Felicity's Art

[Umbral-Coltwings]

Whoa. I always think it's hard to draw him from the back. You're really good!
(I'm not that confident about my drawings... yet. . _.")

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

You're getting real good with your drawings! I see that just like Tezuka you can't seem to decide if Astro has 4 or 5 fingers!

[FelicityRedbarrow]

Tetsuwan Penguin - Ah, you noticed, did you? I think I'm going to settle on four as it fits better. Five fingers, while possibly more accurate, is just too many fingers.

Umbral-Coltwings - I understand lack of confidence. When I was little, I had a hoard of notebooks (we're talking 20-30) full of drawings under my bed. They were hidden so no one could see them. Confidence often comes with practice. Looking back on those early doodles, it is obvious that I was not a natural talent when it came to art.

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

Actually if you look closely at the manga and anime Astro is the ONLY character drawn with four fingers. Uran and Cobalt are almost always depicted with five, and Ochanomizu always is. I think the reason is that Astro's four fingered fists look more powerful and larger somehow. But this doesn't apply to the 1980 Anime, there is DOES have five fingers.

[Little Brown Fox]

The reason that Tezuka himself states in the manga is that there is no particular reason- it apparently stemmed from some old animation thing where people thought that if you drew five fingers on a hand, it could look like six when it was moving. He sometimes drew him with four fingers, and sometimes with five. There's no real reason why (although I imagine it was easier to reduce the finger count for certain scenes and panels).

Also, as far as the show went, I'm pretty sure that Cobalt was often drawn with just four fingers as well. Idk about Uran, though; I don't pay that much attention to her at all. I'm not sure if I've ever seen her with four fingers or not; although I probably have.

That particular intro in the manga (in the Dark Horse volumes, preceding the Third Magician) also brings up Atom's hair, and how you can always see the two points. This is chalked up to an animation trick. (A similar example is Mickey Mouse's ears.) Attention was also brought to how Atom was always drawn with no more than five distinct eyelashes, but no reason was given for that one. It was played off as a joke, I think, among others; but I, for one, am actually curious. (In the 2003 anime, the number of distinct lashes was bumped up to seven in certain close-up shots, but never more than that. They also looked more like lashes, in that they were tapered and bent a little, not straight and rectangular.)

[FelicityRedbarrow]

I did notice that Astro's spikes behave like Mickey Mouse's ears. Gosh, I'm usually that person in the fandom that has freaky knowledge of characters. I'm still just too new.

Anyway, I haven't posted Ochanomizu for a while, which is unacceptable for my favorite character. Here he is:



I shouldn't use that pen; it smudges too easily.

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

Two contrasting examples from the same episode with four/five fingers. In the '63 anime Astro is almost NEVER drawn with a five fingered fist. Open palms can be either way.

[FelicityRedbarrow]

Fists are so much easier to draw with only four fingers, if you ask me.

I went through some of Jeffbert's screen caps of the '60's series (which are lovely) for more reference material. I came across this:



I'm sad nobody seems to have translated it. Whatever it says, Ochanomizu seems to find it annoying.



And he just pushes it off screen! I love it. Cartoons are just something else, aren't they?

Now, if you'll notice, he has four fingers here, but in the very same scene a few seconds earlier:



Five fingers! Maybe he lost one when he sneezed.



Awp! Never mind. It's back.

[Little Brown Fox]

Pfft, I wouldn't say I'm that fan; I just happen to own a volume with that story in it!

Also, that looks like that Medusa's Mansion episode, I think... that whole thing was a gyp; Cobalt was there, but he had no lines whatsoever! He didn't even do anything! Chi-tan, who received the same treatment in this episode, I can understand; but Uran got a couple lines, and if she got to have them, Cobalt should have, too.

I'm sorry; this was at a point in time where I watched them just for Cobalt, and this still kind of rankles. (There's just so little of him in the English dub; he doesn't seem to show up too often in the manga, either, and when he does it's usually not in any significant way: he's either comic relief, or a macguffin- a plot device that moves things along and is forgotten about. :T)

[FelicityRedbarrow]

Yeah, it was from one of the omitted episodes, so I can't even get a hold of it. Unfortunate.

Here's today's additions. I think it's a real improvement on yesterday's.



What are you so worked up about, Dr. Ochanomizu? Maybe he's worried about his fingers.

[EDIT]: I guess I'll tack this one on as well. I don't know what's really happening in this picture or why it's so sad. If anyone wants to figure it out, I'm open to suggestions.