Pull my finger...

...I dare you.

Letting her hair down...

I did a little costume modification for Stinkarella today, and added hair outside the cowl. I imagine the hair would be white to contrast the black of the costume and to run with the skunk theme, natch. I like it.

The Stages of Stink-A-Rella

For my little cartooning class I broke down how I approach a drawing, using my character Stink-A-Rella.


First I outline the basic shapes and pose. I always draw the hands before the arms because I feel hands are so very expressive - they're often as important as the head/face. Arms are easy after that, you just connect the hands to the shoulders!


I then trace over the good parts of the pose, sometimes raising the head a bit or lowering other parts - tracing makes it easy to line things up and also eliminates the need to erase all the early scribbles. I can at this point also change things like the hand positions, and add accessories, costume elements etc.

The next step is more clean-up. Refining the lines and adding more detail.


If I were to finalize this I would probably ink the outline and color in photoshop, but this shows the "final" pencil sketch with "color" details/areas of contrast.

Click here to see a nifty GIF showing all the steps together.

The Story of Stink-A-Rella

For generations, the eldest daughter of the Bee-eau family successfully helmed Denmark Perfume, creating a multi-billion dollar corporation and some of the most wonderful fragrances to ever see the inside of a bottle. Each successive daughter was named after the woman who started it all, Chantel Bee-eau, knowing that she would one day take over for her mother and run the company with intelligence and compassion.

But something went rotten in the state of Denmark. Unseen forces, silent and deadly, began to strike at the heart of Denmark Perfume. Sabotage, industrial espionage, and attempts on the lives of the Bee-eau family became too much to bear. CEO Chantel Bee-eau number four, concerned only with the welfare of her unborn child, was forced to abandon her family company and go into hiding. Chantel soon gave birth to a healthy happy girl, and Christened her Chantel number five. Born without olfactory nerves, Chantel was otherwise a normal child, unaware of her family heritage.

In the meantime Denmark Perfume, run by the only known living member of the Bee-eau family, the elderly and decrepit Aunty Perspirant, has been transformed into Denmark Chemicals. No longer creating beautiful fragrances, Denmark Chemicals now develops airborne chemical weaponry for military applications. Unknown to the civilized world, Denmark Chemicals contracts with whichever government or organization pays the most, regardless of political leanings.

After her mother's death, Chantel number five discovered in her belongings a journal detailing everything that had transpired. It was the first she had heard of any of it, and she was enraged.

Remembering a childhood instance wherein Chantel had befriended a family of skunks, only to return home and cause everyone to pass out from the stench (remember, she has no olfactory nerves), Chantel donned the guise of a skunk, and using a secret formula derived from her mother's notes regarding failed perfume attempts (her mother was very meticulous) Chantel number five became Stink-A-Rella, and set out to bring down Denmark Chemicals and to reclaim her birthright!