Happy New Year!

 I wrote this for Instagram, as it's my most active social media platform, with the most likes, followers etc. For this year's art review I kind of combined several art challenges into one. I didn't feel comfortable to post "Top Nine", because I paid for promotion of eight of my works and instead of usual 30-50 likes they got up to "unreal" 600, which makes it harder to tell what you really liked. 🤔

As for "The Summary of Art 2020", I'm also skipping that one this year, because as I started drawing more it became impossible for me to choose only 12 drawings (one per month) out of 70! 🤪

Instead of all that, I'm going with some kind of "Art vs Artist" challenge or something similar... I took the general idea, but made a collage of as many artworks as possible. They cover most of my interests, from drawing challenges, Marvel stuff, anime and Star Wars to YouTubers such as Drawfee, Jazza, Rhett and Link, the Vlog Squad and Let's Game It Out.

As for the milestones, I got 5.1k likes this year (although many come from the mentioned promotions, so again I'm not sure what the numbers would be like without them). I also got my 500th follower in August. I don't think the paid promotions helped much with that, because I got many likes during that period, but very few new followers. I guess they liked those specific drawings, but not my whole profile or gallery. And I almost completely stopped experimenting with different art forms and worked on my digital drawings, trying to define my style or at least some features I like to use in my drawings (such as thicker black and white outlines and rim lighting).

Thank you for your participation (likes, shares, following and comments). As for the New Year's wishes, let's just hope 2021 will bring happier moments. Aside from the COVID-19 pandemic, this year my country has suffered (and is still suffering) major earthquakes (the strongest was just two days ago 😔). Many houses and buildings were devastated and lives were lost, so no wonder that on this last day of 2020 we are even more than ever desperate for some good news. 🙏

So... Happy New Year, be creative and stay safe!

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Xmas Mashup Challenge 2020

 It took me a little bit longer, but finally here are all my drawings for the Xmas Mashup Challenge! 👍

You gave me your suggestions for fictional characters you'd like me to draw and I mixed them with my 6 "Xmasy" prompts in the Arty Games random character generator by @drawwithjazza.

They were:

* Santa Claus + The Punisher ✅

* Xmas elf + Leona Heidern  ✅

* Reindeer/Rudolph + Mignon Beart ✅

* Snowman + Jack Skellington ✅

* Gingerbread man + Goliath ✅

* Krampus + Loki ✅

I thought Santa Claus and Krampus would be the easiest, but I'm not really happy with how they turned out. Elf, Reindeer and Snowman were surprisingly easy, but the one I thought I'd have the most problems with, Gingerbread man, turned out unexpectedly good.

Thank you for your participation, likes and comments. Although I wasn't 100% sure about my abilities and time I'll need to complete any kind of art challenge with more characters, it was my second Six Fanarts Challenge and I guess I'll do something like this again, especially if there's a twist (like it was with Halloween and Christmas).

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Xmas Mashup Challenge (Krampus)

 My sixth Xmas mashup character: Loki + Krampus (one of your suggestions + my Xmas prompt + the Arty Games random generator by @drawwithjazza).

Here's my final drawing for this challenge. I was glad when I got this combination, but now I'm not sure about the result. I hope you like it anyway.

* Santa Claus + The Punisher ✅

* Xmas elf + Leona Heidern  ✅

* Reindeer/Rudolph + Mignon Beart ✅

* Snowman + Jack Skellington ✅

* Gingerbread man + Goliath ✅

* Krampus + Loki ✅

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#digitalart #drawing #fanart #characterdesign #sixfanarts #christmasedition #xmaschallenge #mashup #loki #marvel #krampus #krampusart #croatianartist #selftaughtartist #grdilicious #grdi

Xmas Mashup Challenge (Gingerbread Man)

 My fifth Xmas mashup character: Goliath from Gargoyles + Gingerbread man (a suggestion by Joshua Dages from Instagram + my Xmas prompt + the Arty Games random generator by @drawwithjazza).

This was the hardest challenge, because I didn't plan in advance how to transform ANY character into a gingerbread man - and getting Goliath didn't help at all! This is my third and in my opinion the best version, so it should be enough. In the end I chose the most common pose you can find on Google and I'm actually satisfied with how it turned out. My lines are usually clean, but this time I used a "dissolved" brush effect to make it look like a cookie or something similar. And what is more important, the chance of drawing at least one character from Disney's Gargoyles brought back my (late?) childhood memories. 😍

* Santa Claus + The Punisher ✅

* Xmas elf + Leona Heidern  ✅

* Reindeer/Rudolph + Mignon Beart ✅

* Snowman + Jack Skellington ✅

* Gingerbread man + Goliath ✅

* Krampus + Loki

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#digitalart #drawing #fanart #characterdesign #sixfanarts #christmasedition #xmaschallenge #mashup #goliath #gargoyles #disney #gingerbreadman #croatianartist #selftaughtartist #grdilicious #grdi

Merry Christmas!

