Original DA Upload Date: June 13, 2021. This was written prior to Auggie being revealed to be genderfluid.
That song’s one of the weaker ones on Brothers in Arms, anyway.
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Though one of the most iconic songs of the 1980s, Dire Straits’ “Money For Nothing” has become quite controversial in recent years, due to its use of the word ‘faggot’, a racial slur derived from the term for a bundle of sticks, also called a ‘faggot’. In olden times, faggots were used to burn several groups of people at the stake, including homosexuals. In modern times, the term has become a slur against gays, which has also been reclaimed by some members of the LGBTQIA community themselves.
In the case of “Money For Nothing”, I consider the song to be a product of its time. It’s important to note that the song was released in the 1980s, during the height of the AIDS crisis, when LGBTQIA people came under attack from right-wingers spewing misinformation about AIDS, such as that it could be transmitted from casual contact with a homosexual. As much as I like to paint the 1980s as ‘the good old days’ with Grunvale, the sad reality is that homophobia was much more accepted at that time, possibly more prevalent than it was in any other decade of the 20th century. My own interpretation of “Money For Nothing” is that it’s sung from the perspective of a worker who has homophobic views. Homophobia was wrong then, and it is wrong today. But the song’s lyrics are an unfortunate product of their time, and it’s for the best that it’s edited versions (either censoring the slur or entirely removing the verse containing it) that play on radio stations today.
I’m gonna be honest, I never thought of “Money For Nothing” as one of Dire Straits’ better songs. The music video was groundbreaking for its time, and the synthesizer build-up to and including the guitar solo early in the song is awesome, but the song is waaaaay overplayed. Not to mention that the song at full length is 8 minutes and 22 seconds, which is about twice as long as it needed to be. It’s not as egregiously shoved into every possible 80s-set piece of media as “Don’t Stop Believin'” or “Take On Me” or “Never Gonna Give You Up”, but the media often acts like “Money For Nothing” is the only song worth associating with the Dire Straits. When I can name several songs by the band that are better than it, including off of Brothers in Arms. If we’re to stick to Brothers in Arms, there’s “So Far Away”, “Walk of Life”, “Your Latest Trick”, “Why Worry”, and the title track, the latter of which even has a rotoscoped music video in the same style as the aforementioned “Take On Me”. And outside of Brothers in Arms, their self-titled debut has “Sultans of Swing”, Love Over Gold has “Industrial Disease”, and On Every Street has “Heavy Fuel”. Basically, “Money For Nothing” doesn’t even crack the top 5 best Dire Straits songs for me, and I bet it’d even fall out of the top 10 if I were to give their discography a full analysis. Not a bad song, just overrated, overly long, and incredibly overplayed. If you want to fill eight-and-a-half minutes with a Dire Straits song, just listen to “Why Worry”. It’s from the same album and one of their most underrated tracks.
Now to the piece!
I’ve already stated before that I imagine Abby Lowry to be one of the more profane characters in Grunvale. Basically the Eric Cartman of the franchise with what a disrespectful little shit she can be. Even though she’s okay with her elder brother and sister being a cross-dresser and lesbian respectively, she also will do anything to justify using profane language and slurs, like if the word appears in a song she likes or if the Tetrad says them. Well, here we see August has had enough of that, and washes his little sister’s mouth out with soap for singing along to the uncensored version of “Money For Nothing”. Knowing how profane she is, she must’ve at this point got to be quite a connoisseur of soap. I wonder if she’s been punished with Lifebuoy yet, heheh. Seeing the color of that soap bar, though, it’s probably like Bluechip or something.
Don’t worry, Abby being a disrespectful, female version of Cartman with Min Min’s hairstyle is just a phase. She eventually learns it’s never okay to say slurs in any context. Except maybe ‘polecat’, since I imagine that as being the mephitine N-word. I mean, how else would she later become friends with Gilda?
Anyhoo, that’s all for this one. Stay tuned for the other two #PrideMonth2021 artworks!
Grunvale is owned by me. You’re free to draw fanart of it, as long as you link me to it. This artwork was made at a resolution of 5076×2160 (aspect ratio 2.35:1).
To cap off May, here’s another 80s-inspired artwork, this time featuring the Tetrad making over somebody that was actually born and grew up in the decade Gilda worships so much!
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I realized I hadn’t really drawn the Tetrad interacting with Sally, other than Margo, who, of course she’d be seen a lot with Sally, she’s Sally’s daughter. So I decided to change that with this piece, featuring Sally getting made over to look like she came from the 80s! Which isn’t that removed from what Sally usually does as a model. She usually likes dressing in 40s- or 50s-inspired getups when she models/advertises her business. The 80s, on the other hand, is not a decade she usually takes inspiration from for her attire, casual, formal, or modeling. In fact, on the strict timeline, she was born in 1982, so shoulder pads and neon colors and big hair are something that she remembers first-hand, and not just through the nostalgic filter those born in the triplets’ generation would be provided with to see the 80s. And early 90s, for that matter. Aesthetics from one decade often last a bit into the next one. In the 80s’ case, the aesthetics we’ve come to know the 80s for took until like 1992 or 1993 to finally give way to the grunge and darkness and obsession with the EXTREME!!! of the 90s.
