I apologize for being rather disorganized here. And I'm really frustrated, as I wanted to spend all of October doing the following, but I got sick with the cold for most of the month (still have coughs and partial laryngitis as I write this), and it really cramped up my schedule, so I was very disappointed, because I really wanted to surprise you all. But I might as well turn up what I have, and rest assured, I would love to do more with this stuff later on. :)
As some of you are quite aware, I've become a huge fan of the animated series, Alex Hirsch's Gravity Falls, which premiered on the Disney Channel over a year ago. A really funny, wild, poignant, haunting, and sometimes dark series, with a great set of main characters: 12-year old twins Dipper (the protagonist) and Mabel (his goofy sidekick), who stay with their great uncle Grunkle Stan (the owner of the Mystery Shack, located in the titular town in central Oregon) for Summer vacation, and Stan's young workers Soos (a goofy man-child) and Wendy (a 15-year old girl and Dipper's secret crush). Dipper & Mabel's stay in Gravity Falls turns out to be not-so-normal, with all sorts of supernatural phenomena permeating the town. Dipper's guide to the phenomena is a mysterious book he found, labeled "3" on the cover. There are secret messages hidden throughout the series, written in secret codes (including the Caesarian code; three letters back), and these hidden details have become a popular facet with fans of the show. With Season 1 having ended (I will not spoil the season finale; it has to be seen to be appreciated), Season 2 (which is now in the works) promises to be more exciting and really ominous! (Creator Hirsch intends for the entire series to take place over the course of an entire Summer vacation; he aimed for 3 seasons, but production on the series proved to be really difficult and challenging, so as it stands, Hirsch is trimming it down to 2 seasons, and a movie to close the series. That said, I can hardly wait! But I have to...)
So I was inspired to do full color fanart of the series, but was sidetracked by my above dilemma (and you'll notice huge time gaps, as a consequence). I'll get to that soon enough, so I'll post what I did so far: my own personal model sheet exercise/design studies. By default, I used series director/character designer Joe Pitt's designs/model sheets for reference. I had little to work with on some designs, so I improvised by using screenshots from the series.
Here's Dipper, done on October 1st:
Mabel, done on October 5th:
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This was after my first two weeks with the cold (the first week was the worst). Wendy (done on October 21th) was a bit tricky at first, so aside from the model sheet I worked with, I looked at various screenshots to get a better grasp of the variations in her design.
The same deal with Grunkle Stan (done on October 25th), whose physique was even trickier than his expressions!
I'll get to doing Soos, eventually. Otherwise, look for more Gravity Falls stuff from me soon! I've had a lot of fun learning to draw these characters.