 

Xmas Mashup Challenge 2020 (Snowman)

 My fourth Xmas mashup character: Jack Skellington + Snowman (a suggestion by Cindy Mora from Twitter + my Xmas prompt + the Arty Games random generator by @drawwithjazza).

Here's a very familar character, Jack Skellington from The Nightmare Before Christmas, but as a snowman. I also added his ghost-dog Zero, although he wasn't part of the prompt. I gave him a Santa's hat and Rudolph's collar and nose, just for fun.

* Santa Claus + The Punisher ✅

* Xmas elf + Leona Heidern  ✅

* Reindeer/Rudolph + Mignon Beart ✅

* Snowman + Jack Skellington ✅

* Gingerbread man + Goliath

* Krampus + Loki

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grdilicious (Twitter & Facebook)

grdobina (deviantART)

grdi.main (Instagram)

grdi (Blogger)

#digitalpart #drawing #fanart #disney #theemperorsnewgroove #yzma #croatianartist #selftaughtartist #grdilicious #grdi

Yzma (The Emperor's New Groove)

 It's the 20th anniversary of The Emperor's New Groove's release (December 2000) and as soon as I read about it I left everything I was doing just to draw - Yzma!

It's one of my favourite not only Disney's movies, but animated movies in general and Yzma, voiced by incredible Eartha Kitt, is my favourite character. OK, Kronk too. They're hilarious together. 🤣 Damn, gotta go watch it again now...

WIP:

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Xmas Mashup Challenge 2020 (Reindeer)

 My third Xmas mashup character: Mignon Beart + Reindeer (a suggestion by MegaNinten Cano from Twitter + my Xmas prompt + the Arty Games random generator by @drawwithjazza).

I didn't know anything about her, but apparently she's also a character from The King of Fighters (a video game). If you wonder how I managed to design this unusual mashup, I was inspired by Beastars (although I don't watch that anime).

* Santa Claus + The Punisher ✅

* Xmas elf + Leona Heidern  ✅

* Reindeer/Rudolph + Mignon Beart ✅

* Snowman + Jack Skellington

* Gingerbread man + Goliath

* Krampus + Loki

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My social media platforms:

grdilicious (Twitter & Facebook)

grdobina (deviantART)

grdi.main (Instagram)

grdi (Blogger)

#digitalart #drawing #fanart #characterdesign #sixfanarts #christmasedition #xmaschallenge #mashup #reindeer #mignonbeart #thekingoffighters #croatianartist #selftaughtartist #grdilicious #grdi

Xmas Mashup Challenge 2020 (Christmas elf)

 My second Xmas mashup character: Leona Heidern + Christmas elf (a suggestion by Gustavo Marchant from Twitter + my Xmas prompt + the Arty Games random generator by @drawwithjazza).

I've never heard of her, but apparently she's a character from The King of Fighters series of fighting video games.

* Santa Claus + The Punisher ✅

* Xmas elf + Leona Heidern  ✅

* Reindeer/Rudolph + Mignon Beart

* Snowman + Jack Skellington

* Gingerbread man + Goliath

* Krampus + Loki

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My social media platforms:

grdilicious (Twitter & Facebook)

grdobina (deviantART)

grdi.main (Instagram)

grdi (Blogger)

#digitalart #drawing #fanart #characterdesign #sixfanarts #christmasedition #xmaschallenge #mashup #elf #leonaheidern #thekingoffighters #croatianartist #selftaughtartist #grdilicious #grdi

Xmas Mashup Challenge 2020 (Santa Claus)

My first Xmas mashup character: The Punisher + Santa Claus (your suggestion + my Xmas prompt + Jazza's Arty Games random generator).

I guess I could have added more Punisher's features, but I think his skull-shaped beard and gift-wrapped guns make some interesting details.

