Ken the Eagle Pencil WIP

So where did I learn to draw?

Growing up I used to watch a lot of cartoons from very early in the morning, to late in the afternoon. I used to watch just about every cartoon that was aired, but I was never as into American cartoons, as I was into "Japanimation" (as they used to call it back in the day). I used to love all those English dubbed shows from Japan, because in my opinion they shitted all over the purely American cartoons. Sure the Americans excelled at humour cartoons, but hands down for action, and cool drawings the Japanese had that shit on lock down!

Some of the earlier shows I remember that aired here were Starblazers, and Speed Racer, but my first favourite had to be Battle of the Planets. As most of you know it was a US adaptation of the Japanese anime Science Ninja Team Gatchaman. Of course I didn't know back then what it was originally adapted from, or even that it originated from Japan, but even at the age of three I could tell the art was on another level. I could also tell a clear difference between the original Japanese animation and the added US footage of the hokey 7-Zark-7, and their badly animated version of the G-Force team.

Still, even with the ham fisted add-ons, I loved the show, and one of my earliest memories of drawing was actually sitting with my brothers in front of our little black and white TV, watching BotP. I used to sit there with my pencil and paper and try to copy the drawings on the screen. Even though there were some "static" talking scenes in the show, trying to copy animation was tricky at that time, mainly because my family didn't have a video recorder yet, and every time I would look back up from my drawing the animation had moved, or cut to a different shot (luckily they re-used footage and similar poses throughout the series ).

Through the years Gatchaman went through a number of other reincarnations outside of Japan as G-force and Eagle Riders. I remember watching those too, but without the original English dub and score of BotP, plus the various name changes... it just wasn't the same. Luckily they released DVD boxed sets of Battle of the Planets, and I get to re-live all those childhood memories of my first "art teacher" (I'll have to get my hands on the original Gatchaman set too).

I was also happy to see the international release of Tatsunoko vs Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars earlier this year, featuring of course the Gatchaman characters: Ken the Eagle, Jun the Swan, and an unlockable Joe the Condor (Jason was always my fave ). I geek out every time I get to perform a Science Ninpo: Tornado fighter or a Science Ninpo: Phoenix . Seeing Shinkiro's take on the characters has been an added bonus too.

Re-watching BotP on DVD, and playing Tasunoko Vs Capcom, I felt inspired to draw some fan art tonight. I think I'll keep an 80's cartoon highlights theme going for a while, and maybe do a few more characters from TvC:UAS too.

Anyway, I'm not sure how I'm going to finish this piece , but I thought I'd show the work in progress. I may ink it up, then colour it in Photoshop, otherwise I'll just digitally paint straight from the pencils in Painter.

All art by me (but based on a mid air kick from the game).