Wendy’s turn to be made over into the… opposite archetype (I consider ‘geek’ and ‘punk’ to be opposites in the archetype quartet)!
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In case any of you have been wanting to see Wendy Wyler with both her eyes exposed, here you go! Figured since she’s supposed to look nerdy here, it’d be fitting to give her barrettes, which meant I had to draw both her eyes, since… well, that’s kind of how barrettes work. Also, that sweater and those braces (for the sake of this artwork, they’re fake… but I might make an AU version where she is the geek of the girls, and the braces are real) look adorable on Wendy. And she looks adorable as a nerd. That sweater is now a canonical part of her wardrobe.
Onto the art itself!
I was originally gonna have Wendy showing her natural blonde hair color in this piece, but since it’s been a while since I drew her and I thought she’d look unrecognizable, I decided to have her depicted with her more recognizable, black-and-fuschia-dyed hair instead. The background was traced from the Punk Gilda piece, but given improved textures and slightly resized, to a perspective more fitting for Wendy (who is an inch shorter than Gilda). The door asset, however, is the same as from the aforementioned piece. This is supposed to be… well, Wendy’s sister’s house. The house in Hatcherwood where she goes on the nights she practices with her band, to get away from her father.
Also, yes, Wendy has freckles on her nose now, as well as on her cheeks. It was something I decided on in the gap between artworks featuring her; I gave her those additional freckles so that she looks more like an 11-year-old (which she is), and less like a tiny teenager.
Anyhoo, that’s all for this one. One more Grunvale girl to draw as the opposite archetype, and I think you know who it is. And then there’ll be the other eight works to draw for this series.
I only did this for the archetype-swap series (this is Fashionista Margo); this’ll be the last ‘Margo in a dress’ artwork for a while. I don’t want to run this running gag into the ground.
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Yeah, this is pretty much a regular thing that happens between the Hynde sisters. Molly likes forcing Margo into stereotypically girly stuff. Sometimes if she wants to have some ‘sisterly bonding’, sometimes when a formal or semiformal event comes up, sometimes just to see how an outfit will looks on her… but her favorite way of getting Margo to dress girly, is if the tomboy loses a bet. She’s even once used Margo as a model for a live makeup tutorial, after the one and only time she managed to beat her at Mario Kart (they were playing Mario Kart 64 and Margo failed the Rainbow Road shortcut on the final lap). Molly does sometimes force Margo into other stereotypically girly things, like dancing to dance-pop music or watching romance flicks. But getting her into dresses is her preferred way of tormenting her sister.
And yes, Margo does the same thing when Molly loses a bet; she likes forcing tomboyish stuff (like getting dirty, watching action flicks, going makeup-free, etc.) onto her.
Now to the artwork itself!
There isn’t really much to cover here, but I will talk about how I did Margo’s jewelry. For the necklace, I started with a single circle with a blurred bevel and a rendered stroke effect, then duplicated it, resized the duplicates, arranged all the circles in an arc (while rotating the beads to keeping the lighting consistent), then lastly, I posterized the circles so that they fit better with the 2D environment. As for the earrings, I did something similar to how I did Sparkles’ head in The Sparkling Dimension; I beveled an octagon on a temporary layer, then selected the resulting colors of its edges and matched them to the edges of the gemstones. I’m really getting the hang of ArtStudio Pro’s 3D capabilities.
Anyhoo, that’s all for this one. Geek Wendy is next, and it’ll definitely be an interesting one to work on.
Wendy seems to have given her procyonine friend a makeover.
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TV Tropes has noted before that there are some common tropes for female characters, especially when they come in groups. When it comes to the duo, there’s the the tomboy and girly girl (for example, Lana and Lola Loud), and in a trio, there’s the beauty, the brains and the brawn (for example, Bubbles, Blossom and Buttercup). Recently, I’ve thought of a similar trope for a quartet: the geek, the tomboy, the punk and the fashionista. Yeah, you see where I’m going with this; it’s based on the main female characters of Grunvale. Gilda Grime being the geek, Margo Hynde being the tomboy, Wendy Wyler being the punk, and April Lowry being the fashionista.
Recently, I had the urge to draw Gilda as an emo girl (which I see as counting under Wendy’s ‘punk’ type. It’s an umbrella), and this was the result. Never thought I’d be using the color scheme for Gilda’s powdered face (seen in her vampire costume) again, but I have the swatches saved in ASP, so at least I got another chance to put them to good use. Wait, are emos supposed to smile? Well, this one does. Because Gilda can’t not be adorable for even a second.
