Howdy, Poptropicans! It’s Lucky Joker here with another sporadic installment of our Pop Fan Artist Spotlights series. The artist featured this time is… well, me! I promise I’m not self-centered. 😅
A few months ago, you may have seen a drawing challenge called Poptober — a list of 31 prompts (one for each day of October) created by MaryannTheConqueror to inspire a month of Poptropica fan art. Well, I decided to take the challenge head-on. Let’s take a look and see how I did. (Click the images to enlarge them!)
For day 1 of Poptober, I wanted to kick off the spooky month by depicting a spooky island. After some thought, I ended up going with the amazing Ghost Story Island by drawing the story’s most prime trio.
For day 2’s carnival theme, I knew I wanted to draw something from Monster Carnival (because duh! lol). I could’ve drawn the fabulous Ringmaster Raven, but instead, I shared the love and picked a couple of more underrepresented characters for my piece.
Due to the ambiguity of the prompt “Game,” I spent a lot of time thinking of what I was going to draw on day 3. Ultimately, I went with drawing Poptropica’s most popular common room game, Sky Dive. Once again, I portrayed two often glossed-over characters: Amelia and Crusoe.
When I read “water” for day 4, somehow the beach from my favorite island, Mythology (Flash edition), immediately came to mind. I think I captured the theme well in this one, and I don’t compliment myself often! Poseidon (the god of the sea) and mermaids at the beach — how much more water can it get? I suppose if they were underwater, hehe.
On day 5, I couldn’t help being inspired from my favorite island a second time. I drew Medusa in a lair full of her collection of stone victims, including Hercules, to bring more of that special scariness that October entails.
To my surprise, there were plenty of considerations for day 6’s “doctor” prompt. Dr. Hare, Dr. Salerno, Dr. Jupiter, and the ever-so-newly-popular Dr. Beev were all pondered upon. However, I ended up drawing Dr. Lange and a colleague in a lab trialing vaccines (kind of appropriate in these times…).
“Blimp” — I feel like there are an infinite amount of options for this one. Here, you can see Mystery of the Map’s Mya, Oliver, and Jorge discovering the lands of Poptropica in the iconic aircraft (along with a cameo from a certain someone with his own balloon!).
For day 8, I drew some of the crew from one of our largest adventures, Skullduggery Island, standing proudly on deck. Pretty adventure-y if you ask me!
On day 9, there was nothing else I could bring myself to draw for “forest” other than the Elf Queen and the woodland creatures surrounding the magic orb inside their shady habitation. This one was very fun to draw, as was the next one.
Day 10’s prompt was “berry.” I think everyone who participated in this challenge drew something Zomberry-related and I’m no exception. I wanted to depict a feeling that was both equally spooky and amusing, so I drew DJ Saturday Nite partying it up with a number of blueberry zombies in the karaoke bar.
It took me a little while to come to a decision for what I was going to do for day 11. The theme was “bubble” and I eventually came up with Violet Beauregarde blowing a bubble with the chewing gum Mr. Wonka warned her not to taste. Tsk tsk…
When I saw that day 12 was “sneak,” I immediately thought a scene from the classic Spy Island would be perfect. Here you see a secret agent escaping the B.A.D. guys’ captivity at the docks.
For day 13’s “night” prompt, I had originally wanted to do a piece featuring a scene from Night Watch, but instead went with two of the forty thieves burglarizing the bazaar from Arabian Nights, and I’m not mad about it.
Day 14 was a lot of fun! What I did was combine the two Poptropica space-related islands, Lunar Colony and Astro Knights (which is one of my favorites). I drew Dr. Salerno accomplishing her long devoted mission of discovering alien life on the moon by depicting her greeting a couple of the Pewter Moon aliens.
On day 15, I couldn’t not draw this trio of some of Poptropica’s most popular villains. I mean, come on. The only villain possibly more iconic than these three is Dr. Hare.
At first, I couldn’t think of anything I really wanted to draw for “beach” on day 16, but I decided to show poor unfortunate Greg Heffley standing with his empty ice cream cone at the (wimpy) boardwalk. Just his luck!
