March is Sketchbook Month Day 18

Fan Art week ends with this sketch of a distraught Lance after learning that his general is a Mutradi spy in "Escape from Galaluna."



And check out the other great entries for Day 18 here.

Sym-Bionic Fan Art Part 3

Fan Art week comes to a close with these sketches of everyone's favorite galactic hero turned high school student, Lance, from the episode "Escape from Galaluna."

March is Sketchbook Month Day 17

And here is my favorite sketch from "Under the Three Moons" -



And be sure to check out the other Day 17 entries.

Sym-Bionic Fan Art

Continuing with my theme of "Fan Art Week," here are some sketches of Lance and Ilana from "Sym-Bionic Titan." These are sketches from the episode "Under the Three Moons."







I want to improve my draftsman skills and I like the expressions and energy of the characters from this series, so I decided to use them as practice. With a few simple facial lines and curves of the eyebrows Ilana and Lance have a surprisingly wide variety of emotions. This is great to see how much can be done with television animation, which is often constrained by limited budgets and a short production schedule.



I particularly like Ilana's expression - she can be quite forceful when she wants to be.

March is Sketchbook Month Day 16

And Fan Art week continues for me for March is Sketchbook Month. Check out the other entries here.

Sym-Bionic Titan

Today's post pays homage to one of my favorite shows - Sym-Bionic Titan. It tells the story of Princess Ilana, her bodyguard, Lance, and their robot protector Octus, as they navigate the tumultous landscape of high school in Sherman, Illinois. Ilana is the heart of the show, a "Lady Di" character as co-creator Genndy Tartakovsky describes her, beloved by her people and always trying to do the right thing. Lance is the handsome, brooding loner who understands his mission is to protect the princess yet finds himself thrust into the unwanted role of most popular guy in school. Yet in the midst of all the hoopla, he is still dealing with his own personal demons over the disappearance of his father. And Octus is the powerful robot, disguised as nerdy genius Newton, who wrestles with the idea that while he is not a man, he is not fully machine either.

And they are refugees from another planet currently held in the throes of an evil dictator who sends monsters to planet Earth to destroy them. And the three heroes can form a giant, Voltron-like robot called Titan. And they throw in great 80s pop music.

Good stuff.

What I like best about the show is the depth that creators Genndy Tartakovksy (of Samurai Jack fame), Paul Rudish and Bryan Andrews bring to our alien refugees. This could easily be a simple smash and bash, monster of the week caper. Instead, the creators and writers choose to show the more human side of the characters, how homesick they feel, how they yearn for acceptance, how they deal with romantic entanglements and how they learn to gradually get along with each other.

So in honor of this fine show, here are some sketches of Ilana. She is a great character to draw, for several reasons. First, her head is shaped like a turnip - easy to draw! More than that though, she has a nice range of expressions. And she is my favorite character on the show.









If you would like to read more about Sym-bionic Titan, check out the blogs of Mike Collins and Kevin Dart, two of the finely talented artists who work on the show. And watch it on Cartoon Network. Support great animation!

Princess Sally

Even though Sonic ain't the cool dude I remember, the character designs are still pretty sweet.
Here's a few of my drawings of Princess Sally.

W.I.T.C.H.

Hay Lin reads a starry-eyed letter from Eric.
© 2007 Angela Entzminger

W.I.T.C.H.

The couples of W.I.T.C.H.: Will and Matt; Martin and the French Girl
© 2007 Angela Entzminger

W.I.T.C.H.

My fascination with the comic continues.
Here is Orube in street clothes.
© 2007 Angela Entzminger

W.I.T.C.H.

One of my favorite comics is W.I.T.C.H. It is the tale of five ordinary high school girls who discover that they are the guardians of Kandrakar - a mythical palace in another dimension that holds the balance within the universe. The comic stands for the girls in the group: Will, Irma, Taranee, Cornelia and Hay Lin. Their powers are not original (fire, water, earth and air, can we say Captain Planet and the Planeteers?) but the stories are pretty good.

Eric and Hay Lin

Taranee in Fire Form

Ichigo checks the time

Rukia and Ichigo

Fighting Rukia

Manga

I love manga style and am teaching myself how to be a better manga artist, in addition to being a better all around animator and illustrator.
My goal is to fuse my love for American and Japanese style together to create a new hybrid of art.

These are sketches of some of my favorite characters from Yukiru Sugisaki's
D.N.Angel.

Kingdom Hearts Fan Art

This is Sora, the hero of KH who fights alongside Donald and Goofy. I really like the design of his shoes.

Kingdom Hearts Fan Art

I am a huge fan of Kingdom Hearts, particularly the character designs.
For those who don't know, KH is a video game fusing classic Disney characters and characters from various Final Fantasy games. The Final Fantasy designs are amazing - I really like all of the zippers, belts and huge shoes that the creators added to all of the characters.
The character to the left is Fuu.

Jhohen Vasquez Fan Art

So I'm a big fan of Jhohen Vasquez, creator of such family-friendly fare as "Squee" and
"Johnny the Homicidal Maniac." Weird guy for sure, but great artist and creator of one of my new favorite shows, "Invader Zim." Alas, had this show debuted on Cartoon Network or MTV, it would have lasted longer than a season in the U.S. Thank goodness for TurboNick.

Here is Zim from the episode "Door to Door."