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Published: 2008-10-12 03:14:58 +0000 UTC; Views: 10752; Favourites: 226; Downloads: 2265
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Hey there!Oh, c'mon, it wouldn't be Villain Month without the Count!
Count Olaf, the sinister 4th cousin 3 times removed (or is it 3rd cousin, 4 times removed? ;D) of the Baudelaire orphans from Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. That was a mouthful! Olaf is a dirty arsonist, an alcoholic, and a rotten schemer, but perhaps worst of all, he's also a horrendous actor but thinks contrarily.
I felt it was necessary to paint Olaf for Villain Month because, even though the end of the books was (to me) pretty bad and the character himself had really transformed from being absolutely terrifying in the first book to becoming Jim Carrey's goofy film portrayal of him by the 11th book, the Snicket books are a big part of my teenage years. I spent a long time being positively obsessed over them (my old AOL screen name was Baudelairefan6 - no longer active, I assure you), and it would seem wrong to leave Olaf in the dust this month since he really did start off as being a great villain.
In fact, the Snicket series has many great villains, not the least of which are Olaf's wretched associates, so don't be shocked if some of them pop up for these next 20 days of October.
Regarding the image: I'm surprised at just how well it turned out. I started with a really messy and amateurish sketch of Olaf and then used a painting method that I learned from a tutorial here on DA and swear by since then, and the piece just kind of unfurled! I think this picture looks pretty good regardless of whether or not it's just a doodle.
When drawing this image, I kept wondering how the old me (13, 14 years old or so) would feel about it, and I think I would have really liked it back then. Baudelairefan6 gives his approval, I suppose. ;D
Anyway, enjoy the image! Let me know your thoughts.
Adobe Photoshop, about 40 minutes total.
Count Olaf is (c) Daniel Handler and/or Harpercollins publishers. Image is (c) me, Andrew Green.
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Comments: 129
DrewGreen In reply to ??? [2008-10-19 22:48:32 +0000 UTC]
*sigh* I guess we just have to move on with our lives now that it's over.
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kikando [2008-10-14 05:02:51 +0000 UTC]
too cool!!!
love the sketchy feel it has..
can u gimme the link to the tutorial u got on dA?? tht'd be grr8!!
ciao
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DrewGreen In reply to kikando [2008-10-14 22:46:48 +0000 UTC]
Thanks!
The tutorial is right here: [link]
It's absolutely wonderful and I recommend it!
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Artoveli In reply to ??? [2008-10-13 03:24:27 +0000 UTC]
Olaf! He's on my to-draw list for this month too.
Oddly enough, I was at a get-together this evening and the subject of Snicket came up! Several of the people present now wish to borrow the books from me.
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DrewGreen In reply to Artoveli [2008-10-13 03:33:02 +0000 UTC]
I can't wait to see your version of him!
It was really hard not to draw him. While I was bitter with the end of the books, he's such an interesting-looking character and really was quite evil in the beginning.
I intend to do at least one more Snicket villain. Someone mentioned the Person of Indeterminate Gender, so that sounded fun.
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Artoveli In reply to DrewGreen [2008-10-13 04:01:56 +0000 UTC]
We always called it Orlando, cause Sunny exclaimed it once and it was an obscure reference to a Virginia Wolfe (I think...) story about a person who lives for thousands of years and changes genders a few times.
Ooooohhhhh... the end of that series is a really sore spot with me. I don't think it was a good idea for Handler to slow it down to one book a year. He could handle it at first but then it got away from him. That's what the problem was I think, it just really got away from him. Spiraled out of control and became a huge confusing mess. Elements of the final books were intriguing, but those points got lost in amongst all the other stuff that was there. Suddenly there was no direction and none of the characters knew what they were doing anymore, not even the villains!
Drat I say! But I still love Handler's writing and probably always will.
Oh, and you've got to do the Hook-Handed man! he was even your avatar for a while, remember?
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DrewGreen In reply to Artoveli [2008-10-13 04:36:13 +0000 UTC]
Ha, I do remember that, yes! I'll definitely be doing Orlando, and if I'm having a slow day with no other villain in my mind, I'll draw Fernald, as well. I'll write him on my "list-o-villains" for reference!
