- Hey, I'm Kevin.
- And I'm Jess.
- Hey, I'm Jason.
- And I'm Brent.
- Hi, I'm Katia.
- Hi, I'm Penelope.
- And today we're gonna be drawing...
- "Avatar" characters.
- From memory.
- Not the blue people.
- I've never seen "Avatar".
- Nor have I.
- Wait, you haven't seen it either?
How are we supposed to do this?
- With our guts and our will.
(upbeat music)
- So, I'm only half way through the first season.
And so I hope we get a character that I actually know.
(Jess gasps)
- [Announcer] Today, you'll be drawing Katara.
- Okay. Okay, good. - Yay!
- Good, good, good.
I know Katara. - Whew!
- I know Katara, okay.
- [Announcer] Today, you'll be drawing Zuko.
- Wow! (laughs)
- I did it, I did it.
- [Announcer] Today, you'll be drawing Aang.
- Okay.
- Okay, that's the one with the arrow?
I'm sorry "Avatar" stans.
I am truly sorry for what I'm
about to put you through. (laughs)
'Cause okay, I've seen the memes.
So the memes are like, I know that there's like bending
of different elements, right?
So you have like an airbender, a firebender, a waterbender,
and uh earthbender?
- Yeah, that's what I think.
I know he's got an arrow on his head.
(Katia laughs)
I'm not even sure if he wears pants.
- So, are you rewatching this show, Brent?
- Yes, I am right in the middle of rewatching it.
I have a roommate who has not seen it yet.
So it's very important that I educate them.
It's like one of the best shows, I think of all time.
- I agree, it's one of the best shows.
- What are your biggest influences?
- It is like a lot in anime.
- Mmhmm.
- And then definitely like heavy into comics.
It mostly started with my mom actually.
- Okay.
- Because she collected comic books when she was a kid.
- No kidding?
- Yeah.
- That's a cool mom.
- (laughs) Yeah, she's pretty great. (laughs)
- Penelope, tell me about your process
when you start a drawing, like what are your initial steps?
- Um, let's see, It usually starts out super messy.
And everything's kinda squiggles.
I learned that from my husband too.
(Katia laughs)
- Um, I draw the spine and some version of a skull.
- Uh huh.
- (laughs) And then from there just kinda figure out
what my gesture is going to be.
- You know like all these moves
were based off of like real martial arts.
So it's like, am I drawing a fake
(laughs) martial arts stance, you know? (laughs)
- Yeah, I know I'm like trying to remember that,
and I'm like, I don't actually know the stances very well.
- Yeah.
- I'm trying to figure out her hair.
- So she's got the, she's got like these hair dealies.
- Oh, right.
- And that's like the joke that even her brother makes.
Is like the hair dealies.
- The uh, like the loops? - He calls 'em dealies.
- The loop things?
- Yeah, like the little hair loops.
- Yeah.
- Like isn't that even... (laughs)
It's a part of his culture too.
- Yeah.
- How does he not know what the word is for it? (laughs)
- Usually at this point, I'll flip my canvas.
Um, just so that I can see
what kind of problems I'm having with my figure.
- Oh, that's so smart.
Is it 'cause it gives you
a different perspective on your drawing?
- Yeah, it does, it helps me with the volume.
So like when you're drawing one way and you think,
"You know everything looks cool
"and everything look all right."
Once you flip it, and it looks real busted,
then it's like, "Oh, something's wrong."
(Katia laughs)
- So Jess, you are a storyboard artist
for Marvel and other properties, is that correct?
- Mmhmm, yeah.
- So how did you get to that point?
You know, was your family always supportive
of your career in the arts?
- I kind of knew what I wanted to do
very early on in my life.
- Mmhmm.
- My grandad actually, he was kinda the one
that kept trying to curb my enthusiasm, kind of a deal.
- Right.
- But he was one of those guys
that really wanted me to get into science.
- Sure.
- Like the joke was every time I asked or said like,
"Oh, I'm gonna be a, I'm gonna be a singer,
"I'm gonna be a dancer, I'm gonna be an artist.
"I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do that."
He'd always tack on astronaut at the end.
(both laugh)
"So you be a singing, dancing, acting astronaut."
- Right.
- "Astronaut's the important part, Jess."
I'm like, "Okay!"
It was a case where like I 100% had to stand my ground.
And I was like, "Papa, I'm going to art school.
"I'm going to be an artist.
"I'm going to make this my life,
"and this is what it's gonna be."
And then I like hung up the phone. (laughs)
- Whoa.
- And it was maybe a week later,
I get a phone call from my grandad and he's like,
"You know Jessie, I've seen so much animation
"in commercials lately, is that like 2D?
"Like that's what you do?"
(Kevin laughs)
And I'm like, "Yeah Papa, that's a bunch of stuff."
And so now I get calls from him all the time
being like, "You know I just ran into this lady
"from Dreamworks, and I wanted to show her your stuff."
Like he is, he is my best promotion. (laughs)
- That's amazing, that's great.
That's like a complete 180.
- Yeah. - That's so cool.
- I actually know what Zuko's hair represents in the show.
You know what his hair is for, like why he has it that way?
- No.
- So Zuko, on his head is bald because he's disgraced.
He's a disgraced prince, so he had to leave
the Fire Nation to go hunt the Avatar,
but he's got a ponytail,
because that's like a sign of Fire Nation royalty,
so that's why that's the only hair he has left
is his little like reminder of his past.
- So I am inking, and I don't remember
what the bottom of her like tunic looks like.
- It's almost like a gi.
- Right.
- Like a Japanese robe kinda thing.
- Right, right.
