Storm Area 51 (2023)

"Storm Area 51" was a weird event that took place on September 20, 2019. The idea was to gather people who'd raid the secret military base in the Nevada desert and find out the truth about aliens, but it ended as a music festival and an Internet meme. One of the jokes was to help aliens escape Area 51, so I started my little art challenge where my avatar saves a different alien each time, mostly recognizable creatures from pop culture. In my three artistic attempts I've "saved" a common green alien, a baby xenomorph and a facehugger and this year - my favourite childhood alien Alf!

The TV show of the same name was megapopular in the 80s, there was a ton of Alf merchandise and he was one of the characters I often drew in my elementary school notebooks at the time. Drawing him for the first time after 30+ years really brings back nostalgia, but I'm glad I came up with this idea, no matter how silly it sounds and looks. There's plenty of comic book, TV and movie aliens to save!

P.S. First, ugh work! 🙄 I got some new obligations and usual unresolved issues that keep interfering with my drawing schedule, so that's why I'm pretty late with this drawing. Second, as you already know, the background in my drawings is basically nonexistent because I keep focusing on characters, so I used some Clip Studio Paint brushes for the background again.

My socials: https://linktr.ee/grdi

#digitaldrawing #alien #area51 #stormarea51 #area51raid #alf #tvshow #sitcom #80s #grdilicious #grdi

Hooligfan (GRDI-Verse)

The source of inspiration for my next GRDI-Verse villain may be triggering for some football fans, but although I try to be a polite, understanding and tolerant person, there are issues I have strong opinions about. I usually keep them for myself, but as I'm getting older, the less f**ks I have to give. This time I was inspired by my dislike of football/soccer - to be precise, not the game itself, but the so-called "culture" surrounding it, which leads to dangerous and questionable issues, such as money, nationalism and hooliganism.

OK, it's not the first time I write about this, so let's keep it short. First, there's too much money involved and it's mind-blowing how much some of the players get, while "ordinary" but more important jobs remain underpaid. I know footballers are modern gladiators, but come on! Keep it real! Second, it's a way too big thing for some countries, including mine, especially during local and world competitions, when supporters turn into raging zombies (yes, that kind!) and there's no more important thing than scoring a goal. And third, the issue of hooliganism or any kind of "irrational" support, which I'll never be able to understand, no matter how much it's present in our everyday lives.

And if you consider attacking my opinion, don't bother - karma's already got me: this year they built the country's most modern and praised football stadium in my backyard, so... Ugh! 🤦‍♂️

This villain's alias is Hooligfan but I still don't have a real name or background for him. His main ability is multiplication, i.e. creating copies of himself and confusing his opponents. His secondary ability would be using metal wrist bracelets that can turn into brass knuckles, spikes, claws etc. Other weapons of choice would be grenades in a shape of footballs and a bat, usually with spikes. In a way, I turned him into an agile ninja and gave him more interesting abilities a person like he deserves. His logo is a burning football with a fuse.

My socials: https://linktr.ee/grdi

#digitaldrawing #characterdesign #originalcharacter #grdiverse #grdilicious #grdi

My Internetversary 2023

Today is my 7th Internetversary and although my online presence as a wannabe artist began long before that, it was my Instagram account that gave me hope that one day I might achieve something more with this hobby.

But the innitial rise didn't last long and soon after that it stopped at around 550 followers (now it's 580), while the number of likes per post barely goes above 10 anymore. I'm not sure if it's the algorithm or my failure to deliver more interesting content, because I've been working on my drawings more than ever, obviously without satisfying results.

In the beginning it was difficult for me to decide what exactly I'd like to do. I knew I'd definitely do something digitally, but I wanted to explore other artistic interests too, including traditional drawing, polymer clay sculpting, papercraft etc. Eventually, somewhere along the way I turned almost completely to digital art. One of the mistakes I made was refusing to create reels, because I'm not a film maker, I don't need a TikTok knock-off and I still consider IG a photo-based app and that kind of thinking most likely took its toll.

And there's another thing... OK, let's say the algorithm does its devilish thing, but my drawings still manage to reach a certain number of users - and most of them still ignore my posts! I mean, there are styles, franchises, fanart etc. I'm not particularly crazy about, but when I see a beautiful or interesting post, I click like. A composition, colours, pose - if I like it I support the artist, no matter if I don't usually love that theme, watch that anime or read that comic.

This last concern makes me believe that what I consider to be my "art" might be a failure after all. Or maybe it is somewhat good, but not many share my point of view and just keep scrolling when they see unknown OCs or characters they don't like. Anyway, it won't stop me from doing what I do, but it will surely keep me wondering if I've been doing something wrong.

P.S. Characters in the collage are my drawings from 2020, 2021 and 2022.