Sally’s aesthetic is not 80s neon or 90s grunge, obviously, it’s more the flowers and pastels of the 40s and 50s. I imagine she watched a lot of 1950s sitcoms and Technicolor movies in her youth, as well as movies about the era. And that’s a large part of what influenced her aesthetics and morals… basically her entire personality and ideas. Minus the 50s idea that females belong in the kitchen. She looked to the 40s and saw the ladies that took over the workforce then. And that’s (part of) why she decided to become a lawyer!
Now to the piece!
Anyone who’s been paying attention to my work would know that the Hynde family isn’t really all that tall. But part of the reason this was drawn was to show just how short they are… Sally is barely taller than Gilda! Which was something I knew was to be the case even before I settled on a design for her and Harry. Sally is 5’2″/1.57m compared to Gilda’s 5’/1.52m. And Gilda as a teenager and adult is 5’4″/1.63m, same as Harry. So basically, yeah, if Gilda looks surprisingly tall in this image, it’s actually Sally who’s surprisingly short. You just didn’t have a reference before of just how short Sally is.
Once again, April doesn’t like wearing shoulder-padded suits, so she’s just chilling out, being anachronistic by looking at her smartphone. April giving attitude, that’s a bit out of character for her, isn’t it? Heheheh. Maybe I should give her more moments of attitude. It’d help flesh her out as a character.
Finally, there’s also the detail of Gilda saying ‘rad’, because I thought it’d be cute to have her drop a bit of 80s slang. She loves the 80s, after all, it’d only make sense for her to adopt some of the slang of that era. Not ‘tubular’, though. Even as a kid, I thought ‘tubular’ sounded stupid. I don’t know how the term came to even be associated with 80s slang, I’ve never heard any piece of media from or about or even parodying the 80s use the word ‘tubular’. No, Gilda’s more the type that’d say stuff like ‘gnarly’ or ‘righteous’ or ‘totally’ or ‘wicked’ or ‘[insert any word that sounds like something Bill and Ted would say here]’. Pretty much anything other than ‘tubular’.
Grunvale is owned by me. You’re free to draw fanart of it, as long as you link me to it. This artwork was made at a resolution of 5076×2160 (aspect ratio 2.35:1).
The Oddball Tetrad as the Three Stooges (from both of the most famous lineups), because I’ve been watching a lot of Hats Off Entertainment lately, which led to me also watching a lot of Three Stooges. Which then led to me drawing the Tetrad as the Stooges! Gilarry, Moendy, Shempril and Curgo!
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I’ve been looking into how I can integrate more old-fashioned humor into Grunvale. Like, really old-fashioned. Stuff you’d expect from comedies and cartoons of the 30s and 40s and 50s. Of course, Looney Tunes-inspired humor would go over well with audiences, but then, during a recent sleepless night, I decided to watch some Three Stooges shorts I found on YouTube. I’ve known about The Three Stooges all my life, of course, but I’ve been watching a lot of a YouTube channel called ‘Hats Off Entertainment’ lately. The user behind Hats Off Entertainment analyzes a lot of decades-old comedies, as well as the careers of deceased comedic actors such as Gene Wilder, Leslie Nielsen, and John Candy. And talks about what made them work so well. He is also a major fan of The Three Stooges, having made several videos on them. Which led to me doing my own research on the Stooges, as well as watching several of their shorts and analyzing some of their more famous bits.
Then one day, on a walk, I got the idea to draw my own characters, the Oddball Tetrad, as the Three Stooges. As well as put my own spin on the idea I’m sure some fan has had, of what the franchise would be like had there been four stooges, with Shemp and Curly having been part of the lineup alongside the constant members, Larry and Moe. And this was the result of the idea!
Now to the piece and my thought process behind it.
I chose to draw April as Shemp due to the former basically being the mature one of the Tetrad, and Shemp himself being the eldest of the Stooges. Wendy is actually the eldest of the Tetrad, but let’s be honest, April is the most mature of the group, so it’d make sense that, if she were cosplaying as a Stooge, she’d cosplay the eldest one. And Margo is Curly, due to both being the youngest of their respective group (who are Joe and Curly Joe?), as well as the most marketable characters of their respective franchises. Also, good luck getting any of the other Tetrad to cut their hair as short as Curly’s. Even teenage Wendy wouldn’t shave her head to look like Curly.
Gilda is Larry, because… many reasons. Firstly, as HOE analyzed, Larry is often an unfortunate victim of the slapstick of The Three Stooges, often getting slapstick-ed just for trying to break up a fight or even just being there. Similarly, I picture Gilda as the kind of character who’d fall victim to slapstick antics the most, due to often being oblivious to her surroundings, or being at the wrong place at the wrong time. Hell, during the time I was writing the web novel, Gilda’s impact-caused nosebleeds were a running gag. A gag I’d like to continue for the graphic novel in some way. Second, while Margo, Wendy, and April are lifelong friends, Gilda takes a while longer to find and join the group. Much like how, with the Stooges in real life, Shemp, Moe, and Curly were brothers, while Larry was a friend who was discovered by the Howard brothers, and would end up joining… well, Ted Healy and His Stooges, as the act was originally known, later on. And third, let’s be honest, out of all the Tetrad, Gilda would be the one to mind getting a pie in the face the least. She’d at least like the taste of the pie, since she’s got such a strong sweet tooth.
