She-Ra and the Princesses of Power

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power premiered a month ago on November 13th.  Last night I watched 3 episodes of it.

Not Much Like the Original Show

I never watched the old show, "She-Ra the Princess of Power," when it was on TV.  The theme song threw me, as a teenager I was out of the show's key demographic, and I thought He-Man was stupid.

I briefly researched the old She-Ra, and I am disappointed by the lazy writing; turns out that not only is She-Ra a female-marketed He-Man-like character, She-Ra is straight-up He-Man's twin sister.  We've seen this kind of thing with Superman/Supergirl (cousins), Luke Skywalker/Leia Organa (spoilers!)...  It's just lazy writing.  And then there are the character names: "Spinnerella" is someone whose powers involve spinning really fast (oh, I was hoping for a cool spider-themed character, but no); "Castaspella" is a sorceress; I'll spare you any more details.

The original show lasted only 2 seasons.  For some reason, they ground out 93 episodes of it.  I have heard that some people complain that the reboot's titular heroine isn't busty enough, compared to the original; that the new art is an insult to the art of the original series.  Having recently seen some of the original, I say the original wasn't good enough to bother comparing.  Besides, the original was on the airwaves 32 years ago, you're probably old enough to move on to other dramas.

The Reboot

The first thing I noticed about the new series was its similarities to other cartoons, like "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic," "Adventure Time," and "Steven Universe."  The art is stripped down.  I am occasionally reminded of the fantastic architecture of Moebius.

I have since learned that the reboot was developed by Noelle Stevenson, the author of the graphic novel "Nimona," which I liked so much I had to buy a copy for a friend.  I see similar story elements in both "Nimona" and "She-Ra and the Princesses of Power."

I liked it!  But then I also like "Adventure Time" and "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic."

Yeah, But I'm a Boy, What do I Know?

I asked my cisgender female wife for her opinions of the new show:

• The art is too sparse for her tastes.  The lack of detail detracts from and obscures the sense of fantastic immersion.  I can see her point--it would be awsome if every scene could be as lushly-rendered as a Moebius cover, but I understand that you don't get detailed art for free; every line on the screen costs animator time.  
• She-Ra's hair is what really tells my wife that the heroine is special and magical; her costume and physical changes don't differ much compared to her 'secret identity.'
• My wife liked the "horsey" joke.  
• My wife thought the choice to make Glimmer heavyset was interesting.  Why did they do that?  Is it a comment that all people are different and have different body types (I immediately notice that the heroes generally have identical body types in the old series; I assume this is lazy design)?  Is it an observation that Glimmer doesn't need an athletic physique because Glimmer uses magic instead of athleticism?  Is it a way for thicc girls to identify with someone on the cartoon?  
• The target audience is likely young, because the story is so simple and the plots move so slowly.  

Conclusion

At the end of a stressful day, I'd rather watch the simple lightness of "She-Ra and the Princesses of Power" than the pointless darkness of "The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina."

Kitty Holiday Card Ornaments

Cut the cats out of the postcard.  Take some wire pieces (I used paperclips), bend the wires into "U" shapes with hooks at the ends for claws.

Tape the wires to the back of the cats so they can claw onto your Yule tree.

Attach the cats to your tree, and celebrate the Holiday!

#Drawtober2018 31-Hallow Queen

I was influenced by The Conjuring 2 (which scared the shoes off me) on TV while drawing this.  I imagine a "Hallow Queen" to be a lady REALLY GOOD at hallowing (making holy), and thereby good at dispelling demons and vampires.  I imagined the demon disintegrating like old crackly paper, whereas the vampire would turn to dust. 

I also discovered that HallowQueen is a big LGBTQ Halloween festival.  I have no idea how to draw this, but I hope everyone there had a fun and safe holiday.

Drawtober2018 was a blast for me; I worked hard, went through a lot of paper and pencil, and I think I improved my drawing abilities a little.  I also had something to strive for, and I am proud of delivering a drawing EVERY DAY.

Sadly, Google has threatened to destroy Google+ next August.  This makes me very sad.  I'm not sure which social media platform I will switch to.  I hope against hope that Google will reconsider their decision.

#Drawtober2018 30-Dream Eater

I was originally going to depict an unfortunate starving man dreaming of food, but the implications seemed so bleak and depressing.  I decided that a glutton would be funnier.  I may resemble the glutton in the drawing. 

#Drawtober2018 29-Black Widow

In D&D, there are spider-elf hybrids known as "driders."  Here I present a female drider mourning her mate, tragically crushed in a cave-in.