- Um and I can't remember
how she keeps it together. - Does she have
like a flap down the middle, do you know what I mean?
Is that, I don't know if I'm saying that right.
- Yeah, so it's kind of like a panel down the front.
- Great.
- Down the front and the back.
- Oh, excellent, oh and the back, okay.
Oh cool, so all right,
for once I remembered something correctly.
- Something that I'm doing right now on my drawing
is I'm adding multiply layers.
I find multiply layers to be really helpful in adding levels
and making things darker without making them muddy.
And usually I use whatever color that's predominant
in my painting, in this case blue.
And with multiply it makes it like natural shadow
that makes sense to the eye.
- I remember when I first saw it I was just like,
"Okay this is really cool."
And then like the really serious themes
taken so, like executed so well.
Like it was basically a show about ethnic cleansing.
You know, like that's insane.
- A kid's show, I know I keep watching it.
I keep watching it, and I have these moments every episode
where I'm like, "I'm watching a kids show?"
Like, this was on Nickelodeon.
- Yeah.
- I am moving on to color, how are you doing?
- I am moving to color as well.
- What?
- Yeah, yeah.
- Adding some swirling patterns to really make sure
that it's obvious that he's bending air.
But like, what if he's not an airbender and like, I'm wrong.
(Penelope laughs)
- And we're just making stuff up anyway?
- (laughs) Yeah.
- What were like, so his clothes
were like different shades of brownish red, right?
- Yeah, I kinda cheated 'cause I am doing Agni Kai Zuko.
Um so, he's topless, ha heh.
- I drew him topless as well.
- Oh okay, good.
- Katara's colors are?
- She's dark skinned.
- Yes.
- 'Cause it's more, that's the kind of clothing
she's wearing is like Eskimo or Inuit style clothes.
- Right.
- Because she's in the Arctic.
But because she's in all that snow...
So this is my science hobby, thank you Grandad.
(Kevin laughs)
My science hobby coming back in.
Because she's in all that snow,
technically she actually gets just as tan
as if you were at the equator,
because of all that light reflecting off of all that snow.
- Yeah. - Yeah.
- And I had drawn this sort of like ambiguous looking
like thing going through the air.
I think I'm gonna make it into a dragon,
just 'cause I think that's gonna look cooler.
- Ah, you're so smart.
- And like, the mythos kinda just
makes more sense to me that way.
- Pens down.
(stylus clacks)
- How do you think you did, Brent?
- Dude, this looks like Zuko.
- Mmhmm.
- I mean, minus some like clothing, some accessories.
You know, you can't get much more Zuko than this.
- I'm gonna go out on a limb,
and say this is the best drawing
I've ever done on "Draw Off".
- Wha? Okay, well Jason come on, man.
- I think it looks cool.
This is definitely leaning toward
what a board pose would look like for me.
- Mine turned out, I'll be a little honest,
mine turned out a little more boyish than I wanted.
- (laughs) Okay.
- I think I did pretty well.
I'm pretty happy with the final product.
I wish I knew a little more about this character,
but I'm gonna remedy that soon.
How about you, how'd you do?
- I did as well as could be expected.
- All right, let's send them to each other.
(dramatic music)
- (gasps) Whoa! - Dope.
- Yeah all right, oh man!
Oh you got his shoes so much better.
Oh no. (Jason laughs)
You nailed those like Fire Nation boots and stuff.
That's really good.
Oh look at his pants, I knew it.
- Ah, I thought he was wearing shoes.
- You got it, yeah.
- He's not wearing any shoes.
- You know, we should've known
'cause he does that leg sweep.
Remember there's that one shot where he like sweeps the leg?
- Yeah. - I should've, Aha.
- So Brent, do you think
this is the best drawing I've done on "Draw Off"?
- Uh, I would have to say your Minion
is still my top spot, Jason.
- Yeah, yeah.
- This one lands in the top three, I'll give it that.
- Wow! (laughs)
- Oh wow, yours is so good. (laughs)
- I would totally date this guy.
(both laugh)
- I love the flowy air thing.
I totally get that he bends air.
- Yay! - I'm there with you.
(both laugh)
- Hopefully he does.
(both laugh)
I was completely off. (laughs)
- Oh my goodness, I got orange in there. (laughs)
- I didn't have any orange, I had all blue in my painting.
I didn't get sort of this cape shawl thing.
- Oh, I missed that.
- I definitely didn't get the colors right.
(Penelope laughs)
I didn't know he had staff.
- I you know, I did not know that.
That was not even close.
- Cool!
- Whoa, holy!
- (laughs) This is awesome!
- Holy sh-(bleeps).
(both laugh)
Sorry, sorry.
(both laugh)
- This is really cool.
I love, I love how we both got stank face.
Like that's really Katara though.
- Oh yeah, I mean you gotta do stank face, yeah.
- You gotta do stank face with Katara.
- Yeah, yeah.
- She is about the business.
- And the pose is so dynamic,
and like the arcs of everything.
- Yeah.
- It's just the arc of the hair and uh.
Okay.
- Okay, hey! - All right.
- Ah man, I forgot her mother's necklace.
- (gasps) We both did!
- Dangit! - Oh shoot.
- That's so integral to her character!
- Oh no, oh no.
- Oh no.
- Well, I think you did an amazing job,
and I think your pose is so dynamic,
and I just want to know what is the secret.
- Well it's uh, it's five years of Marvel kids.
It's drawing superheroes
either jumping, fighting, or yelling
(laughs) for five straight years.
That's how you get it. (laughs)
- That's the secret to dynamic characters.
Jumping, fighting, and yelling.
- And yelling. (laughs)
(upbeat music)