Oh, and yes, I do plan to make a series out of this. The four main females of Grunvale, as the other character types in the archetype quartet I’ve thought up. Considering this is Punk Gilda, that means there’s left to do: Tomboy Gilda, Fashionista Gilda, Geek Margo, Punk Margo, Fashionista Margo, Geek Wendy, Tomboy Wendy, Fashionista Wendy, Geek April, Tomboy April and Punk April. This… this’ll be fun to do. It’ll make for a fun project to do into October.
2Her name is Jessica now. Jessica Lois Grime. Tying into her father’s love of science fiction stories and her mother’s love of fantasy stories.
3 The avatar of my old DeviantArt account.
Hey, the 1980s had as much nostalgia for the 50s and 60s as we have today for the 80s and 90s. Being such an 80s geek, of course the decade’s love for the 50s would rub off on Gilda from time to time. Headcanon, she was listening to Stray Cats’ Built For Speed as she was baking that cake.
When I saw that Kyleboy21drew his Judy Herrison in a ladybug-print dress, I decided to use his little sketch as inspiration for this work. In fact, I decided to take it a step further; to keep with the ladybug theme, I gave her red and black accessories (red for the flower and the earrings, black for the gloves and the shoes), as well as antenna-style bangs4. The latter of which are also a nod to Luan Loud, one of the inspirations behind Gilda’s design. When I saw just how much I cranked up the 50s aesthetic with Gilda’s outfit, I decided to give the same period vibe to her surroundings as well, with pastel colors for the walls, and a checkerboard pattern for the floor. All the colors you see on the walls and floors (aside from that rocky floor in the kitchen) are based on colors I’ve seen used in patterns both from and inspired by the 1950s.
4 Haha, looking back, that was a cute design choice.
Also, the cake is lemon-flavored. Why? Because of course it is, Gilda made it. If Gilda makes something delicious, you can bet there’s something citrus in it.
And that’s all for this one. Post in the comments below what you think of this!
Grunvale/OTOG is owned by me. You’re free to draw fanart of it, as long as you credit me as the creator of the series. This artwork was made at a resolution of 5076×2160 (aspect ratio 2.35:1).
…but of course this is one of her formal outfits! Could you imagine Gilda wearing something like this as casual attire?5
5 Um, hey, 2019 me. She technically is wearing it as casual attire here. It’s a costume.
Original DA upload date: November 9, 2019. Any references to ‘today’ refer to that date.
Gilda Grime (Loud House/Casagrandes-style version) goes twinning with Luan Loud, one of the characters who inspired her design.
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After mY nAmE iS rOnNiE aNnE, my first true Loud House/Casagrandes fanart in over a year and a half, proved to be one of my most successful artworks so far this year, I felt the inspiration to draw some more fanart of the show, or at least something drawn in its art style. But I didn’t know what to do, until watching one of the four segments that aired today, ‘A Pimple Problem’. Now, before I start talking about this artwork, what did I think of the segment?
Well, if you saw on Twitter today, I rated the segment a C. After giving it a second watch before uploading this piece, however, I will admit that rating is a bit harsh. The comedy is on point, some of the various ways Luan tries to hide her pimple are creative, and Benny proves, once again, that he is the perfect love interest for the comedian of the Loud family. Also, on a side note, between this, Clarence, The Goldbergs and the Kim Possible movie, I get the feeling that Hollywood is looking to cast Sean Giambrone as the geeky, awkward guy in any piece of media with that kind of character. And this is one case of typecasting I can get behind, because he plays these roles well.
But with all this said, do I think ‘A Pimple Problem’ is an A-tier segment? No. No, I don’t. While it does have what I mentioned going for it, the story degrades into an idiot plot in its second half… the Luan x Benny bits. You know, the reason this segment was so anticipated by the fanbase. How Benny is unable to realize something is up with Luan is just baffling, especially when it gets to the chess scene, where she literally resorts to using a newspaper and a tree branch. Not to mention that the moral of the segment can be predicted just by reading the synopsis.
Basically, what I’m trying to say is, I think I may have let myself down with this segment. ‘A Pimple Problem’ was my most hyped segment of today, and yet what I got out of it was a predictable story that ends up turning into an idiot plot. But, like I said, it still has the positive aspects I mentioned going for it. So let me retract my earlier grade. It’s not a C, it’s… a B-, I guess. Same as its sister ‘Stall Monitor’, which I found funnier, but also simultaneously an even worse idiot plot. And while we’re on the subject, on the Casagrandes side of things, we got ‘The Horror-Scope’, which is an easy contender for one of the best segments of the first season (plus the TLH season 4 arc), and ‘Snack Pact’, which further solidified Sergio as my favorite of the Casagrande family. Overall, pretty good batch of segments we got today, with The Casagrandes coming out on top for me.