Female black widow spiders are notorious for eating their mates, but studies have shown that if the female is well-fed, she is extremely unlikely to eat her mate.  It makes sense when you consider that the black widow's venom is limited, and if she squanders it by poisoning a mate, then she may be incapable of defending herself during a time when she really needs to protect her vulnerable young.  A fertile female will advertise how well-fed she is with her pheromones, and male black widows will avoid poorly-fed females if given the choice. 

I'm not suggesting that black widow spiders are cuddly; they're still deadly bugs, after all.  However, it's not impossible to imagine that spider-people might have genuine feelings for each other besides food. 

#Drawtober2018 28-Rusty Cauldron

Of course Billy Mays is the inspiration for the Kettle Klean pitch man, and Elizabeth Montgomery is the inspiration for the witch homemaker.

#Drawtober2018 27-Trickster Treat

I created Snake Eye Rodent Jerky for my D&D campaign, as a tasty snack popular with monsters.  I figure both coyotes and ravens eat rodents.

#Drawtober2018 26-Grotesque Music Box

Grotesque kids and their grotesque dog listen to the soothing tones of a music box.  Entertainment is sometimes hard to come by when you live out in the country and you don't have a lot of money.  When you're a grotesque you learn to stay away from people who pick on you.

#Drawtober2018 25-A Murder of Crows

If your D&D party is not fulfilling a quest, just wandering from town to town killing random monsters and small-time villains, many will sneer and refer to you and your fellow D&D adventurers as "murder hobos."  Of course a group of crows is known as "a murder of crows."  If your D&D characters are also crows, they might be called "a murder of murder hobos."
I was way more loose and cartoony putting together this drawing, but it still turned out all right.

#Drawtober2018 24-Twisted Horns

The "Twisted Horns" here are shell trumpets on the left and right; snail shells naturally have a spiral twist to them.  At center left I put a log drum player, at center right I could not resist putting a turtle shell lyre player. 
I drew a whole 4-person band out of pure short-sightedness; they took so long to draw!  But then mermaids are known for being hard to resist.

#Drawtober2018 23-Plant Gore

Albert Gore Jr. was a mild-mannered former Vice President of the United States, desperately trying to save the world from global warming.  He met with scientists developing a "supertree" serum, capable of transforming ordinary trees into carbon-sequestration powerhouses.  A tragic accident infused Al Gore with this serum, giving him an inhuman tree-like appearance, but also granting him amazing tree superpowers!  From then on, the public would know him as... PLANT GORE.

#Drawtober2018 22-Nightmare Demonsion

Sure, he's a big important demon, but he still has nightmares that he is naked in school, and he can't remember his locker combination, and he is late for his big tests.

#Drawtober2018 21-Bone Cutter

I am very disappointed by how the warrior turned out, especially his arms.  But if I don't challenge myself, I will not improve.  I was hoping to draw the skeleton more cleaved than exploded, but I just ran out of time.

#Drawtober2018 20-Poisoned Hollow

I grew up 15 miles from Love Canal: a housing development built on a leaking toxic waste dump.  You can still visit the area, and even virtually visit it with Google Street View.  It's an eerie, eerie ghost town today, because you know it was abandoned due to poisons invisibly permeating the area.  I saw the 2015 re-make of Poltergeist, and the premise of a home built on corrupted land was very relevant to me due to the very real specter of Love Canal.

#Drawtober2018 19-Under Wraps

...Tortilla wraps.  Here Quetzalcoatl & Tezcatlipoca enjoy conquistador-itos.

#Drawtober2018 18-Harpy's Nest

The nest is where the harpy keeps her babies safe.

When planning this out, I realized that a baby harpy would be covered with fuzz, like a baby chicken. 
This drawing is dedicated to my mom, who had a birthday recently.

#Drawtober2018 17-Hell Hound

Wiener dogs are technically classified as hounds.

Drawing this made me hungry for the great charcoal-grilled hot dogs at Ted's Hot Dogs.

#Drawtober2018 16-Sewn Shut

A rip has formed in the fabric of spacetime, allowing a huge demon to wreak havok on Earth.  Crusaders attempt to occupy the demon, while angels attempt to stitch the rip with celestial filament.

#Drawtober2018 15-Parsel-Tongue

I drew this too early.  The tongue part comes later.

#Drawtober2018 14-Delicate Decay

Here you can see the slender elegant mushroom princess addressing her adoring subjects.  Although they have an advanced culture, fungi are a form of decay.

#Drawtober2018 13-Creepy Crawlers

They're creepy, and they crawl.  It's a play date for monster babies!  Here you can see that the nice Mummy boy has made a well out of blocks for the Ring girl to climb out of.