If you ask me, Book the tenth was the last truly good Snicket book (and it happens to be one of my favorites). In Book the Eleventh, things became far too strange and convoluted, and characters were no longer themselves (most notably, Count Olaf, who was clearly being written to mimic the goofier portrayal that Jim Carrey had given in the film - a poor choice, in my opinion). The reintroduction of Carmelita Spats was a horrible idea because, while she worked within her element (at Prufrock, of course), that kind of character wasn't needed elsewhere. She was the nasty girl at school that all of the readers had to have experienced at one point, and was just one more unfortunate event for the orphans to deal with. And Esme had gone from being over-the-top to being utterly ridiculous to the point where she was hardly even readable anymore.
Also, thanks to the 11th book, I'm no longer able to read or hear the word "aye" without twitching.
To top it all off, the end of the final book left just about every mystery hanging with a sour underlying moral: you can never know all of the mysteries that are presented to you. And while the moral makes sense, that's just not how literature works, especially when you've bothered to read all 13 of his books, with a year between each (another poor decision, I agree).
Basically, what I'm saying is that Handler asked a lot of his readers but didn't throw us any bones for it. I know there was some kind of supplement released shortly after THE END, but I was too miffed to bother reading it and I don't really know if it did anyone any good, anyway. Knowing Handler, it probably didn't.
Clearly, I'm bitter.
Still, one really good thing came from the series: Bret Helquist's illustrations, which literally changed the way I drew forever. And books 1-10 (save for 4) were good and enjoyable, so it's not all bad.
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Artoveli In reply to DrewGreen [2008-10-13 13:46:33 +0000 UTC]
Not all bad at all, I still love the series. Four out of thirteen ain't bad if you ask me! And actually I think my absolute FAVORITE book to come out of this series was "The Unauthorized Autobiography," which still stands alone and can be relied upon to provide an actual laugh when you find yourself flipping through it. Besides, Snicket gave us the Sebald Code!
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DrewGreen In reply to Artoveli [2008-10-13 22:07:30 +0000 UTC]
The Unauthorized Autobiography was wonderful. It was very clever and different from most of the things done in so-called "children's literature." My only problem with that book is that, when it answered a question, it would provide three or four more questions, and then the book would pose entirely different questions beyond those branching questions, and all of those collective questions were never really answered or touched upon. Still, it was a great book.
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Artoveli In reply to DrewGreen [2008-10-14 02:23:43 +0000 UTC]
Aw dat's okay, it was way back when there was still lots of series to go and we could all just revel in the mysterious fun of VFD.
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DrewGreen In reply to Artoveli [2008-10-14 22:49:53 +0000 UTC]
Yes, trying to solve the mysteries sublimely occupied a lot of my time, actually. ;D Good memories!
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errantscarecrow In reply to ??? [2008-10-13 01:15:36 +0000 UTC]
I did make a Baudelaires fan art. Here's the [link]
You can put Olaf in the middle there.
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DrewGreen In reply to errantscarecrow [2008-10-13 02:06:41 +0000 UTC]
Haha, yeah, he's about as evil as they come. Or at least he was for a while.
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errantscarecrow In reply to DrewGreen [2008-10-18 00:51:25 +0000 UTC]
It's funny even my evil cat who get so hissy when he's healthy can be so docile when it's sick or about to die. But I'm glad my cat is healthy again. I almost lost him. So I don't mind him being hissy to me.
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DrewGreen In reply to errantscarecrow [2008-10-18 07:26:48 +0000 UTC]
Well, I'm glad to hear your cat is feeling better (even if he is temperamental). Nothing is worse than losing a pet.
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errantscarecrow In reply to DrewGreen [2008-10-18 14:08:06 +0000 UTC]
Yeah it's like losing a loved one. But more accurately, with cats it's like losing your boss.
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DrewGreen In reply to errantscarecrow [2008-10-18 18:37:07 +0000 UTC]
Hehe, that's a great quote. ;D
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errantscarecrow In reply to DrewGreen [2008-10-19 03:20:54 +0000 UTC]
Thanks! It's true anyway.
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errantscarecrow [2008-10-13 01:10:59 +0000 UTC]
I really like how the fire makes Olaf pop out more. Great job!
Among the other Villains from the Baudelaires' Chronicles I hope you drew Olaf's associate who you're not sure whether he or she's a girl or a boy or a girl? Remember him or her? That might be challenging to draw. But I believe you can pull it off.
Yup! Olaf is one wart of a villain.
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DrewGreen In reply to errantscarecrow [2008-10-13 02:08:05 +0000 UTC]
Thank you!
