Firebird's Sketch of the Week Series

[Firebird]

And here's our mid-week drawing update. Kind of sparse this week because I wasn't feeling as creative the last few days for whatever reason.

Sketch of the Week #109 / 2021 Artwork #126: An attempt at Elizabeth Taylor in Joseph L. Mankiewicz's Cleopatra, a film I have a fascination with, particularly its troubled production history and mammoth stack of screenplay drafts (which takes up two full shelves on my screenplay research bookcase).

Sketch of the Week #110 / 2021 Artwork #127: The rare sight of a smiling Rei Ayanami from Evangelion.

 

[Firebird]

Sketch of the Week #111 / 2021 Artwork #128: Kyoko and Godai bring home their daughter Haruka for the first time at the end of Maison Ikkoku. This is probably one of my favorite pieces I've drawn this year, well worth the 6 hours it took to draw, ink, and color. It's certainly the best I've ever drawn these two over the previous Ikkoku drawings I've done - gotta love that 80's anime aesthetic!

For the hell of it, I've been tracking my sketches in a spreadsheet this year and I wanted to see just how many of them have had some reference to anime and manga. Turns out, fifty-six percent of my drawings this year have been based either on an anime/manga, or I've drawn an original piece in that style. (Note: many of my drawings have had characters or references from multiple franchises, so that's why the subject count is so much higher than the number of pieces I've drawn in 2021.) No surprises that Star Trek and Evangelion take the top spots overall.

 

[JR TREK]

Tenchi Muyo! One of the best casts ever, if not the best cast ever.

 

[Firebird]

Tenchi Muyo! One of the best casts ever, if not the best cast ever.

Tenchi will always have a special place in my heart, since it was one of the first anime I saw, waaaaay back in the Toonami days on Cartoon Network in the US.

 

[publiusr]

Same here. Outlaw Star as well.

 

[Santaman]

As usual really nice work.

First anime I saw was Captain Future by Toei Animation, was in the early 80's, then Patlabor, Ghost in the shell, Martian Successo Nadesico and The Vision of Escaflowne aaaaaaaaaaand many more.

 

[JR TREK]

First anime I saw was the Robotech adaptation in the 80's. First real anime was the original Vampire Hunter D and Robot Carnival.

Escaflowne was great, as was Ghost in the Shell. I missed out on Patlabor and Martian Successor Nadesico. I caught some of Outlaw Star.

 

[Firebird]

My first anime was Ronin Warriors when it was shown on the sci-fi channel for some reason in the mid-90’s, years before Toonami was even a thing. So I started with 80’s anime, too, just a few years later. I actually preordered the Blu-ray set that’s coming out next week of it since it’s got such nostalgic meaning for me.

 

[Firebird]

Sketch of the Week #112 / 2021 #129: A mid-week update brings a drawing of Sonic the Hedgehog, who is oddly the reason this entire series of drawings exists to begin with.

Short story time: around this time last year, I was about to spend my first Christmas alone without any friends or family, as we were still deep within the throes of the opening acts of the pandemic. By this point, I was severely burnt out by, well, everything really. During the holiday break (thankfully my industry closes down between Christmas and New Year's), I decided to start getting back into things I'd loved in high school, back when times were simpler and I had fewer responsibilities to worry about.

The first step to this cleansing regression was re-reading the Archie Comics run of Sonic, at least the original continuity before the aptly-titled Genesis Wave that put it all into a blender, due to... some legal shenanigans (coughcough*kenpenders*coughcough). I blew through about 300 or so issues in 3 days and thoroughly enjoyed reading it all, even though a bunch of it was... rather weird.

After getting done with Sonic, I thought to myself huh, maybe I should get back into that anime stuff I really loved back in high school, too. I'd also started looking back through my old sketchbooks and thought that it might be time to dust them off and get back to drawing again.

Well, if you've been following either on this thread or on my Instagram since January, you know the rest of the story and everything that's played out over the last 129 drawings. Hard to believe it all started because of one little hedgehog that's "gotta go fast." This has become one of the best decisions I've made in my life. Becoming an artist again has been rewarding in ways I'd never thought possible, and I'm glad I've done it and will continue to do it. And I thank everyone that's liked or commented in this thread for their encouragement.

Happy holidays, everyone! Here's to more drawings and creativity going into the new year - tune in same Bat-time, same Bat-channel!

 

[Firebird]

Sketch of the Week #113 / 2021 Artwork #130: Evangelion's Shinji Ikari is less than enthused to get stuck cooking Christmas dinner in a Santa cap (with bonus Maison Ikkoku reference).

 

[Santaman]

Well done!

 

[Firebird]

Sketch of the Week #114 / 2021 Artwork #131: Komi-san would wish you a merry Christmas... if she could actually get the words out.

 

[Firebird]

Sketch of the Week #115 / 2021 Artwork #132: I can finally share the commissioned drawing one of my friends had me do earlier this year. Her request was to draw my manga version of the movie-era TOS cast in the same pose as an Evangelion drawing I'd done during the spring.

For reference, the original Eva drawing:

 

[publiusr]

HA!

 

[Santaman]

Lalalala! live loooong and suffer!

 

[Firebird]

Mid-week update! Been on a damn roll this week, thanks to the holidays, completing a bunch of drawings and starting on the first draft script for the EVA-Trek pilot episode, "New Way Home." As it stands, I've written the teaser, act 1, and most of act 4, sitting at 38 pages... out of a 60-page draft. So, either I need to just make it a 90-minute pilot, or some serious cuts are gonna need to be made.

Sketch of the Week #116 / 2021 Artwork #133: Either one quits drawing anime girls early enough... or you keep going long enough to start drawing bunny girls. In this case, it's Mai Sakurajima from Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai, which became one of my favorite anime series I've discovered this year. It's got good dashes of comedy, romance, drama, quantum physics, and time travel. All the things that do a growing otaku good.

Sketch of the Week #117 / 2021 Artwork #134: Evangelion's Misato Katsuragi models off the First Contact uniform. This one isn't canon with EVA-Trek, I just wanted an excuse to draw the outfit.

 

[Santaman]

Nice work.

 

[Firebird]

Alright, everyone, here is the last update for 2021! It's been one helluva year, rediscovering my love for drawing and anime/manga and channeling that into my creative endeavors. I've been doing a drawing just about every day this week, and I've almost used up yet another sketchbook. The last page is reserved for the first drawing of 2022.

So, here we go:

Sketch of the Week #118 / 2021 Artwork #135: A tribute to the female main characters from the works of Rumiko Takahashi. Lum from Urusei Yatsura, Kyoko from Maison Ikkoku, Akane from Ranma 1/2, and Kagome from Inuyasha.

Sketch of the Week #119 / 2021 Artwork #136: The cast of Clerks: The Animated Series.

Sketch of the Week #120 / 2021 Artwork #137: Going into 2022 with some serious Asuka Langley Shikinami energy.

 

[Firebird]

Happy New Year, everyone! Got the year started off on a good note with an Evangelion/Looney Tunes drawing, proving that I'm gonna continue to keep things weird in 2022.

Drawing #138 / 2022 Artwork #1: "Eeeeeeeh, get in the giant robot, Doc."

 

[Santaman]

Nice work.