My socials: https://linktr.ee/grdi

#grdilicious #grdi

Whoody (GRDI-Verse)

My next GRDI-Verse villain has a really simple design, but it's sooo cool. There's this hooded cloak thingy that I came across a long time ago and although it looks ridiculous and I'd never wear it (or couldn't pull it off), I saved screenshots of these ads in my gallery because I knew I'd use this design some day. And that day's finally come!

This OC is mysterious, in fact so mysterious that I haven't come up with his real name or background yet. I wanted his alias to be Void or Null, but there already are comic book characters with these names, so I decided to name him Whoody. It's a portmanteau of "who" (because we don't know anything about him) and "hoodie" (because it's basically that - just an oversized hoodie). Apart from his limbs, his body inside the hoodie is like a void, there are no features, just darkness. His powers are a mixture of telepathy, hypnosis, energy drain or something like that, but I'll probably figure it out as time goes by.

And another thing... he's not a typical villain,  because he often has his own agenda and depending on a situation it's not always clear whose side he'd choose.

Pose: @theposearchives

My socials: https://linktr.ee/grdi

#digitaldrawing #characterdesign #originalcharacter #grdiverse #grdilicious #grdi

Smaugust 2023

This year's Smaugust challenge (a month of drawing dragons) seems like a perfect opportunity to promote my OC wyvern again and show how it evolved.

I created it in 2019 as part of two combined challenges, Smaugust and the silhouette challenge, to show how a map of Croatia can be drawn as a dragon (more precisely a wyvern). I decided to copy our national flag's pattern - red, white and blue, which is how it ended with blue breath/fire. 🤷‍♂️

After that I continued drawing it, so it became my recurring OC. Of course, I moved away from the original silhouette and drew it in various poses, but I kept the colour pattern I established four years ago. Here's the latest version!

My socials: https://linktr.ee/grdi

#digitaldrawing #characterdesign #originalcharacter #dragon #wyvern #smaugust #grdilicious #grdi

Dr. Anemonica (GRDI-Verse)

It was obvious I needed a main villain for my GRDI-Verse, someone who's going to pull all evil threads and be a worthy opponent to my superhero Davorachnid and here she is - Dr. Anemonica. I found inspiration in Olivia Octavius aka Doc Ock from the Spider-Verse, but also in Queen Vanda from Sport Billy, one of my favourite childhood cartoons.

Her looks are also inspired by a sea anemone - it might sound weird, but I needed a creature with dangerous tentacles, something that would represent a weapon, but also the idea of being an omnipresent multi-tasking creature and it would be too obvious to use an octopus or a giant squid. Dr. Anemonica started her villainous career under the radar, seemingly insignificant as a little sea anemone we rarely pay our attention to, but she honed her skills to a perfection... or somewhere close to it.

Her suit is basically purple, apart from metallic gauntlets that she can transform into almost any kind of weapon using nanotechnology. Here you can see her using electricity in one hand and some kind of a teargas in the other. She also wears goggles, an anemone-like tiara and a cape that's divided into several bands of cloth that can sway in the wind, making her look cool and more menacing. Her logo is basically a stylized anemone.

She's some kind of a mad scientist with a delusion of grandeur and driven by blind ambition. The creature behind her is one of her experiments, her accomplice or helper Aresmo, a ghost-like entity that has powers of its own, but she conducts many other experiments, not just on creatures, but there are also robots, vehicles etc.

I gave her an absurd comic book type rhyming name Mona Belladona, just to show how ridiculous she really is. It also sounds similar to "anemone", plus belladonna is a poisonous plant and adds to her villainous nature.

My socials: https://linktr.ee/grdi

#digitaldrawing #characterdesign #grdiverse #grdilicious #grdi

The Litterer (GRDI-Verse)

The next villain in my GRDI-Verse rogue gallery is also inspired by real life situations. I decided to name him The Litterer and his real name would be Terry Lee (it kind of sounds similar).

This time my beef is with people who either don't know how to recycle or don't care about recycling and using the right colour-coded trash containers. Even I'm not sure if dividing different types of garbage into separate containers is actually regulated in this God forsaken corrupted country or it's just for show for the EU, but I do my best and try to follow the rules no matter what... silly me. 🤷‍♂️ And then you open a container and see that hardly anyone does the same. 😔 It's all mixed up, there's glass in organic waste, plastic among paper etc. and it breaks my heart, but hello Balkans, it's you, hello, you're the problem, it's you... 🎶

Anyway... Terry you see here is one of those persons who don't care about the colour of the containers and throw away garbage anywhere they want. In fact, he wears some kind of a mixer machine on his back that grinds different kinds of waste into a toxic liquid that he sprays around during his fight against superheroes (at the moment just my own OC superhero Davorachnid). His logo contains the familiar recycle sign, but only ironically, in yellow square with black print, usually used for dangerous and toxic materials.

If I want to explore his story, I'll need to work on his reasons and motivation as a villain, but let's just say he doesn't care about environmental issues and uses his contraption for criminal activities.

My socials: https://linktr.ee/grdi

#digitaldrawing #characterdesign #grdiverse #grdilicious #grdi