Ooh, yes, the person of indeterminate gender (I'm pretty sure they used to refer to it as POIG on the set of the film)! That'd be a challenge for sure, though there are pictures of the character. But yeah, thanks for jarring my memory! I always seem to forget him/her.
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errantscarecrow In reply to DrewGreen [2008-10-18 00:49:20 +0000 UTC]
I like that acronym POIG.
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DrewGreen In reply to errantscarecrow [2008-10-18 07:28:03 +0000 UTC]
Yeah, it's fun to say. Even better, though, is that if you just take out the "of," you get P.I.G., which is a pretty accurate description of how the character looks. ;D
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errantscarecrow In reply to DrewGreen [2008-10-18 14:06:47 +0000 UTC]
Yeah, that is quite true. I still think she's really female.
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DrewGreen In reply to errantscarecrow [2008-10-18 18:35:39 +0000 UTC]
I wish I could disagree, but POIG's appearance really makes it seem that way.
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errantscarecrow In reply to DrewGreen [2008-10-19 03:26:34 +0000 UTC]
Maybe he/she, POIG to be more accurate, is really the first human hermaphrodite.
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DrewGreen In reply to errantscarecrow [2008-10-19 22:49:23 +0000 UTC]
Nah, there are plenty of those and I'm sure many of them came before POIG.
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errantscarecrow In reply to DrewGreen [2008-10-20 03:43:21 +0000 UTC]
You might be right. But I haven't met one. Have you? That might be interesting but I think no one will come out broadcasting their uncanniness.
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DrewGreen In reply to errantscarecrow [2008-10-20 05:37:13 +0000 UTC]
I've never met one, no. But I know that actress Jamie Lee Curtis was a hermaphrodite at birth. Apparently, in most cases, one gender overtakes the other so it's not like a hermaphrodite is "half one gender, half the other," they're just sort of...born that way. I should read up on it, I guess.
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errantscarecrow In reply to DrewGreen [2008-10-21 05:10:19 +0000 UTC]
Really! Jamie is one? Well he turned out into a very beautiful woman.
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DrewGreen In reply to errantscarecrow [2008-10-21 07:29:37 +0000 UTC]
Yeah, shocking, I know. But watch one of her movies and you'll never look at her the same.
But seriously, jokes aside, she's a classy lady. ;D
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MintyFreshNoodleBox In reply to ??? [2008-10-12 20:48:32 +0000 UTC]
that's IMMENSE
the count is pure gold
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DrewGreen In reply to MintyFreshNoodleBox [2008-10-13 02:08:43 +0000 UTC]
Thanks!
Yeah, it's probably fool's gold. This is Olaf we're talking about. ;D
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BurningStarIV In reply to ??? [2008-10-12 17:04:54 +0000 UTC]
This is great! I love the darkness and detail altogether, you did a great job!
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Feather-Cat In reply to ??? [2008-10-12 15:50:35 +0000 UTC]
Oh my gosh I love those books lol Cool pic!
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turp In reply to ??? [2008-10-12 15:42:29 +0000 UTC]
it looks like...grainy, thats really cool
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DrewGreen In reply to turp [2008-10-12 16:36:28 +0000 UTC]
Thanks! I was really going for that textured, painterly look.
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Tsuchan In reply to ??? [2008-10-12 12:18:36 +0000 UTC]
Great job portraying him.
I'd like to see Esme, maybe in her lettuce bikini because that part was just so ridiculous..
I think Claus and Violet dressed as the two-headed freak would also be a great Halloween drawing to explore.
..actually, maybe I should try drawing them like that.
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DrewGreen In reply to Tsuchan [2008-10-12 16:37:40 +0000 UTC]
Thanks!
I always thought Esme was a little bit out there in terms of the Snicket books. But I also found her funny sometimes, so I might draw her for Villain Month when things start to get a little dry.
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Tsuchan In reply to DrewGreen [2008-10-13 02:11:22 +0000 UTC]
She was definitely strange. I thought she was funniest when they first introduced her because she was so into outrageous fashion.
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DrewGreen In reply to Tsuchan [2008-10-13 02:31:19 +0000 UTC]
I actually read book the 7th before book the 6th, so I had been introduced to her in the improper manner (late). But I think she was best in THE ERSATZ ELEVATOR. She had a lot of personality and it was very over-the-top, but never to the extent in later books.
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Smooth-Calamari In reply to ??? [2008-10-12 11:26:31 +0000 UTC]
love it.
loving that scenery in the back
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