Summary :

Around 2005 or 2006, I was asked if I wanted to share a artist table in the artist alley at Akon in Dallas, Texas, US. I was a little concerned at the time. Most of what I had done before this was very serious illustrations of figures mostly. No chibis, caricatures or any simplified cute depiction of whatever. I decided to make parody art or fantart, if you will, of one of my favorite toys, Legos. Perfect.
 
Problem #1: Draw lego versions of what? At the time I had just bought Final Fantasy X-2 and played 10 minutes of it before I vomited and resold it for Kingdom Hearts 1. I generally am not a big fan of Disney and subsequently avoided this game like the plague even though SquareEnix co-authored it, until now. I instantly fell in love with the game. So, I decided Kingdom Hearts was a perfect place to start.
 
Problem #2: Which characters? No Disney, that’s for sure. They are Nazis next to their Japanese co-owner. So everything else was game. I had a few characters I desperately wanted like Cloud and Sora. However, I was like all other fans and liked to collect not in parts but in wholes. So, that meant all of the Organization 13 and a lot of characters.
 
Problem #3: How to color these? I was a painter by training and most of my color work, up until this moment, was colored grays. A good friend of mine insisted I should be insanely bright. She was right but it hurt to force myself to do it. Years later, though, I cannot color any different. Thanks Tachiik.
 
It was an instant hit and later a long lasting fav among buyers and fans.

Inked originals below :

Medium used

• Stonehenge paper
• Some cheap “Manga” paper that was perfect for marker. Not so much. It sucked up too much ink.
• non photo blue pencil (initial gestures)
• size 3 and 7 mechanical pencil (later erased)
• black brush pen – Faber-Castell and Japanese Pentel brush with ink catridge