Books & Movies

Drawing found families because I’m single and don’t want to mingle

February 16, 2022

I thought it’d be nice to take a break, but also it turns out that creating three illustrations takes a cumulatively longer time than writing a 1K word article — which, you know, I should have realized beforehand, but… who’d have thought?

I was, at first, planning on drawing found families from books, but I ended up pulling them from Western animation instead because I didn’t want to think about costume design ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Amphibia

First up: Amphibia (the Disney show). I did a sort of photo collage spread to begin with, because even though the Calamity Trio (is that their official name?) are the ones I wanted to draw most, the frogs are really Anne’s found family. And this way, I get to fit them all into different scenarios — pre-music box and post-music box.

I really struggled with Sprig, because how do you transfer a frog into your drawing style? I’m still not completely satisfied with him, but at least Polly’s okay, because Polly is really only made up of three circles.

Teen Titans

I think I was a little too young to appreciate the animated Teen Titans show when it first came out, but I definitely get found family vibes from all five of them and that’s enough for me!

My finished illustration is a little more chaotic than I thought it would be (Beast Boy is looking at a different camera, Robin is either deciding what to eat or tasting something), but simultaneously, it’s not chaotic enough. But then again, perhaps they should be allowed a short moment of peace in their chaotic lives.

Overall, I’m not disappointed with what I ended up with!

Class of the Titans

The final found family I decided to draw is from the very underrated Canadian show, Class of the Titans. (I have a mildly rambly post about its conclusion if you want to read about that here.)

In this illustration, I’ve pitted Archie and Theresa against each other because while they don’t always get along, they have a solid friendship and have a fairly interesting dynamic.

I genuinely love these kids so much. The way the show portrays their friendship is lovely, and even though I never see them in class, they get along so well. In between saving the world and general hero things, I appreciate that the show allows the audience to see them together in their downtime. Whether they’re playing video games, doing homework, or hanging out in the lounge area, it’s nice to see that found family / friendship dynamic visually established.

Also: Hiatus announcement

Heads up that I will be taking time off for at least the whole of March! I don’t know when I’ll be back yet (possibly April, but I’m really not certain), but this is just to let you know before I disappear 😉