely he would have some interesting ideas!

 ....He just may have been a tad too young to understand the concept.

One of us?

 However, a request is a request and it must be honored.

This was tricky for various reasons. Firstly, while I do enjoy Star Wars, I have yet to explore the world of The Clone Wars. Secondly, I've never attempted to draw a Transformer before and they're full of fiddly little mechanical bits.

All things considered, I'm pretty pleased with how it came out. And so, I hope, was the little guy who came up with the idea.

His response: "The Clone looks confused...I made that up!"

He also offered more inspiration than he realized. Thanks to the delightful combination of his Angry Birds robe and Spider-Man pajamas, Day 10 happened.

You Killed My Father/ Stick Them With the Pointy End

After a few days of silliness, I decided to take a stab (ha!) at a more serious crossover.

Surely I couldn't have been the only person to imagine Arya's "dancing instructor" to really be Inigo Montoya trying to earn a buck while searching for the six-fingered man...

Original this is not.

Day 12 came on May 4th.

What to draw was fairly obvious.

Sometimes, I didn't get much say in how the doodles ended up - in being drawn, they took on a life of their own.

It wasn't too much of a stretch to take the "sing along" aspect of Dr. Horrible and apply it to karaoke. I originally wanted to have him singing with Dexter of Dexter's Lab, but it seems the good doctor wanted the stage all to himself. Dexter will have to wait his turn.

Flying Toasters

An unofficial guideline of this experiment was that, if I were to include something, I really ought to be a fan of whatever it is...or at least have some passing familiarity with it.

With Battlestar Galactica, however...I'm somewhat of a novice. More than a novice, really - I know next to nothing about the show. A total n00b. In fact, my introduction to the show is going to be part of an upcoming series for this very blog.

What I do know, however, is that there are robot-like things called Cylons that are sometimes referred to as "toasters". And they're in space. Flying around.

How this piece came about, then, should be pretty straightforward...


And that's week two! Onward to week three! As always, day-to-day progress on this challenge can be tracked and suggestions can be made by following us on Twitter at @TeamStripeySock!

#15minfanart Roundup - Week 1

We are one week into the #15minfanart challenge and, so far, I have yet to miss a day and (more importantly) I'm still having fun!

As with most things, one of the hardest parts of this challenge was knowing where to start.

I decided to start with Chell, a companion cube, and a turret from Portal  - something fairly straightforward and (I hoped) recognizable.

It was fun adding little details like the bird and the potato, but I wasn't really sure where this project was going...

From the start, it was important that there be some interactivity to this project and suggestions were (and are) more than welcome!

One of the first suggestions was from my pal Z. (@hipsterplease), associate editor for the GeekDad blog, all-around cool guy, and fellow fan of BBC's Being Human and Cartoon Network's Adventure Time.

His suggestion: "BMO & Alex go on a date".

Lesson learned? Crossovers are fun!

Given how much I'd enjoyed drawing the crossover on the previous day, I hadn't planned on going back to "straight" fan art all too soon. However, you can't plan your enthusiasm...and right around starting this project, I got sucked into Bioshock Infinite.

So, of course, I had to draw Elizabeth and the Luteces.

I just had to.

Plus, it seemed like a nice companion/parallel to the Portal doodle from Day 1.

Some days, I knew exactly what I wanted to draw.

For instance, Day 4: Pinky and Pinkie Pie.

This is something I've wanted to draw since Animaniacs became part of the Hub's regular rotation alongside My Little Pony.

I simply could not think of a more perfect friendship waiting to happen.

Other days, inspiration was simply a matter of sheer dumb luck. Stumbling across this tweet...

So there was that time when I met @team_barrowman and said, "Hi. I'm Wil Wheaton. I love you, and I have to leave before I make it weird."
— Wil Wheaton (@wilw) April 26, 2013

 ...Led to this.


I am a sucker for meta-fandom.

















Somewhere along the way, in dreaming up goofy crossovers, it occurred to me that Snape and Sherlock have a lot in common --  the dark hair, the cello-like voice, the superior attitude and fondness for chemistry... it was fun to imagine how they'd work as lab partners.


...poor Watson.
 

Having successfully reached Day 7, I wanted something silly and celebratory to close out the week.

For reasons I can't fully explain, Jake's wandering through the Nightosphere with a banana in hand and his earnest inquiries as to "their deal" has been a source of constant entertainment.

Naturally, the Doctor would see it as a sign of a party. "Always bring a banana to a party! Bananas are good!"










A couple of thoughts moving forward:

• While the challenge was originally set up such that each drawing would take no more than 15 minutes, this is a surprisingly difficult rule to stick to! Some drawings took less time; most took more. Often, I wouldn't notice that time was up - 15 minutes was frequently just enough time to get started! In the spirit of the project, it seems like it should matter less how much time is spent on the drawings, so long as there is a new piece of art each day.
• Crossovers make this project much more interesting and entertaining for me (and I hope to anyone following it). That said, it also means that I'm burning through fandoms very quickly! A revision to the "no more than twice" rule may be in order... or more suggestions from followers!

15-Minute Fan Art Challenge

Jonathan Coulton recorded a song a week for a year.
Surely I can do a piece of fan art every day for a month...?

The challenge:

• One new Post-it-sized piece of fan art every day, for 30 days.
• 15 minutes to draw and ink.
• No fandom should be represented more than twice.
  (Suggestions for fandoms to include are welcome!)

Follow my day-to-day progress on the Team Stripey Socks twitter or come back here for a weekly round-up and commentary.