And finally, Wendy is Moe because… well, she has black hair. That’s it. Funny that whenever I draw the Tetrad cosplaying, Wendy ends up filling the open spot by default. It happened when they were the Citrus Squad, and it happened again here. I don’t even think of Wendy as a lesser member of the group or anything, she just ends up filling open spots for no other reason than ‘by default’. Heheh.
As for technical notes, you’ll notice this time that the upload is in black-and-white, without a color counterpart. Truth be told, this actually was drawn in color. I even uploaded the color version to Twitter. But I decided to make the black-and-white version the main version, because the original Three Stooges shorts were in black-and-white, so I figured that it’d only be fitting that this artwork’s main version would be as well. The color version is and… probably will always be, a Twitter exclusive. So if you have a problem with this being in black-and-white, to that I say:
Grunvale is owned by me. You’re free to draw fanart of it, as long as you link me to it. This artwork was made at a resolution of 3996×2160 (aspect ratio 1.85:1).
Sunday WorstYou May Now Kiss Any Hope For The Wedding GoodbyeGilda’s Birthday, or: Balance in the Party WorldHynde Triplets’ Birthday, or: Cio Che Va, Torna
Original DA Upload Dates:
Sunday Worst – May 9, 2021
You May Now Kiss Any Hope For The Wedding Goodbye – May 12, 2021
Gilda’s Birthday, or: Balance in the Party World – May 14, 2021
Hynde Triplets’ Birthday, or: Cio Che Va, Torna – June 23, 2021
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And now for the Ricky’s Wedding arc, presented in its entirety for the first time on the internet!
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“Sunday Worst” is just another piece of artwork inspired by my sessions of playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons. On April 30th, I dressed up my avatar character (who my followers would know is modeled after Margo Hynde) in an old-fashioned looking green outfit, to prepare for the birthday of one of my villagers, Clyde, the following day. And then I took this screenshot of it and posted it to Twitter. Because of how hilariously out-of-character it is for Margo to dress like this, I thought to myself how funny it’d look to have her wearing this outfit. So I did, and this artwork was born. Pffft!
While the ACNH context is that my avatar character was dressed like this for Clyde’s birthday (birthday parties are treated as formal occasions by the villagers in the game, like weddings and New Year’s parties), the Grunvale context is that the Hyndes are headed to the wedding of Margo’s cousin and Richard Ketcham Jr. and Ivy Snowfield-Ketcham’s son, Richard Ketcham III, aka Ricky Ketcham. And Margo is shocked and disgusted that this goofy-looking ensemble is what she has to wear to the wedding. To her, it’s more like something Gilda would wear, or even her own sister Molly, who has a similar-looking purple outfit.
The blurred green things boxing off the image are supposed to be plants that are in the foreground and out-of-focus. It’s just a bunch of blurred green lines. I think they frame the image pretty well.
I’ve got three other artworks that are set in this same continuity. I’ve said all that needs to be for “Sunday Worst”. So let’s move on to part II, “You May Now Kiss Any Hope For The Wedding Goodbye“!
Richard Ketcham has been established as a stern father figure, but I don’t think I’ve made it clear that his personality was likely born out of rebellion against his father Charles. Even as a child, he’s considered him to be irresponsible as a father, with how much he drank and partied and embarrassed him with his attempts to seem relevant and cool to the youth, even during important events in his life (for example, telling the story of that crazy thing he did on D-Day at his wedding).
Richard is a minority in his family. His siblings have and had a carefree, not-to-serious view on life, his wife Joan does, most of his children do, and most of his grandchildren (Molly being a debatable exception) do too. The carefree lifestyle is also a majority among his nephews and nieces and… grandnephews and grandnieces. His serious demeanor and lack of ever being in a party mood is a recessive trait.
Speaking of having a serious demeanor and being embarrassed by family, those traits ended up rubbing off on Richard’s youngest child and only daughter, Sally Ketcham, known for the past 14 years as Sally Hynde after marrying the musician Harry… who she considers to have the mentality of a child, as she does his famous father Angus. She’s also not proud of how her children, particularly Margo, are turning out. After 11 years of raising them, she basically knows when they’re gonna do something that’ll embarrass her. Like now, when the Hynde family is in Sally’s hometown of Boarston, Massachusetts for the wedding of Richard Ketcham III. Margo complaining about her dress, already taking to social to complain about having to spend the day at a wedding, Molly teasing Margo about having to wear a dress and the latter tattling about it, it’s all building up to an explosion of embarrassment, and Sally is not ready for it. But it’s gonna happen whether she likes it or not.
Now to the piece!
Aside from the sunlight on the asphalt looking like a giant piss stain, the scenery I feel is one of my better attempts. A lot of detail went into drawing the tree closest to the Hyndes, but sadly, Molly and Margo are obscuring a lot of the detail. The trees in the far background I think came out well, though.