Anyhoo, during ‘A Pimple Problem’, we finally got to see what Luan looks like with her hair completely down, albeit for only about three seconds. And funny enough, her hair looks almost exactly how I used to draw Gilda Grime’s when she was dressed in her 80s outfit. That, as well as the fact that Luan Loud is one of the inspirations behind Gilda’s design, is what inspired me to draw this piece you see here, of Gilda pointing out how similar Luan’s hair looks to her own former 80s-style ‘do.
I’ve actually had linework for a drawing of Gilda’s 1980s outfit done in the TLH/Casagrandes style (traced from the artwork I commissioned from vinzound a while back) saved in ASP for months, and I planned to use that asset here. However, after pasting it into the PSD, I found that the outlines were way too thick compared to Luan’s, so I had to trace out a new one. In the original asset, Gilda’s hair was traced from that of the receptionist from ‘Tripped!’. However, here, I decided to trace the bottom part from Lucy’s outfit from ‘Back in Black’ that her sisters called ‘too poofy’, while the top part was copied from Luan’s scrunchie-less hair. As for everything else, Gilda’s mouth and right hand were traced from Lynn, her and Luan’s denim jackets were traced from Luan’s winter jacket, and the earrings on both girls were traced from the aforementioned Lucy outfit.
Then there’s the background… my first real attempt at giving texture and lighting to trees that aren’t birches. It’s more of the same easy trick I usually use; the lighting was achieved with generated gradients, and the wooden texture was achieved with beveled dots. And, like on Galarian Zigilda, the gaps between the leaves in the trees were achieved with a grungy effect applied to an eraser, with light blue for the sky behind the asset for the ‘leaves’ (a random assortment of greens). Overall, about four hours of work went into this thing. Was it worth it? Absolutely.
And that’s all for this one. Post in the comments below what you think!
Grunvale is owned by me. You’re free to draw fanart of it yourself, as long as you credit me. The Loud House/The Casagrandes is owned by Nickelodeon. This artwork was made at 4K resolution, in 2.35:1.
Before I upload the artwork of Fashionista Gilda, I had to get this piece out of the way, because some clowns think they’re being funny by telling the same joke over and over again.
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I’ve come out of retirement from Loud House fanart, just so I could make this little work addressing a joke a lot of the TLH/Casagrandes fanbase… or hatebase (hard to tell at this point), has been making. You know the joke, the one comparing The Casagrandes to The Cleveland Show. It may have been funny back when the show was first announced last year, but it has long since stopped being funny. Even I haven’t used Joshscorcher’s “NOM NOM NOM MONEY TASTES GOOD” as much as the Loud House/Casagrandes fandom has used the Cleveland Show joke. In fact, after being subjected to the joke over and over again, it’s clear that people think the two shows are comparable just because they’re both spin-offs of highly successful shows, and focus on a family of color. Which is about as flimsy a comparison as you can make.
The Cleveland Show is for adults and composed of 22-minute episodes, and has a main cast entirely composed of dated and unfunny black stereotypes, as well as jokes that feel like table scraps even Family Guy didn’t want. The Casagrandes is for kids and made for 11-minute segments. It’s only an episode and a half in as I write this, and, thanks to the development the family has received through their appearances on The Loud House, they’re already more fleshed-out and likable than the Brown-Tubbs family ever were. I dare even say that the show has the potential to be better than The Loud House. Why?
Well, for one, The Casagrandes has a better sense of continuity than The Loud House. I’m not asking for BoJack Horseman continuity, but do the Loud family seriously not know Lucy likes popping up out of nowhere after eight years of her being alive? Whereas on The Casagrandes, it’d make sense for Ronnie Anne not to know stuff about the city or the Casagrandes’ traditions, since she’s relatively new to living in Great Lakes City (in fact, we’ve seen her family move there). And second, the Casagrande-Santiago family feels better connected than the Louds, they have a better sense of… you know, family. Not to mention the franchise has also already established a good sense of what the supporting cast, the apartment’s inhabitants and the Mercado’s customers, are like as characters. It’s four seasons into TLH, and we still don’t know much about characters like Girl Jordan, Mrs. Johnson or even Pop-Pop beyond some very basic things. And all of those characters have been around since season 1!
Also, Sid Chang is adorable. I already love her more than Clyde. She’s the Mabel Pines of TLH/Casagrandes.
Now to the art itself!
