Hello everyone, and I’m back with a new round of the Drawing Children’s Book Characters In My Style series. This time, I am tackling Percy Jackson’s supporting cast and the other characters from the Camp Half-Blood Chronicles in celebration of the announcement of a Percy Jackson television series for Disney+!
It sure has been a while since my last Percy Jackson post, in which I discussed how the Disney-Fox deal would likely save the property. Of course, the deal was approved in March 2019, and with that brought a lot of uncertainty. Jobs were lost, the existence of smaller studios hang in the balance, and Disney now has totalitarian control over our pastime as Netflix has officially met its match. But it has also brought a lot of excitement: Those jobs were lost to save other jobs, the world is realizing how the entertainment industry is adapting to a shift in streaming, and most importantly, the Mouse has broken the shackles of the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, Percy Jackson and more!
It has also been a while since Disney officially launched their streaming service, Disney+, in November 2019. This of course brings us to Rick Riordan’s glorious announcement in May 2020:
We can’t say much more at this stage but we are very excited about the idea of a live-action series of the highest quality, following the storyline of the original Percy Jackson five-book series, starting with The Lightning Thief in season one. Rest assured that Becky & I will be involved in person in every aspect of the show.
It’s a fascinating success story of the fans getting exactly what they want, and one that shows any content creator that even in the most impossible scenario, anything is possible. Since the books are big and there aren’t too many in the series, a film reboot could have worked. But dividing the books into seasons for a television series works just as well, and Disney backing rectifies the issue of a smaller budget. Not only that, but Riordan was able to successfully act on what is pretty much getting his rights back under Disney-Hyperion, not only securing his involvement on the series, but getting his wife to join him as well. There is literally no reason whatsoever for this to be a bad adaptation in the slightest, and a preliminary casting call for the role of Percy is currently underway. Meanwhile, Riordan is broadening his horizons with the announcement of a Kane Chronicles film trilogy for Netflix in September 2020. While that does diminish the chances of an adaptation of Demigods & Magicians: Percy and Annabeth Meet the Kanes, I can’t see Riordan dividing the rights to his works between streaming services without considering the possibility of crossovers. But for now, we eagerly await Disney to greenlight our return to the Long Island Sound and beyond on the screen, and far better than we remember it. 😉
Before I continue with this round, I have a couple announcements to make. It has come to my attention that I have been receiving negative criticism of one of the drawings in my Drawing Children’s Book Characters in My Art Style series. I will not disclose the identity of this drawing, but let’s just say that when I received this criticism, I made a relentless effort to improve not only that drawing, but all the drawings in the series so far. A while back, I have come to the realization that I suffered from Same Face Syndrome, which I have since more or less cured. I should have reflected these improvements in my art style in this series a long time ago, which I finally set out to do. These drawings were also being manipulated against my wishes, which were easy to do due to the plain white backgrounds. So, I also added backgrounds to the drawings as well. The characters I have done for this round are the first drawings to originally have my new art style. Also, you can now access my DeviantArt from my new website, Naimoli Universe, due to my recent uploads of my work for The Bermuda Adventures on my account. I hope these changes are welcome as we proceed with Camp Half-Blood Edition.
Anyway, here are the usual rules before I begin:
- I’m only doing children’s book characters – meaning characters featured in books intended for audiences up to 12 years of age. Even if a character first appeared in another medium such as a comic strip or a game, I will still consider the character to be a children’s book character.
- I’ll usually do ten characters per round, though I might do more or less depending on what I’m feeling up to doing or how much time I have on my hands. If multiple characters are often associated together (i.e., Jack and Annie from Magic Tree House), I will consider them as one character for the round (featured in the same image).
- Since there are characters I will probably end up ignoring/not acknowledging, I’m open to requests to do these characters, as long as they are children’s book characters. I might also consider some young adult characters depending on the property.
- Some characters have styles that are specifically distinct from mine, so some characters will look more differently in my versions than others. Depending on how distinct the style of a certain character is from mine, I may ignore that character on purpose, unless requests entice me to challenge myself.
- Although I am creating a new interpretation of these characters, I will try to maintain the essence of their original designs, if there are certain features about them that in my style wouldn’t look the same. For example, I generally don’t give my characters dots for eyes, but if I am drawing a character with this trait, I will simply make the irises bigger.
- As usual, if you wish to share my work, you may do so for as long as you credit me. If you wish to use my work in any way, feel free to either comment or send a contact form on the Contact page.
And so let Camp Half-Blood Edition begin!
Annabeth Chase, Percy Jackson and the Olympians
As if you didn’t know who was going to start this round! I’m not going to lie, I’m pretty pleased with how Percy’s girlfriend turned out. For this daughter of Athena, I placed Annabeth in a very dynamic pose, as if she is just about to slash at an enemy with her celestial bronze knife. I took care in depicting her silver owl earrings and camp beaded necklace, and added her Yankees baseball cap for additional detail. Now let’s just hope there aren’t any spiders crawling on your screen for this member of the Prophecy of Seven to see!
Grover Underwood, Percy Jackson and the Olympians
For Percy’s best friend, I wanted to place Glover in a pose that evoked his upbeat, cheerful personality. As the first character I’ve drawn for this series who is not entirely human, it was an interesting challenge to draw his goat legs, given their distinctive structure. Given that they are more frequently depicted, I chose to draw the smaller horns he has in the earlier books. For more detail, I also gave him his reed pipes.