And of course, Sally once again looks amazing in mid-20th-century-style attire. I’ve been pushing her as a character to appeal to furries lately, and… well, maybe I should rewrite her character to have a second job as a model. I’ve long loved the idea of her being an injury lawyer (and she still is), but I think it’d be funny if there was a running gag of Sally’s law services being advertised with… fan-service, and characters who have been injured hiring Sally as their lawyer based on the ads they’ve seen of her.
Anyhoo, that’ll be all for part II. Now let’s talk part III, “Gilda’s Birthday, or: Balance in the Party World“!
Did I mention before that Gilda and Margo are rivals as well as friends? Well, this artwork is meant to illustrate that. Story time! Well, the in-universe story, regarding these two rivals’ views of the whole thing.
Margo has been in a bad mood lately due to her having to miss Gilda’s birthday party for the wedding of her cousin, Richard “Ricky” Ketcham III, and his bride, Iris Vandergras, in Boarston. Her attempt to justify missing the wedding by saying she doesn’t know Ricky as well as Gilda failed, with her mother Sally saying that it’s a family obligation to attend the wedding. When Gilda got news that Margo couldn’t attend, she decided to invite Wendy’s sister, Nicole, in her place, reasoning that she has gotten along well with Nicole before, and because she thinks Nicole, being a tomboy, would bring a similar vibe to the party that Margo could have brought.
At the reception for the wedding, Margo, bored by the ceremony and the entertainment at the reception (for instance, the song for Ricky and Iris’ dance being “Wonderwall” by Oasis, a song that Margo hates with a passion), gets her hopes up when she sees that apple cider is being served. Unfortunately for her, the cider was hard cider. Like alcoholic cider. And she ends up getting drunk from it, so drunk in fact that she ends up vomiting… on Iris. In front of the entire Ketcham and Vandergras families. Yeah, because that’s a good impression for a bride to have of her new husband’s family. Getting vomited on by the rowdiest of the bunch. Oh well. At least Charles got a kick out of the spectacle… even if the rest of his family is horrified, with his granddaughter Sally in particular now being too embarrassed to show her face after witnessing what her daughter did in front of dozens of others.
Margo’s drunkenness was recorded by… well, I pictured it as Molly, and was uploaded to social media, where it went viral. 180 miles away back in Grunvale, at Gilda’s party, Nicole has seen the video. She already gave her an actual gift (an LP of True Stories by the Talking Heads… whose lead singer is the aforementioned May 14th birth David Byrne!), but as an additional gift, knowing that Gilda and Margo take delight in watching each other do stupid things, she decided to show the video to Gilda, who, as expected, took great delight in watching it. When Ricky’s wedding got ruined, the birthday party got even more fun and made up for Margo’s absence. Thus bringing balance to the party world.
BTW, that hand-shaking thing is how Gilda stims. She usually does it when she’s laughing or excited.
The top layer took a long time, with all the characters that needed to be drawn. Aside from Margo, Iris and Ricky in the foreground, the background has, from left to right: Sally Hynde (face obscured by her hat out of embarrassment), Shaun Ketcham, Roxanne Sumner, Charles Ketcham, Richard Ketcham Sr., Irene Vandergras (Iris’ sister; they’re from a set of quadruplets), Richard Ketcham Jr., Ivy Snowfield-Ketcham, and Ricky’s twin sister Orchid Snowfield. Most of which make their first appearance in that panel, with this being Charles and Richard Sr.’s first appearance outside of photos in the background. The lighting in that panel was done with a mixture of threshold effects, masking and gaussian blurring. The crowd beyond who we clearly see are just a bunch of blobs, the front one of which (second layer of crowd in general) had blurred colors clipped onto it. To give the feel that this was a video being viewed online, I put a black gradient over the bottom of the panel, and a red scrubber bearing my logo. How was the video recorded in 2.35:1 when phones can usually only record in the aspect ratio they display in? Shut up, that’s how.
That was all I was going to make for this arc… until I decided to make a follow-up, because, if Toy Story is any indication, quadrilogies (the actual word is tetralogies, BTW) are the new trilogies. So now, the description to part IV, “Hynde Triplets’ Birthday, or: Cio Che Va, Torna“! Which also doubles as a 30th anniversary dedication piece to the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, a major influence on my art style.
As strange as it may sound, my best memories of the franchise are *not* with the first game. Actually, my favorite 2D Sonic game is Sonic the Hedgehog 2, and my favorite of the 3D games is Heroes. Of course I know that the first Sonic is the signature game of the Sega Genesis. That doesn’t mean it’s a flawless masterpiece. In fact, it’s actually quite a bit flawed. Sure, it’s fun to run around Green Hill Zone, but over half of the rest of the game is slow platforming. Which is ironic considering the game is called Sonic the Hedgehog. You’d think a game that has speed as its main selling point, on a console that had processing speed as an advantage over the SNES, would try to build the entire game around speed. But no, only a handful of levels do, and the rest of the game is slow platforming. It’s especially a nightmare going for all six Chaos Emeralds, since you only get 12 chances every run, and only if you bring 50 rings with you to the end of the first two acts of every zone.