Not much to say here, other than Ronnie Anne’s asset was traced from her appearances in Save the Date and Relative Chaos. I did also attempt a paper pulp look with the background, but, while I do think it looks better than the transparent spray I used in my ArtStudio days, it… still needs work. It still looks more like something out of the real TLH than any other time I’ve drawn the characters from the show, though. Maybe I can do more in this style, it’s a fun style to work in.
Thanks for coming to my editorial, and why those jokes have become about as fresh as the water in Flint, Michigan*. Post in the comments below what you think of this!
The Loud House/The Casagrandes is owned by Nickelodeon. This artwork was made at 4K resolution, in 1.85:1. However, it is presented here at a maximum of 1080p, to keep consistent with the Loud House franchise.
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* Sorry, Jesse Coffey of Twitter, your quote was just too good not to use!
Original DA upload date: November 22, 2019. Description below updated November 21, 2022.
This is the artwork I mentioned in the description of Glorious Spheal. It’s been about a month since I finished this piece, but I’ve only now gotten around to releasing it, due to my current workload in my college classes, and also playing Pokémon Shield. And yes, Korvat Isles1 is part of the college work, believe it or not. I’ve always wanted something to fall back on just in case Grunvale doesn’t get seen as my magnum opus, and a college assignment about passion projects was the spark that really set the idea into motion. The Korvat Isles comic will be uploaded tomorrow, I just wanted to get this out first before I get to uploading it.
1 Oh, right, the working title of that thing with the human character Rowan Rudyard I never use. I… I still have something for her. It’s just that OTOG has taken up so much of my creativity.
Anyhoo…
I gave Sally a slight redesign for this one; since she’s pregnant during the events of the story2, I reflected that here, with her showing an enlarged stomach through the navy blue dress she’s described as wearing in chapter 11. The hardest part about this was getting the lighting on Harry3 right. The room he’s coming out of has a green light, while the one he’s entering has light coming in through the left side (where Sally is headed). I experimented with combinations of several gradients to come up with lighting that looked accurate, and eventually came up with what you see here.
2She was pregnant in the abandoned web novel. Those in the future reading, she is not pregnant in the graphic novels.
3 Harry with glasses, now that’s a blast from the past too. Considering he doesn’t wear them in his current incarnation, and Margo does.Geez, it feels like so long ago that even Margo wasn’t a glasses-wearer.
At some point, however, I messed up the blurring on Harry’s asset; one part shows high-resolution pixels (which no artist should want unless they’re doing pixel art), and the other shows 10px gaussian blurring clipped onto 5px gaussian blurring (which is what I want). Oh well, at least it still has the cinematic feel I want for my Grunvale artwork. The goof’s only real noticeable if you view it on full resolution.
Not much else to say here, other than stay tuned for Korvat Isles‘ DA debut. As for this piece, post below what you think.
Grunvale/OTOG is owned by me. You’re free to draw fanart of it, as long as you credit me as the creator of the series. This artwork was made at a resolution of 5076×2160 (aspect ratio 2.35:1).
Original DA upload date: November 28, 2019. Description below updated November 21, 2022.
Like Margo with the light blue dress and August with the pink shirt and tie, I’ve pretty much decided at this point, that Gilda’s 80s-style shoulder-padded suit doubles as her semiformal outfit1. It’s the kind of thing she’d wear to… well, not family get-togethers (since her family is broken) or school dances (since she’s homeschooled), but more stuff like, say, interviews, speeches, and in this case, an art show opening. Seems only fitting. Plus, it fits her retro-geek personality well.
1Aaaaand they don’t wear said outfits anymoreafter the web novel was abandoned and I developed a new art style.
Most of the behind-the-scenes stuff involved with this work can be found in the description of ‘Crosshatched Gilda’ above. However, that doesn’t mean there isn’t anything to talk about here. Since an animation I’ve been working on intermittently in ASP features her wearing green nail polish with this outfit2, I experimented with that here. Which I think was a pretty successful attempt. I also experimented with 3D-style lighting on the gold of her earrings, which… I think could’ve been executed better, but it’s a start. I have an idea for how to execute the lighting differently next time I draw her in this outfit. But I’m not sure if it’ll work. I may be better off with just flat colors like I usually do (before applying the gradients for lighting effects)3.
2 I was working on an animation? When? Because the last time I animated Gilda was to Ronnie Anne’s voice.
3 Sure enough, flat colors were what I’d go on to use. I guess the animators behind Klaus know something that I will never.
And that’s all for this one. Post in the comments below what you think, and Happy Thanksgiving!
Grunvale/OTOG is owned by me. You’re free to draw fanart of it, as long as you credit me as the creator of the series. This artwork was made at a resolution of 5076×2160 (aspect ratio 2.35:1).
The Gallery of Stormy Adler 