Dorothy Gale - Blog Posts

Over the last couple of months I've rediscovered the Wizard of Oz for myself, so I decided to do a little crossover with my friends' OC’s)))

Yeah, instead of a lion there's a raptor and instead of a scarecrow a stoned skeleton of a dude who got killed by the Wicked Witch

Maybe I'll finish the remaining designs of Glinda, Wicked Witch and the Wizard. Maybe.

P.s. The Woodsman character belongs to @saicio and I absolutely LOVE this boy! Thank’s for inspiration bro, you’re the best!

Mostly familiar stuff, but I'm doing my best to keep it interesting ! Dorothy was surprisingly hard to draw at first, but really fun and cute once I figured her out :3

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Here it is! Finished character line up with designing process breakdown :)

Cowardly Lion

There's little to no description of the Cowardly Lion in the books, so I always imagined him as rather ironically big with thick, dark mane (the darker the mane, the stronger the lion). He's mainly made of soft, delicate curves, which are incorporated into his whiskers and hair as well. I wanted to incorporate bits of 'you had it all along' in Dorothy's friends designs, so classic tail and mane ribbons were not enough. Such big and proud animal has to have at least a bit of courage to wear lace collar. Lions have darker spot on their heads, which I turned into something fitting for a magical land - star. Since lions can be identified by whisker spots, Cowardly Lion's are little hearts.

Dorothy and Toto

I have carefully noted all descriptions of Dorothy's clothing, which is as follows: sunbonnet, gingham dress with white and pale blue, silver shoes, basket with white cloth and apron. The dress should have pockets. Even though the classic illustrations suggest that her hair was blonde, I decided to go with dark brown. It just fits way better. I added lace to the apron and sunbonnet. All garments were inspired by vintage clothes from early 1900s. Toto is based on Scottish Terrier, since he's been described as small, black and hairy, especially around the nose.

From now on beware spoilers for Wicked part 2

Scarecrow

His eyes will kill you. No, but seriously, they're not dark like other characters, because they're painted. He's made mostly of triangular shapes. Straszek's description is the most detailed: painted blue Munchkin's hat (with little bells), head is a small sack, painted face, blue suit of clothes, old boots with blue tops (I have no idea what tops are, I hope I did well), painted ears and padded hands (that's why his hands are too big + he's the only character with four fingers). Now, I didn't stick to the entire description for various reasons (f.ex. painted ears looked weird and blue hat didn't cooperate with cape), but mainly, because I wanted to add something from myself. And here's where the Wicked part 2 spoilers begin. Fiyero is quite tall, so I have abandoned the idea of Munchkin sized Straszek. He's ragged and dirty, because he was beaten. Torns in suit are remnants of Fiyero's wounds with golden straw spilling out instead of blood. If you look closely straw on his left shoulder should look like epaulet. If it doesn't, then it's my fault. The one shoulder cape was made from what was left of his chieftain outfit and it covers a big rip in the suit (which is his 'brainy' feature). Golden ornament depicts wheat and crows. I wouldn't be myself if I hadn't put unnecessary objects on a big hat, so there you have it: wheat & Elphaba's poppy. And last, but not least: straw sticking out of his face forms light facial hair (everyone say 'thank you, Jonathan Bailey').

Oof. That was long.

Tin Woodman

Standing proudly next to his boyfriend, Tin Man was created from hard, square shapes, quite summetrical as opposed to Scarecrow's absolute chaos. He has his little iconic cap and I can't really say a lot about him. The bowtie is his remarkable feature that I could never take away. It was red for a moment (just like Lion's ribbons were royal blue), but all my friends said that he looked like Freddy Fazbear, so I had to take the red away. I'm sorry, Nick. Let your husband housemate be colorful. Anyway! I might have accidentally incorporated some of Dark Cacao Cookie's armor in here, because that's the only armor I had drawn more than once. He's rusty all over and all that crying turned his eyes brown and left rusty tear marks. His jaw is hinged like it was in the books. If I remember correctly it was never stated that Nick Chopper was a Munchkin, but after Wicked turned Boq into Tin Woodman it would be such a waste to not deisgn a character sturdy, yet small. Spring hair is inspired by movie Boq's curly hair (thank you, Ethan Slater). His you 'had it all along' feature is... Less functional than others. The collar around his neck forms a heart.

Sketch page including some notes:

You still here? Wow. Hey, look!

Wicked part 2 looks great!

Horse Racing!

What? ....

People says that Beauty and the Beast is Stockholm syndrome

Can I at least have this one gag?

(P.S: Feathertop is a character by Nathaniel Hawthorne not a sickness)

Ray Bolger's performance for the character of the Scarecrow in the 1939 movie, at the exact moment he shouts "Hurray! We're off to see a wizard!" and trips, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gC5Tsy6mFzs

reminded me of Ariel, the little mermaid when she falls on Prince Eric as she learns how to walk. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNrM6Mqnb2c

And this idea combined by the info that in the book, The Scarecrow is only 2 days old when he meets Dorothy and that he trips a lot, reminded me so much of a human child learning how to walk.

In this Legends of Oz fan art, Dorothy teaches the Scarecrow how to walk when she gets him down from his pole, but the poor creature doesn't know how yet. ANd Dorothy becomes his teacher. At first he was scared and closed his eyes since his legs are so wobbly at first and he trips, but Dorothy encourages him to open his eyes and let her guide him. So he peeks with one eye open before fully truting her. She won't let go until he finds his balance.

The Ruby Slippers

I made the Ruby Slippers from The Wizard of Oz for my mother~

It took over 20+ hours of sewing and mostly gem sticking on second hand shoes to complete these~

Every year is there is a local fundraiser where we all make bowls which are auctioned off to raise money for the Art Council.

This was a Wizard of Oz themed bowl I made featuring the main characters and their answers to the Wizard’s question ‘What do you want?’

"It would be such fun to have a girl playmate of my own age, you see. And Hank is such a dear little mule!" Ozma laughed at the wistful expression in the girl's eyes, and then she drew Dorothy to her and kissed her. "Am I not your friend and playmate?" she asked. Dorothy flushed. "You know how dearly I love you, Ozma!" she cried. "But you're so busy ruling all this Land of Oz that we can't always be together." "I know, dear. My first duty is to my subjects, and I think it would be a delight to us all to have Betsy with us."

Dorothy and Ozma in Tik-Tok of Oz by L. Frank Baum

Soo…Dorothy won

I didn’t actually realize that at the time, but I checked today. Anyways, I found these gems at my local Junkee and if Dorothy doesn’t work out, I’ll say someone stole her ruby slippers

Oz sketches again/making my own Oz designs look more studio ghibli-ish :)

Click for better quality:)))

Wizard of Oz art for the day (mostly John R Niels illustration ver) (click for better quality)

I rewatched Return to Oz last night