Sonic 2, on the other hand, does not have these issues. You have ample opportunity to get all the chaos emeralds (if you bring 50 rings to a checkpoint), and almost every level is made with speed in mind. It only slows down toward the end, with the Sky Chase Zone (an autoscroller) and the Death Egg Zone (two bosses that must be defeated on one hit point). It feels like the game the first one was trying to be, and it’s always the Sonic game I gravitate towards. Yeah, I know Sonic 3 & Knuckles is the one society considers the best, but you know what? I’m not society, I’m a singular person, and as a singular person, I say Sonic 2 is the best of the Genesis titles, and the best 2D Sonic game I’ve played.
I have not played Sonic Mania at the time of me writing this.
Now to the piece!
More elements from the graphic novel transcript are making their way into my artwork. I’ve decided that, for the graphic novel, the Hyndes live in a mansion, instead of just a nice house in the Malick Park neighborhood. The above-ground portion is three floors tall, and has pillars and shrubs designed and arranged to resemble carrots. And the ‘basement’ has a maze-like layout with no clearly defined levels, and is modeled after a warren. The latter of which, of course, is where this artwork takes place. As for dialogue, that’s another thing the graphic novel transcript is influencing. I decided a while back that it’d be cute for Gilda to drop a few Italian words into her speech, to differentiate her dialogue from other characters. I have her saying ‘perfezione’ (the Italian word for ‘perfection’) in the transcript for OTOG, and now I’m having this newly-thought-up trait of hers making an appearance here, with her saying the Italian words for ‘bullshit’ and ‘bitch’.
The ‘zip glitches’ that are being referred to here, are in Marble Zone. Both Act 2 and 3 have well-known ‘zip glitches’ that basically teleport Sonic to the end of the stage, which are used by the speedrunning community at top level. I’ve attempted these glitches before, specifically the Act 2 one, but I only ever end up glitching through the floor and losing a life.
I know how and where I’m gonna introduce all the characters shown here in the graphic novel, except for Scarlett, who I honestly only drew here because Paddy’s here, and I’ve established them as being in a boyfriend/girlfriend relationship before. I’ll figure something out. It may be in a sequel since she only has a third-hand connection to the Tetrad, but I’ll figure out how and when she should be introduced.
Anyhoo, that’s all for this arc. Hopefully my essay on it wasn’t too long for you, heheheh.
Grunvale is owned by me. You’re free to draw fanart of it, as long as you link me to it. Part I was made at a resolution of 3996×2160 (aspect ratio 1.85:1); parts II-IV were made at a resolution of 5076×2160 (aspect ratio 2.35:1).
Original DA Upload Date: April 29, 2021. This was written prior to Auggie being revealed to be genderfluid.
Margo attempts to prank/surprise August by kissing him, only for him to prank her himself.
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You know, it’s funny. Margust is well-established as canon at this point, but I don’t think I’ve ever drawn them kissing or even having anything to do with kissing. I don’t think Sally nor Carol would ever want to hear about their daughter and son kissing each other, at least not at age 11. But of course they’d try to sneak a kiss onto their partner, only for the other to foil them in comedic fashion. As happens here when Margo tries to surprise August with a kiss, only to be surprised herself with a cupcake.
Now to the piece!
I’m very well familiar with the old cartoon cliche where a girl prepares to kiss the boy they’re after, even putting on lipstick to prepare for the kiss, only for the boy to turn the kiss down. This is the Grunvale version of that. Although here, Margo doesn’t mind having her kiss blocked off, since she got blocked off with a chocolate-flavored and chocolate-frosted cupcake, her favorite kind, and which she always requests when Gilda bakes cupcakes. And August has tried to kiss her before, and was foiled in a similar way. It’s a bit of a running theme between them, the kiss fake-out.
There’s not much to say technical-wise about this piece, other than with the fridge magnets. They were inspired by the Casagrandes segment Guilt Trip, which also had a fridge whose running gag was spelling out words relating to the scene, such as ‘SORE’ after it was used as a dance partner by a sumo wrestler.
…it makes sense in context.
Anyhoo, I loved that gag so much, I decided to integrate it into this comic. And I might even use it as a running sight gag in the Grunvale graphic novel. My Twitter followers’ reception to the fridge magnets has been positive, with AnimationFan15 even identifying the Casagrades segment as the inspiration. Also, it’s a Maytag fridge, as you can tell by the logo.
The panels of comic were made in ArtStudio Pro just as always, but for some reason, it couldn’t export the comic in the full 5076*15120px resolution (combined aspect ratio 2.35:7) in which it was intended to be made. So I exported the comic in two pieces, the first three panels and the last four, from ASP, then imported them into GIMP to create the whole piece as it was intended to be viewed. I’ve already used GIMP for pixel art done in the palette and style of the Sega Genesis, but this was my first time using it for my comics, which also makes this one of the few times I’ve used a program other than ASP to make one of my major artworks. I’ll continue using GIMP for anything ASP can’t do on its own.
And that’ll be all for this one. Until next time, take care.
Grunvale is owned by me. You’re free to draw fanart of it, as long as you link me to it. Maytag is owned by the Whirlpool Corporation. All seven panels of this artwork were made at a resolution of 5076×2160 (aspect ratio 2.35:1).