* Santa Claus + The Punisher ✅

* Xmas elf + Leona Heidern

* Reindeer/Rudolph + Mignon Beart

* Snowman + Jack Skellington

* Gingerbread man + Goliath

* Krampus + Loki

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My social media platforms:

grdilicious (Twitter & Facebook)

grdobina (deviantART)

grdi.main (Instagram)

grdi (Blogger)

#digitalart #drawing #fanart #characterdesign #sixfanarts #christmasedition #xmaschallenge #mashup #santaclaus #punisher #marvel #croatianartist #selftaughtartist #grdilicious #grdi

Ghost (Ava Starr)

 My girl Ava Starr aka Ghost (with and without the mask) from Ant-Man and The Wasp.

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My Sonicsona

Little by little I'm filling my portfolio with drawings of my personas inspired by various franchises. I didn't really plan it, but somehow it became kind of my thing, so I decided to go with it.

This time it's Sonic the Hedgehog, or let's call it my "Sonicsona". I never played any version of the video game so it was this year's movie adaptation that gave me this idea. I used more modern references for the base of my character and added some elements that I believe are typical for me. It's mostly the colour palette - I like orange, grey and some earthy tones. That's why my Sonic has clothes and a bag - I wanted to use as many of these colours as possible. I also drew a digital stylus, to emphasize my interest in digital art, as well as my all-time favourite shoes and my logo on the T-shirt, but I didn't want to add too many details and other items like with my Spidersona last year, because I didn't want to repeat myself and "clutter" the drawing.

I have many more similar ideas, such as Attack On Titan... sona? I don't know what I'll call it, but as I said, expect more drawings like this. 😉👍

Johnny, Grace and the Giraffe

Here's my interpretation of Johnny Hotbody and his archnemesis, the falcon (Rise Of Ages), Grace or, more precisely, one of her versions (Foundation) and the legendary giraffe (Planet Zoo) - some of the most recognizable video game characters in 2019, played (and often tortured!) by Josh from the YouTube channel Let's Game It Out.

It's the only gaming channel I watch. I discovered it only a few months ago, but I think I managed to binge watch all his videos. Josh is an incredibly funny guy who plays mostly simulator games as incorrectly as possible and often breaks them. Some of the most popular are already mentioned Rise Of Ages and Planet Zoo, but also Satisfactory, The Sims and many more. In the beginning he had a co-host, Anthony, and the funniest games they played together were horror games.

While playing some of the games, he created a few memorable characters, gave them names and even personalities. Johnny Hotbody from Rise Of Ages is an attractive prehistoric buff guy in skimpy outfits, who hides his face behind a simple wooden mask, eats apples to replenish his strength and fights vicious falcons.

As for Grace, there are several versions, but I went with the last one from 2019, a villager from Foundation. The thing is that it's one of the most common names you can find in game algorithms, so whenever Josh comes across a Grace in any games, she gets a special treatment. In later videos, if there's no Grace, he gives one of them that name. In this version she didn't gather berries, but I drew her holding a basket anyway, because it was the only food her co-villagers ate in Foundation. I'll definitely come back to her and draw some other popular versions.

And giraffes are the first and most famous occupants of Josh's Planet Zoo. Almost every episode begins with them and they also get the "Grace treatment". There's also the infamous Giraffe Hydra, but I think I'll leave it for some other drawing.

If you're looking for hours of fun and laughter, I recommend this channel! 👍

DIY Triceratops Hat

I promised myself I'd create more digital art - and I actually have three projects in progress! - but here we are again with another unexpected extra DIY project (let's even call it one of my first commissions!). A friend and a colleague of mine asked me for a help with her daughter's school project, a dinosaur inspired mask or something similar.

One of the ideas was to use a baseball cap and I went with it, because time was short and it was simple and something I had experience with before. The dinosaur was supposed to be a triceratops, so I found similar ideas on the Internet, but also tried to add my own style.

The hat was accompanied by a set of vertical plates on the back, a long paper tail and paper origami claws (I know all these things aren't usual for this type of dinosaurs, but kids wanted them, so why not?). I was planning to use craft felt sheets at first (size A4), but eventually went with foam rubber and, all in all, it didn't cost much and I'm more than satisfied with how it turned out. And it made my friend's kid happy, which was the most important thing in all this.

P.S. In February there's a celebration in my country that's similar to Halloween - there are carnivals and children make masks and go trick-or-treating. The tradition is older than the American counterpart, but since Halloween became more and more popular some time in the 1990s, we now actually have two similar traditions. 😁👍

The Pattman

After the first Batman 2021 teaser, where they showed just a part of his new cowl, artists started flooding the Internet with their guess what The Pattman's ears will look like, so here's my mock-up version. 😂

The Card

Here I go again with another "lazy" drawing. I drew Joker's iconic gloved hand from a reference (Joker's Calling Card statue by Cryptozoic, 2017) and also used my own old illustration for the card (Harley Quinn, 2016). And since my followers never engage me in a discussion about my views - now that Birds Of Prey hit the cinemas and the Oscar night is behind us - I'll allow myself to write freely about my issues with both Joker and BOP.