Thalia Grace, Percy Jackson and the Olympians
I quite enjoyed putting this daughter of Zeus in a militant pose evoking Thalia’s readiness for battle. Her design was unsurprisingly detailed yet still fun to draw, especially her aegis and at that upside-down angle. But this also rang true for her collapsible spear, ripped jeans, leather jacket and chain jewelry. Her silver circlet and skull earrings were also fun to do.
Clarisse La Rue, Percy Jackson and the Olympians
For this daughter of Ares, I was eager to evoke Clarisse’s height and muscular body shape. Her facial expression was also fun to do, demonstrating her hot-tempered and arrogant demeanor through her Ares-like sneer. I gave her a similarly militant pose to Thalia’s to portray her status as a fierce warrior, incorporating her electric spear. Finally, I gave her the long hair she had prior to The Titan’s Curse.
Nico di Angelo, Percy Jackson and the Olympians
For this son of Hades, I decided to draw Nico as he appeared in The Battle of the Labyrinth, when he first uses his Stygian iron sword that I just had to draw. I conveyed the grim personality and uncomfortable feeling he starts to take on in the book with a facial expression that makes it look as though he’s looking down on you, and his sword slung over his shoulder, as though he could rear it at any moment. And of course, this includes his pale skin, his black clothing with a skeletal motif, and his silver skull ring.
Jason Grace, The Heroes of Olympus
For this son of Jupiter, I decided to draw Jason after Ivlivus was destroyed in The Lost Hero and before he started wearing glasses in The Blood of Olympus. I debated between turning this member of the Prophecy of Seven to the left to show his tattoo more or turning him to the right to show the scar on his lip more, but I decided to go with the latter. I also took note of Jason’s muscular body type and put him in a battle-ready pose like I did with his sister Thalia.
Piper McLean, The Heroes of Olympus
The first thing I thought of when it came time to draw this daughter of Aphrodite was the fact that Piper represents the first Native American I’ve drawn for this series, which was an exciting prospect, even if her character isn’t perfect. Her hair was by far the most difficult part to draw, given its choppy appearance. I debated whether to stick to book accuracy and incorporate the feathers or stick to cultural accuracy and not incorporate the feathers, but there was so much going on with the hair I ultimately chose the latter. Everything else about this member of the Prophecy of Seven was pretty easy and fun to do, especially her dagger Katoptris.
Leo Valdez, The Heroes of Olympus
For this son of Hephaestus, I chose to place Leo in a somewhat playful pose to evoke the easygoing, upbeat personality of this member of the Prophecy of Seven. I wanted to incorporate as many features in his design as I could in his drawing, such as a wrench in one hand, his hammer in the other, and of course, his magical toolbelt. I also took note of his scrawny body type and his pointed ears.
Hazel Levesque, The Heroes of Olympus
For this daughter of Pluto, I placed Hazel in a battle pose not too different from the one I gave Percy. This was partly due to the length of her Spatha, which I wanted to really show but figured that a similar pose was the best way to do it while not making it block her body. It also helps to emphasize her being the shortest member of the Prophecy of Seven. I was also eager to do her hair, which is described as shoulder length, though I like the sometimes longer depictions of her hair, so I went a little in between.
Frank Zhang, The Heroes of Olympus
For this son of Mars, I decided to depict Frank before he received the Blessing of Mars in The House of Hades. He was one of the hardest characters to draw for this round, mainly because of the difficulty in drawing a bow and arrow, of which I got some serious Katniss Everdeen/Susan Pevensie flashbacks. But I really like how this member of the Prophecy of Seven turned out, placing him in a pose that looks as though he’s preparing to fire an arrow, and giving him a facial expression that reflects both his kindness and his anger. I thought about depicting him in the middle of a transformation into an animal, but was liking where the drawing was headed too much to go ahead with it.
Carter and Sadie Kane, The Kane Chronicles
For these magical siblings, I wanted to create a sense of symmetry with Carter and Sadie’s poses, with them holding their weapons on their outward side, and making their spells on their inward side. For Carter, I wanted to do justice to his skin tone for a character who has often been whitewashed on book covers. I depicted him in the more formal clothes he wears up until the end of The Red Pyramid, and gave him a facial expression that evokes his disciplined and mature personality. For Sadie, the character’s highlights are variously depicted on her bangs or at the ends of her hair, so I went with both. I also made sure to depict her lopsided smile, which helped evoke her more rebellious and fierce personality.
Magnus Chase, Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard
Okay, so it’s technically two characters, Magnus and Sumarbrander (Oops, I mean Jack), but it’s an interesting way to end this round for sure. For this undead son of Frey, I wanted to depict his shield but in a way that didn’t block much of his body, so I put it on a similar angle as Thalia’s aegis. I also gave him a facial expression to reflect his witty and humorous demeanor. To evoke Jack’s sentience, I decided to not depict Magnus holding him, but rather Jack flying on his own and alongside Magnus, which was a refreshing break from the rest of this round.
Well, that’s enough godliness for one post, if you ask me. As is the usual for these supporting character rounds, if there are any other characters from the Camp Half-Blood Chronicles that I didn’t draw that you want me to draw, I won’t mind requests to draw them. Given that this was my longest round yet, and how big this series is getting, I will recategorize all of the drawings on my Fanart page in alphabetical order soon, rather than by the type of drawing it is. As for the next round? Well, we’ll have to see what comes of the next major event in the world of children’s literature. Depending on the property that event is focusing on, the supporting characters of that property will be the next to get my art style treatment.
Now, we continue our wait for the upcoming TV series, folks. In Gods We Trust in the Mouse House. 🔱
Naimoli Children's Books Blog 