While the Christians and Kirk Cameron types are celebrating the ressurection of he who is without sin, let’s we secular folks honor the pacifist vegetarian hippies of the animal kingdom!
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‘Leporine’s Day’ has been part of Grunvale lore since pretty much the beginning. I always knew I wanted it to be the Grunvaliverse’s secular alternative to Easter, except they celebrate the accomplishments of leporines, and to a lesser extent leverines (hares) and ochotonines (pikas). However, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, I decided to also make Leporine’s Day the celebration of the in-universe eradication of the myxoma virus, the real-life virus responsible for myxomatosis, a disease that affects rabbits and is often lethal.
Yeah, that’s right. Angus’ band is named after a virus. A bit of dark humor for ya. 😋
Anyhoo, in the Grunvaliverse, I canon that the myxoma virus was a pandemic that deeply affected leporine communities around the world for nearly twenty years after WW2 (coinciding roughly with our universe’s polio pandemic and introduction of the Myxoma virus to Australia in the early 1950s). Then in the early 1960s, a Myxoma vaccine was introduced by Jonas Salk (the same figure who, in our universe and the Grunvaliverse, developed the polio vaccine), and, thanks to worldwide immunization efforts, the disease was eradicated across the world soon after.
However, as myxomatosis only affects leporines, just as it does in our world, it didn’t cause the societal shutdown that COVID-19 has. However, leporines were only allowed to go out when there wasn’t a local outbreak, and when they did, were often attacked by ignorant racists who bought into anti-leporine conspiracy theories. And as a result, life was misery for them. But they always tried to seek joy, whenever it would come up, and in whatever form it came in!
On a strict 2017 timeline, Joan Ketcham would’ve been born in late 1949 and thus be old enough to remember the days of the myxoma virus. Or maybe not, because I see her as the type that’d do drugs and drink excessively. As a twenty- and thirty-something, of course. It’d probably kill her to have that kind of lifestyle in her old age. But Sally and her sisters-in-law were all born after the era of myxoma the virus, and during the era of Myxoma the band. And in Sally’s case, she even ended up marrying the son of the band’s drummer and co-lead singer.
Speaking of Sally’s sisters-in-law… well, you’ve figured out they’re the ladies standing behind Sally and Joan. Let’s talk about them, from left to right!
Roxanne Sumner – Shaun’s wife, a track-and-field coach. She prefers to be addressed as ‘Coach Roxy’ and often shows affection in aggressive manners like noogieing and tight hugs, which neither Sally nor Shaun particularly likes. However, Sally still loves her, even seeing her as the sister she never had. After all, she was the lucky lady who ended up with her twin.
Ivy Snowfield-Ketcham – Richard Jr.’s wife, a theater manager. She has a passion for the theater, and has even directed and wrote a few plays herself. She is also a huge Andrew Lloyd Webber fan, which Harry and Angus often mock her for.
Amy Ketcham – Russell’s wife, a police officer on the Denver, Colotterado police force. She is one of the most respected officers on the force, both by her colleagues for her keen observation skills, and the public for being opposed to the use of brutality. She is one of the few members of the Ketcham family who is not a leporine (she is an ochotonine/pika).
Ebony Forrester-Ketcham – Randall’s wife, a roller derby racer, and Margo’s inspiration for getting into the sport. Her skate name is ‘the Crimson Bruiser’, and she is one of the few members of the Ketcham family who is not a leporine (she is a leverine/hare).
Since Leporine’s Day is now also a celebration of the race conquering a virus prevalent in the 1940s-1960s, all of the Ketcham ladies are in period-appropriate attire. Both because it’s traditional to the holiday, and because I love ladies in retro attire. And Dolly Wyler-Voronov is taking their group photo, as she’s the one who’s done all of their hair and make-up for Leporine’s Day. I felt I would throw in her reflection in the mirror for a little attention to detail. Doesn’t she look cute in a bunny costume?
Grunvale is owned by me. You’re free to draw fanart of it, as long as you link me to it. This artwork was made at a resolution of 5076×2160 (aspect ratio 2.35:1).
A piece I made last month that I decided to upload now, to celebrate my one-year anniversary playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons, one of the few silver linings of the ocean of diarrhea that was 2020.
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I’ve seen video games as a potential art form for years, but Animal Crossing: New Horizons was truly the point where I began to really view the appeal of the medium on the same level as cinema and television. When the theaters went dark and the sets went empty, the pop culture community turned to video games, one of the few forms of escapism left as COVID-19 made its way outside of China and ravaged the rest of the world. And one of the most popular games to turn to, was Animal Crossing: New Horizons, the fifth mainline game in Nintendo’s life simulation series that began on the N64 (in Japan) and GameCube (everywhere else). The series had been steadily rising in popularity since New Leaf, but New Horizons‘ tone of calm and escapism at a time when society had turned upside-down, skyrocketed the series into a cultural phenomenon. Over 31 million copies of ACNH have been sold worldwide as of this writing, placing it as one of the top 20 best-selling video games ever made. I myself have logged over 240 hours of play on the game since I started playing this day last year.
