Silas Zee: Girl Power, 80's Style

Girl Power:
80's Style

2013.07.08

My big convention print for 2013 is done and this is further proof that God does exist...because I wouldn't be able to get through this whopper without some sort of Divine Intervention. :D :D :D

I can't take complete credit for this, though. When I was thinking of print ideas late last year Mary was all like "draw a bunch of 80's cartoon ladies together YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO." And she was right. XD

Sorry I don't have pencil or ink stages posted for you, I ran with idea so fast and so hard I didn't stop to document everything like I usually do ^_^; The way I put this together really didn't lend itself to that anyways. Except for the bottom row each of the figures was drawn as a separate piece and then the entire print was assembled from the individual characters. This way I could move and tweak the layout much easier as the print started to come together (I'll update this page with the individual pieces when I'm not feeling quite so lazy XD).

In lieu of the pencils I've included the original scratch sheet where I did my rough layouts. As you can see the print as a whole ended up more or less how I originally planned save for a swap here and there. Other than shifting some characters around I think the only big change I had to do was adjust the pose for Sorceress.

Except for the Prima comics, this has to be the biggest piece of art I've ever tackled and it was a helluva blast to do. I got to draw a bunch of characters I've never drawn before (much less even heard of, I'll let you figure out who that is ^_~) and revisted a lot of old favorites. Being a retro 80's piece I got to work with a lot of bright colors and big hair which always makes Silas happy. For the most part I stuck to my own style rather than trying to emulate the individual animation styles (I think the one I stuck closest to when it comes to the source material was Penny). Part of this was to make everything gel together and the other part is I'm just lazy like that. XD Though I did try to give as many stylistic nods as I could, like with Punky, Allura and Smurfette.

An ensemble pic this big means I didn't have to really pick and choose who I needed to draw. I think the only characters that didn't make it in were Mainframe from C.O.P.S. and Gloria Baker from M.A.S.K. I did pull rank a couple times and added some of my personal faves like Steelheart. Even though I already had Arcee there I was gonna draw in Carly. :3

By the way, if you don't see you favorite character DRAW YOUR OWN DAMN PRINT. XD XD XD