Digeri Dingo - The Cunning Cookie Caper (Pg 2/3)

Dated 14/12/2012

Digeri Dingo's powers of negotiation are tested when Taz discovers an extremely rare and valuable bottlecap that he isn't prepared to trade. However, the crafty old dingo has a cunning plan up his sleeve to swipe the precious item for his own collection...

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Well I've already done Alan-a-Dale from Robin Hood and Jake from the Rescuers this year... so here's presenting my third obscure childhood furry crush...



Anyone who is familiar with the 'Taz-Mania' cartoon series involving Taz (the Tasmanian Devil) will probably be familiar with his double-talking, bottlecap-collecting, treasure-hunting friend Digeri Dingo (which I believe is the correct spelling, though some do spell it 'Didgeri Dingo' instead). The show frequently involved stories where Dingo would coax Taz into doing the dirty work to acquire a sought-after bottlecap or trick him into an unfair trade.

Suffice it to say, for whatever reason, I have found this character pretty much irresistible for most of my lifetime. He's smart and quite handsome, he's voiced by Rob Paulsen, he's got a wonderful Machiavellian charm about him, he's voiced by Rob Paulsen, his relationship with Taz was always one of the most hilarious things in the show... oh, and did I mention that he's voiced by Rob Paulsen?!

(What? Can't a straight guy have a voice crush on Rob Paulsen? I've already got one on Seth MacFarlane, y'know...!)



In keeping with my 2012 habit of experimenting with drawing popular cartoon characters in their original styles, I felt it was about time I explored my long-time crush on Dingo (and find out what he looked like stomping on folks, of course!) The idea of him exploiting Taz in some way came to me very quickly, but the idea of this story seemed to grow quite slowly - it began as a single picture idea, then became a one-page comic, then I came to the conclusion that the only way I could really explore the characters through the action I wanted was to make it a multi-page comic instead.

Having previously attempted to replicate Seth MacFarlane's style and Disney's style, this was my very first attempt at the Warner Bros style, and my first attempt at drawing Taz. I had tried to draw Dingo once about ten years ago, but my artistic standard and ability to mimic styles was far inferior in those days and I never got anywhere close. (In fact, my failure to draw him properly led me to create a similar original character in my own style who, believe it or not, evolved over the years into Mike!!)

The Warner Bros style is quite a difficult one for me to get the hang of - it's extremely elastic in nature, with lots of wacky, expressive shapes and forms - so I had to spend quite some time doing training sketches from reference first. After a few days of experimenting, I started working on the comic itself last week. The drawings took around a week to complete, then I spent a couple more days doing simple colouring and backgrounds in keeping with the original cartoon style.

As far as the designs of the characters are concerned, I tried to stay as close to their original models as possible. However, I allowed for some variation based on some of my own preferences, particularly the soles. Dingo's feet seem to vary throughout the various cartoons between a matching orange sole and a distinctly grey sole with different-coloured pads, but my preference was for the orange option with darker pads. Likewise, I gave Taz matching brown pads instead of the white soles he is often depicted with.

I must admit, while there were times where I found this immensely frustrating - not least trying to draw the bonkers Warner Bros style backgrounds in PaintShop Photo Pro with a tool that I've never used before - it was also a great deal of fun. Indeed, it was particularly nice to finally be able to draw Dingo properly and do the Warner Bros style justice.

I'm hoping to get a little bit more work done between now and Christmas, but as we'll be having relatives staying again throughout the holiday period, I might be a bit limited in what I can achieve for the rest of 2012. Here's hoping you haven't quite heard the last of me yet though.



RRRex