The symbols on those blocks come right out of my Egyptian heiroglyphics primer. 

#Drawtober2018 12-Ghoul Drool

Ghouls eat the flesh of dead people.  Vampires count as "dead," and ghouls are not harmed by sunlight.

#Drawtober2018 11-Haunted Toy Box

I imagine existence as a ghost to be very sad and lonely, prompting one to seek comfort from a familiar toy.

I experimented with different thick & thin pencils in this one to generate multiple line weights. 

#Drawtober2018 10-Impish

Danes speak Danish, Elves speak Elvish, Imps speak Impish.  Here an imp takes pleasure corrupting the minds of black wizards with his foul tongue.

I spent a long time coming up with "Crumbspore," created in the manner of Screwtape.  I figured I could get away with some anatomical fudging with the non-human imp, but upon reexamination I think it looks too implausible.

#Drawtober2018 09-A Hidden Face

So typical; you wake up, and you can't find your face, but you need your face in order to find your face. 

#Drawtober2018 08-Scaredy Cat

At first it only ate loose hairs on the floor, but when that became scarce, it went after the source of the fur--KITTIES!

#Drawtober2018 07-"Grin" Reaper

Today's drawing is kind of a ripoff of a very different image of Death playing with a cat.  Today's prompt was very difficult for me, given that I attended a memorial service for a family member today.

#Drawtober2018 06-Watery Grave

You're in a coffin, buried alive; this is bad.  The coffin starts filling with water; this is worse.

#Drawtober2018 05-Blood Sucker

In America, "sucker" is another word for lollipop.  I suppose a vampire bat is a "blood sucker" also.

#Drawtober2018 04-Carousel Curse

The idea here is that the kids ride the carousel, and the enchanted, capricious carousel horses turn the kids into little ponies, transporting them to a magical pony world, but it's hard to compress am unwelcome body transformation into 3 images.

I would like to thank "Little Pony Drawing Book" by Lindsay Cibos.  I would not have tried to draw the little ponies without using it as a reference.

Before posting my drawings, I give them one last look, and I cringe because I see all kinds of flaws.  But if I give up, I will never improve.

#Drawtober2018 03-Night Owl

Hawks and owls can share the same territory for hunting prey; hawks hunt during the day, owls hunt at night.

#Drawtober2018 02-The Frog Witch

I saw the "Frog Witch" prompt for today and asked: how can I turn this on its head?  Everyone knows the story of the "Frog Prince" wherein a prince is turned into a frog by a witch, and only a kiss from a princess can restore him; what if the witch were turned into a frog, and she needed a prince's kiss to restore her?
It turns out there is already a Russian fairy tale known as "The Frog Sorceress" (or "The Frog Princess") wherein the king's youngest son is forced to marry a talking frog who is secretly a sorcerous princess.  There are many versions of this story, but in the version I read, the princess can transform from frog to human sometimes (at night?  My copy of the story isn't clear on the details), and there is a grand ball wherein the princess reveals her human form to her prince and his family.
In the version of the story I read, her dress is blue with stars, but I decided to modify the stars to star-like water lilies in order to reflect her frog nature. 

I've only told you a little bit of the story, but the whole story is still short and I recommend it because it is better then "The Frog Prince" in several ways. 

#Drawtober2018 01-Pumpkin Head

"Head" can refer to the foam that forms at the top of a glass of beer.

Egg Salad Recipe

Egg Salad

Ingredients:
1 dozen eggs
1 large raw beet, sliced thinly
2 T white vinegar
4 c water
4 T mayonnaise
2 T prepared mustard
2 T kalamata olives, sliced
1/2 c green onions, chopped
Pepper (to taste)
Paprika (to taste)

Put the raw beet slices in a pot with the water and vinegar.  Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer.
Wash the eggs with soap and water, rinse them well, then gently place them in the pot with the beet broth.

I suppose you don't NEED to color the eggs before you turn them into egg salad, but I'm leaving it in the recipe for humorous purposes.

Let the eggs simmer for 15 minutes, then strain the beet broth into a bowl.  Place the eggs in the bowl, and let them soak in the broth overnight in the refrigerator.

I was hoping for a beety magenta color.  I mean, I could have BOUGHT brown eggs.

Gently rinse off the eggs.  Take 6 of the really good-looking ones and put them back in the carton to show people later.
Take the other 6, peel the shells away, and rinse any shell fragments off.

They only taste a little beety.

Put the de-shelled eggs in a bowl with the mayonnaise, mustard, olives, onions, pepper, and paprika.  Use a potato masher to break up the eggs and mix the ingredients thoroughly.