Airbending Aangadoodle

There's a cartoon on Nickelodeon called Avatar: The Last Airbender, which they originally intended for its 6-11 year-old demographic. I am apparently part of that demographic, although I am nearly 18. *cough cough* I originally didn't get the whole anime+Western sensibilities movement, since I staunchly believed that anime at least should be drawn by the original creators and so should be left alone by the Westerners, who usually execute the style in a rather appalling way. Totally Spies and Marvin Mysteries (ok, suki nga ako ng Disney :|), which I assume are made by the same people since they have the same drawing style, both really annoy me because they are lame and sadly unfunny. So when I happened to watch Avatar at Nickelodeon I was initially unimpressed; on a minor note, the dubbing bothered me a little, because Aang's voice disconcertingly reminded me of my little cousin's :)). Not that it was bad, but the familiarity of the sound often made it seem like the voice was disconnected from the character, for me at least anyway.

About a month ago my 4 and 7 year-old nieces borrowed the second season from my older cousin, and having nothing better to do this summer, I decided to have another go at the series and borrowed the cd from them.

Well, the second season definitely proved itself worthy with every episode I watched. And interestingly enough, not only did my two other sisters like it (which is rare, considering that this is a cartoon we're talking about), we even went ahead and watched the third season online.

In summary, it is a great series. Watching it made me feel like I was watching a thirty-minute Hayao Miyazaki creation. It had that slight flavor of Japanese animation, coupled with the best of American sensibilities in directing, writing and story development. The Western influence kept the Japanese tendency for extreme exaggeration at bay, while the Asian aesthetics spun the story into something entirely new and unconceived before. And I liked the diverse ethnicities that looked like real people. And yeah, I liked the fact that hair in this series actually grows, a feat I have never seen before in other cartoons. :) I suppose it's not something everyone's going to sit down and watch and discuss with me, but hey, I like it for the same reason/s a lot of people like, say, Pokemon: it's appealed to me in a way other cartoons haven't before.

I drew this on my white board, on a whim. I wasn't intending to try drawing any of the characters, since I liked the animation too much to touch it. Besides, I wanted to keep the integrity of their art intact by not messing around with it too much. Oh well, I thought, one wouldn't hurt. So I went ahead and drew one.

Which I eventually colored digitally.

Which eventually turned into this.

It's predictably in a static position. The composition is pretty lame, but there's not much you can do with a small white board and a fat marker without gouging someone's eye out. Still, it's wonderful to draw something after being in hiatus for so long. My Deviantart account is gathering dust somewhere, which is quite a shame, but I may now pluck up the courage to post something there.

There's something to be done about that orange block of a shirt/cape thing, which perhaps I will decide tomorrow.