His Majesty, Prince … Ozzy … of Oz.
Who?
Get yourself a copy of Oz Squad: March of the Tin Soldiers (available as an ebook at the previous link or in a dead tree edition at Lulu.com) and meet the boy.
Category Archives: oz squad
Oz Squad Portraits – the Woggle-Bug
The Woggle-Bug makes his debut in The Marvelous Land of Oz. He’s an insect who has been Highly Magnified and Thoroughly Educated. He is also, as drawn by John R. Neill, one of the creepier looking denizens of Oz. He looks like a cross between the Joker and the Penguin. Uggh.
So when it came time to think of drawing the character I completely redesigned him. I tried to make him look more like a bug. Hopefully a friendly bug because he’s kind of an arrogant ass so he needs all the help he can get. No doubt this just make him creepier looking to people who are not me.
I didn’t get as far as drawing a background for this illustration. I only got as far as the basic inking stage.
Oz Squad Portraits – the Wizard
In the first Oz book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the Wizard is revealed to be a little man, barely taller than Dorothy, who is as bald as an egg. In every book thereafter the text describes him as a little man who is as bald as an egg. The illustrations by John R. Neill, however, show him with a lively fringe of hair. He’s also quite a bit taller than in the original Denslow illustrations.
As you can see I prefer a version with the lively fringe. If asked to explain the difference I’d say that the Wizard shaved his head during his first sojourn in Oz. A shaved head would have made it easier for him to slip on the disguises he needed to maintain his air of mystery.
I don’t have as easy an explanation for the difference in height.
Coloring Oz – Ozma 4
The finished portrait of Ozma. In The Marvelous Land of Oz Ozma is described as having a cloud of golden hair. In every book thereafter, however, she is shown as a brunette. I figure that, as a fairy princess, she can have any color hair she likes. Personally, I prefer the dark hair, so that’s how I’ll draw her most often.
Coloring Oz – Ozma 3
At the end of The Marvelous Land of Oz the hero, Tip, discovers that he’s really Ozma, rightful ruler of Oz and – a girl. When told he must be transformed back he’s not enthusiastic but he only spends a page protesting.
Finally he says, “I might try it for a while – just to see how it seems, you know. But if I don’t like being a girl you must promise to change me into a boy again.”
As far as I know, none of the Royal Historians have reported that she disliked being a girl.
Coloring Oz – Ozma 2
This illustration of Ozma was done back in March as I was putting the finishing touches on the cover layout for Oz Squad: March of the Tin Soldiers. I hadn’t intended to use this piece on the cover. The back cover (only available on the print edition) has four circular portraits of Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin Man and Lion as part of the design. The ones that are on the cover now are actually the second set of portraits. The first set was too complex and clashed with the cover design.
While I was working on the first set of portraits I sketched up an additional four portraits of other important Oz personages. As with the main four each additional portrait was to have a scene from the character’s history in the background. For Ozma it’s a scene of her approaching the Emerald City on her first adventure. Of course, on her first adventure, Ozma was a young boy and didn’t remember having once been a princess.
This portrait of Ozma is the only one of the additional illustrations that I finished. I started portraits of Ozzy, the Wizard and the Woggle-Bug but they didn’t get beyond the basic inking stage. I’ll post those later in the week.
Coloring Oz – Ozma 1
I’m done with my summer quarter. I finished my last final a week ago. I’m still working an internship until the middle of September so I’m not suddenly blessed with a lot of free time. I’m just now able to think about things other than school, work and chores. Now it’s just work and chores. Yay!
One of the first things I want to get together is an actual website for Oz Squad. The current one is just a quick placeholder. I’d started work on a site before school started and then lost what little I’d managed to do when my laptop died.
Speaking of Oz Squad, the sketch above is my version of Ozma. I figured no one is going to keep the same look for a hundred years, so no poppies for this princess!
Oz Squad: March of the Tin Soldiers – Available NOW
While Steve was waiting for me to finish illustrating the first issue of the new Oz Squad comic series he went and wrote an Oz Squad novel. As you can see, I did the cover illustration for it. I’ve also done a dozen interior illustrations. I’d intended to do more but this school thing is filling up most of my drawing time 🙂
The book available in various electronic formats at Smashwords. Until June 30th (2011) you can purchase it for $3.99 with the coupon code: VR38M
It’s also available in print at Lulu.com
Steve has an interview about the book and other projects at Jazma Online.
The Complete Annotated Oz Squad: Volumes 1 and 2
The Oz Squad
Simpler is often better, or at least easier, when it comes to cover designs. Especially when it comes to elements of cover designs. Compare and contrast these two sets of Oz Squad portraits. 
The top set is richer in colors and tones. Each portrait tells (or at least suggests) a story. I like each one individually. As a group, however, they don’t really work. Each has elements that clash with at least one of the others. With Nick’s portrait the amount of action in the background makes that picture really stand out from the others. With the Lion’s portrait the lack of a background makes it seem a bit unfinished, like it hasn’t gotten the same attention as the others. Dorothy and the Scarecrow’s portraits go together pretty well. The lack of any human figures in their backgrounds make those backgrounds seem more harmonious even though one features a tornado and the other a sunlit field. A human figure would tend to draw the (human) eye to it so by not having a human in that background the figure in the foreground stands out more. That very harmony between the portraits of Dorothy and the Scarecrow makes Nick and the Lion’s portraits clash more.
The second set of portraits are, individually, less exciting than the first set but they definitely fit together better. They use the same background colors. They feature approximately the same portion of each character in each portrait. For the purposes they’re going to be used (elements on the cover of a book and not the main elements) they work pretty well.
Just for the fun of it I’m tossing in one more compare and contrast set. 
And here, because of the simplicity of their design the portraits of the Scarecrow and the Lion go together best. With Dorothy and Nick the exciting backgrounds in the first portraits makes the lack of backgrounds in the second portraits really noticeable.
Anyway. Hopefully this lesson will stick with me the next time I work on a complex cover design.