"Joker" is an amazing movie and I'm glad Phoenix got the Oscar for his performance, but my main issue with it is that it was presented as a superhero (or in this case supervillain) movie. I mean, I've seen a few similar movies so far and it doesn't really bring anything we haven't seen before. Its title or the main protagonist could've been any other than "Joker" and that's basically it. Everything about this film led to chasing and getting the Oscars, they just wrapped the main idea in this "Joker" package to increase its importance and impact. I watch a lot of movies, but there are some I skip or leave them for some other time in my life. That would have been the thing with "Joker", too, if it hadn't been for the title. I repeat, I liked the movie, it's just all this "superhero" hype about it that bothers me.

"Birds Of Prey" were a bit of a letdown, especially in the first part. I couldn't relax and enjoy performances at first, especially by Robbie and McGregor - they seemed very unnatural, like they desperately overacted. But when I realized it was supposed to be totally silly and similar to Deadpool, I started to enjoy the second part of the movie. The other thing was all this Birds Of Prey stuff. Let's be honest, the whole movie was really about Harley. At times it looked like there were two films in one - the biggest part about Harley, and a little bit about the titular BOP and other characters.

So, what do you think?

International Pizza Day

Happy International pizza day! To be honest, I can barely find time for new drawings and this one is actually one of my last year's drawing challenges ("Monstrous Pizza"). I just rearranged it a little bit and added a few details. Once again, sorry it's just a filler this time.

Toon Me & Dolly Parton Challenge

Hopping on that #toonme bandwagon! The purpose of this challenge is to choose your selfie and draw half of your face in your style (you can also add a white line between the photo and the drawing or use any other effect). I'm not sure who the author is, it was suddenly all over my news feed.

I'm not comfortable with revealing my face on any social media, so this was an interesting way to cheat on that "rule". In fact, by doing this and seeing some other examples, I concluded I look similar to any other plus size hobbyist/artist with beard and glasses. Apparently, there's quite a number of us here. 😁

These days there's another meme or challenge on social media, so-called #dollypartonchallenge, so I used some of my avatars to create my own meme.

Reylo

Here's my latest Star Wars fan art! I found some interesting pose references on Figurosity.com and challenged myself to combine them into the pose you see, but I'm especially proud of the idea of drawing Kylo's and Rey's lightsabers as one single imaginary line (can you see it?). I'm not completely satisfied with my colouring and shading techniques in this one, but I believe it turned out pretty well.

 As for the so-called Skywalker saga - no spoilers! - I'm not sure what to think after all. I've been a Star Wars fan for several decades, but this last trilogy does seem like a mess. I think it started pretty well with The Force Awakens, but I'm very, very sorry to admit that The Last Jedi came as a bit of a shock and a letdown. I mean, I've watched it several times so far and I'll watch it again, but I still can't get rid of that "Why?!" feeling. I enjoyed The Rise Of Skywalker, but it was confusing to some extent, although I guess I should've expected it, because it had to tie the whole story together and finish it somehow.

The main problem is that this "trilogy" doesn't seem like a trilogy at all! It looks like they didn't start with a clear idea about what kid of story they wanted to tell, so they just let each director decide what to do with the events from the previous movie, even if it meant messing it up. However, I also must add that I'll watch all three movies as many times as I get the chance, like I do with every Star Wars movie. There are many issues with the story, a couple of unnecessary characters and questionable decisions - but it's Star Wars, I'll always support it and it will always remain inspiration to me.

After The Holidays

During holidays it's hard to stick to your usual diet plan, so have you started this year with a couple of pounds more? What's your plan now?

Of course, it's not a problem for Captain Marvel's "cat" Goose, a member of the Flerken race who can store any kind or amount of objects in pocket dimensions inside their bodies and still look fit, but we don't have that kind of choice. 

This idea for an illustration of Goose overeating during the holidays has been on my mind for a couple of weeks and I'm happy I finished it on exactly this day! January 6 in my country marks the official end of Christmas holidays, when most families take their Christmas tree down and put all the decorations away, so, starting tomorrow, life basically goes back to its usual pace.

I hope you had great holidays! And good luck with getting back to your old habits and maybe some new goals! 😉

Odd One #44

Happy New Year!