My immediate thought for day 17‘s theme “machine” was to depict something from Steamworks Island. I wanted to be a little more outside the box and stretch the theme just a little bit, though. What I came up with was Shrink Ray’s CJ meeting her future self and being rewarded the medallion for Time Tangled Island. I mean, hey, she had to use a time machine to get there, right? And check out her little robot concierge in the background!
There were so many possibilities for “pet” that I was unsure what to choose. After brainstorming through many ideas, I wound up choosing quite possibly Poptropica’s most adorable little derpy companion… the Narf! And a whole bunch of them too! RIP medallion kid.
“Ship” was the prompt for day 19 and there were so many considerations! (This happens a lot, huh? Lol) Yet again, I went with a pair of characters you don’t see get very much attention in the community, and that was Beatrice and Hazel from Crisis Caverns. I can see these two ladies being a cute couple.
For day 20, I rendered up a piece of the Chthonian scaring away the mole people. I was actually quite puzzled on what I wanted to draw for this one, but I’m proud of what I chose.
I definitely knew that I wanted to take inspiration from the amazing Escape From Pelican Rock when I saw that the prompt for day 21 was “prison.” Here you see Big Tuna being provoked by Flashy Fosbury as he’s being dragged away by one of Pelican Rock’s security guards.
What better island represents the theme “wild” than Wild West? Little Miss Annie Oakley is definitely unleashing her wild side as she shows off her skills in a shooting contest. The others are quite impressed.
Day 23 was one of my favorite days of the Poptober challenge. I drew Annie and Jack in their clubhouse reading a book about old Japan for the theme “story.”
I had a lot of fun with day 24 as well! I wanted to create something super fun and exciting for the theme “music,” so I decided to draw up a couple characters from Reality TV Island rocking out on stage.
The prompt for day 25 was “past,” and I’m sure you could imagine how many different scenarios from Poptropica would work perfectly for this theme. I wanted to focus on an island (or a mini game, rather) I hadn’t highlighted before. Here you have a greeting scene from D.C. Diner, ca. 1893!
Day 26 was the total opposite of past. The theme was “future,” and below, in a dystopian time coming, Poptropicans are servants to the superior reigning robots.
“Storm” was the theme given for day 27 and my mind went straight to Super Villain Island. I drew Crusher — one of the inmates being held at Erewhon Prison — looking disturbed by the thunder and lightning outside his cell window.
Day 28‘s theme was “costume,” which was perfect considering it was so close to Halloween. Take a look at this spooktacular costume party scene taken from the classic Haunted House special! I really like how this one turned out.
For the “hero” prompt on day 29, I drew a cutscene that used to annoy me so much when I was a kid — Ned Noodlehead taking credit for “saving the day” after our Poptropicans did all the work. That darn Ned!
As Poptober began wrapping up on day 30, I was pretty worn out but determined to finish! The theme was computer, so I illustrated a tired employee, in front of his screen, working for Poptropica Worldwide Headquarters who looks pretty much like I felt at this point. Haha!
And finally, day 31 — ghost. Another perfect theme for Poptober and I’m actually very fond of how this one turned out. I finished off the month with a gloomy picture of Count Bram mourning the loss of his dearly beloved Annabelle as her ghost sits beside him.
Wowie, that was a lot! Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed doing this challenge. There were times I would lose motivation and fall behind, and I would get pretty bummed about it. In hindsight, I probably wouldn’t be so hard on myself, though, since it’s all in good fun. I’m just glad I have a ton of Poptropica art in my portfolio now. You can view more of my Poptropica-related work (and more) on my DeviantArt page.
Thank you all for reading. I’ll talk to you guys in the next one. Take care, stay safe, and pop on!
– Lucky Joker 🍀
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Great artwork, LJ! Each one is so creative in its portrayal of Poptropica events, and I especially appreciate how many are inspired by classic islands. Even though they aren’t playable at this point due to the end of Flash, these images serve as memories to those legends, and hopefully can encourage their return someday. Plus, I love how even side characters are included here—and illustrated so well! 😄
Thank you so much! I’m definitely missing the classics already.
very nice
your art is exquisite
Thank you very much 🙂
These are great!
Thank you!
Wow- these make me wish I could draw. Oh well…maybe someday….But for now….Nice job!
Practice makes better! And thanks. 😉