Chris Simonite's Cubo-Weirdism Blog! A Blog about Chris Simonite's Art by Chris Simonite. Who the Hell else?

A few years ago, I did a painting of Leela from Futurama. I also did a number of other cartoon character paintings at that time. People seemed to like them enough, but I wasn't thrilled with them. In many ways these paintings were experiments with rendering paintings straight out of my own head. And I feel like the results were mixed. My plan at the time was to do one of Fry as well, but I put that on hold. Here is the original Leela. 

Leela, 11" x 14", oil on canvas, 2020.

Anyway, recently I decided to give it another go. Are my skills at rendering out of me own noggin better than they were in 2020? That is the question I wanted to ask. And I think the answer is yes, although I did cheat a little and look at a John Singer Sargent painting while I did this. But just a little. Same with the painting of Fry that I finally got 'round to making. 

As you can see I decided to use the exact same sketch for Leela as I did for the original. Better to compare, was my thinking process. I also liked the way I sketched the mouth on her. Side note, it's quite tricky to imagine these characters as "cubist". They're already rather simplified. Anyway, here is the new Leela. 

Leela, 11" x 14", oil on canvas, 2023. Available.

I definitely like this one better. The highlights on the hair are better, and the overall rendering is much improved. Unfortunately, I don't have an older version of Fry to compare to. In my memory I had done one, but that doesn't seem to be the case. You can't trust your memory! That's something we should remember. But we can't trust our memories. I digress. Sorry. 

Anyway, Here is Fry. 

Fry, 11" x 14", oil on canvas, 2023. Available. 

One of these days, I might just try these characters again. Maybe I'll try rendering them while more directly referencing John Singer Sargent, or someone else. Like the one below of Good ol' Charlie Brown. Or maybe I'll try to make ones that more directly reference cubism. Perhaps, boxier and with completely flat areas. I'll figure it out! But overall, I do like these ones and hence I offer them to my reader(s). I mean, offer them for your perusal, or even to purchase! Contact me here if you're interested. 

Chuck, 9" x 12", oil on canvas, 2021. Available.