For anyone that hasn’t been paying attention to my Twitter or these descriptions, my island is called Elavnurg, and my current villager lineup is: Clyde, Drake, Hopper, Paolo, Raymond, Mott, Winnie, Leonardo, O’Hare, and Canberra. The latter of whom is my birthday twin, and got to agree to settle on my island on March 20th of this year… the one-year anniversary of ACNH! Yay!
There’s not much to talk about regarding the artwork. I did it as a college assignment where we had to reimagine a company branding or fictional character in our own style. I chose to reimagine Tom Nook, Isabelle, Blathers, KK Slider and Redd as characters fit for the Grunvaliverse. And I got positive reception on all of them! They especially liked my take on KK Slider, with the long hair and soul patch. Which he would totally have if he were imagined in an art style similar to mine, and don’t act like I’m wrong.
I am planning on doing a sequel piece to this, so be on the lookout for that. But for now, I’m gonna focus on April. Which is Autism Awareness Month, and considering that Gilda is neurodivergent, I am going to be making an artwork addressing autism. Probably an anti-Autism Speaks comic. But until then, see you next time!
My artwork for Autism Acceptance Day. Because you already are well aware of it. Now time for the accepting of autism!
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When I decided to redesign Gilda to be overweight, I also decided to make her neurodivergent. I actually wanted to write Gilda as neurodivergent since I first publicly revealed her on New Year’s Eve 2017/New Year’s Day 2018, but I abandoned the idea for a while, until I noticed there to be a lack of neurodivergent characters in the media, especially ones created by neurodivergent content creators. Luckily for me, I myself am a neurodivergent content creator, and my decision to start Grunvale over from scratch was the perfect opportunity to reboot Gilda into a neurodivergent character. I feel it’s especially important to make Gilda neurodivergent, as females are tested and diagnosed far less than males.
It’s also not helpful that the ‘experts’ the media often turn to for autism research are Autism Speaks, a self-proclaimed advocacy group that’s actually more of a hate group. They see autism as a disease that must be cured, and those on the spectrum as a burden to society. They also popularized the symbolism of puzzle pieces to represent autism, and “Light It Up Blue” to spread autism awareness.
To those uninformed, we do not appreciate this. Autism and people with autism are not puzzles in need of solving, wearing blue perpetuates the idea that most neurodivergents are boys, and, as I already said, we don’t need awareness. Autism has been known about since 1911, it’s been known to be a spectrum since 1943, and most of developed society has been aware of autism’s existence for nearly 30 years. We prefer the rainbow infinity symbol, and that you wear red instead. I am wearing a blue T-shirt as I type this, but that’s because I like the color blue. I’m not wearing it to further Autism Speak’s propaganda.
I’ve pretty much said everything I need to say. Autistic people are not a puzzle, Autism Speaks is a hate group, and Andrew Wakefield should be forced to take the acid bucket challenge for the damage he’s done to the medical and autism community. Happy Autism Acceptance Day, and see you next artwork. Bye.
Grunvale is owned by me. You’re free to draw fanart of it, as long as you link me to it. This artwork was made at a resolution of 2880×2160 (aspect ratio 1.33:1).
Another several-years-later Grunvale artwork, set around the same time as the New Year’s artwork.
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Four years later, 12-year-old Abby Lowry has become unnaturally tall at a height of 6’6″/198cm, towering over her already-tall 15-year-old siblings August (6’4″/193cm) and April (6’1″/185cm). Nicknamed “The Smoke Pillar” by her peers, she is the star player of Davis Junior High’s basketball team, and is also following in her late father’s footsteps as a musician, mainly inspired by soft-rockers of the 1980s like Phil Collins and Richard Marx, as well as bands like Foreigner and REO Speedwagon. When 15-year-old Gilda Grime hears that this is Abby’s favorite era of music, she of course takes it upon herself to introduce the big little Lowry to everything the 1980s has to offer in terms of pop culture, and the two quickly befriend each other over their love of this most radical era of history.
By the way, don’t expect a Gilda and Abby friendship to happen in the main chronology of Grunvale. Abby during the main chronology is a bit of a bully that takes any opportunity she gets to insult the Tetrad and August. It’s only during the four years between then and this piece that she matures and actually starts being friendly, accepting, and even a participant in their antics. Oh, and I will never write her to be LGBT-phobic. Even at age eight, she is well aware and accepting of April being a lesbian and August being a cross-dresser. Even bullies have standards, and LGBT-phobia is where Abby draws the line.
Now to the piece!
You’ve seen 15-year-old Gilda and April before in the aforementioned New Year’s piece. Let’s just talk about the characters whose aged-up versions debut here.
I thought it’d be fitting that, after dressing somewhat conservatively during his pre-teen years, August’s aesthetic would take a turn for the emo in his teenhood, complete with him growing his hair out and wearing eyeliner as part of his usual attire. It seems like a natural evolution for him. I myself wore my hair short up until I was 14, and have since worn it… pretty much as long as I do now. I’m not as extreme as I used to be with hair, though. Long-time followers may know that I used to wear my sideburns all the way down my face, like Joe Cocker or Ray Dorset. I… I guess you could call that my rebellious phase, heheh. And adopting an emo aesthetic is August’s rebellious phase!
As for Abby, I’ve had the idea in my head for a while that she ends up even taller than her already six-foot-plus siblings. She’s already as tall as 11-year-old Margo at age eight, and since August and April are already pretty far-along in puberty at age 11, I thought it’d make sense for Abby to be an early bloomer as well. Fun fact, the Lowry kids being early bloomers is autobiographical. I hit puberty so early, that at age 12, I had so much leg hair that one of my peers told me I should shave my legs. And Abby’s height situation is something I relate to as well; I’m also the tallest of my siblings despite being the youngest.
Anyhoo, since I love and am even part of the trope of the youngest/smallest of the bunch eventually becoming the biggest, I’ve written it into Abby’s character. Yeah, I know six-foot-six is tall for an adult, let alone a 12-year-old. But you know what? I love the idea of Abby being insanely tall. It adds a lot to her character, both narratively and comedically.
Not much else to add, other than me addressing the minimalistic Rita Hayworth image in the background. I was bound to reference Gilda the movie in Grunvale eventually, and you know it.
Grunvale is owned by me. You’re free to draw fanart of it, as long as you link me to it. Gilda is owned by Sony through Columbia Pictures. This artwork was made at a resolution of 2160×2880 (aspect ratio 2.35:1).
Another Pokemon Day/National Retro Day hybrid artwork. Because the universe knows that I love both Pokemon and retro things.
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Nintendo vs. Sega is perhaps the silliest feud to come out of video gaming. Ever since the Genesis came onto the North American market in 1989 to challenge the older and less-powerful NES, people have delved into petty arguments about whether Nintendo or Sega was/is the better company, especially after Nintendo put out their own 16-bit console to challenge Sega. And with companies such as Phillips, Atari, and The 3DO Company putting out their own systems claiming to be more powerful, it was a period in gaming history known as ‘the Bitwars’.
Which were stupid then and it’s even more stupid now. Anyone who spends any amount of time researching would know that there’s much more to a console’s power than bit count. In fact, if we measure a console purely by CPU bit count, the N64 and PS5 are both 64-bit consoles. Of course, the PS5 runs on hardware far more advanced, and contains 256-bit components. Bits were and are mostly just a marketing thing, and I’m glad nobody in the 21st century is still trying to push them as a selling point.
As for the SNES vs. Genesis war, well, SNES has the better graphical effects and sound, but the Genesis both runs faster and is better at sprite handling. Both of them are great consoles with tons of great games, but putting down one or the other is just pathetic, especially in 2021 when the games are easily accessible through emulation.
Speaking of Sega Genesis, I’m gonna plug my YouTube account, where I mostly speedrun that console’s version of Lemmings. I even hold the current world record on the Fun difficulty, with a time of 31:31. I’m gonna try to get it down to 30 and possibly even 29 soon, as well as run some of the higher difficulties. My WR run is at this link for your viewing pleasure!
Now to the artwork!
As part of my recent effort to draw better-looking environments, I used a lot of different brushes and textures to create the living room, as well as add some outlines to the environments to make them look more like something that the characters are actually in, and not just placed on. Also, like on the 700 followers special, I added a few ‘paintings’ to the walls to dress up the scenery. Which are actually last year’s Pokemon Day/National Retro Day artwork, my personal favorite artwork of Dolly, and a color-distorted artwork of Margo, all pixelated beyond recognition (although AnimationFan15 noticed the Zigilda and Wendirisu easter egg when I showed off the first panel in private).
For the retro theme, Dolly’s sisters are all dressed as characters from retro Sega and Sega-owned franchises. Roz is Blaze Fielding from Streets of Rage, Maddie is Gilius Thunderhead from Golden Axe, Wendy is the classic version of Amy Rose from the Sonic the Hedgehog games, and Nicole is Jack Frost from Megami Tensei. As for Dolly herself, her outfit is both retro and Pokemon… she’s a shiny Mawile from the Gen III Pokemon games! Surrounded by fireflies trained by Gregory to follow her around, because the term ‘shiny Pokemon’ comes from the sparkle effect around the differently-colored Pokemon when they appear on the battlefield. I thought about drawing her as a Bellossom or a Spinda (the latter being a reference to the shiny Spinda I found in Pokemon Emerald, the only shiny I’ve found against the original 1/8192 shiny odds), but I thought a Mawile would be more appropriate, due to their feminine appearance and being found rather early in Ruby. Which, if Grunvale is strictly placed in 2017, Dolly would have grown up with (a 2017 setting would mean she was born between October 22-November 21 of 1993). It’s halfway between a Disneybounding style (Pokebounding?) and a full-blown cosplay, but there’s nothing wrong with that. I don’t see Dolly as a full-blown cosplayer, anyway.
That’ll be all for this one. Happy Pokemon and National Retro Day!
Grunvale is owned by me. You’re free to draw fanart of it, as long as you link me to it. Pokemon is owned by Nintendo. Sonic the Hedgehog, Golden Axe, and Streets of Rage are owned by Sega. Megami Tensei is owned by Sega through Atlus. Both panels of this artwork were made at a resolution of 5076×2160 (aspect ratio 2.35:1).
The Gallery of Stormy Adler 