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Witches of the West and South

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Whew! Been a while, hasn't it? Nice to see you guys and gals and miscellaneous creatures of the void again . . . you know, before you started planning a funeral or something. Lord Death - Shake Skull 

This here is a commission made by the always wonderful :iconshadow-dj:, whom had kindly asked me to redesign two characters based on the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda Goodwitch from The Wizard of Oz for their web series "Grimmwoods".

While doing this piece - which, lemme tell you, was a long time in the making - I did some research on the characters and found out some interesting facts, mostly the staggering amount of differences between the books and the original movie that was based on said books.

For example, the Wicked Witch of the West (I'll just call her W.W.W. from now on; saves characters) didn't originally command her iconic horde of flying monkeys by her own power or some kind of evil employment deal and instead used a golden cap to control them. According to the original book, the monkeys came under the caps command when they played one too many tricks and were cursed by the princess Gayelette to obey whomever wore the cap, no matter how good or bad the task was; as you can guess, W.W.W. eventually came into possession of the cap before the events of the original movie.

I'm not sure if this was :icontohokari-steel:'s intention or not with the concept art I had to reference, but I decided this was a cool enough Easter egg to warrant making the band of Wicked Witch of the West's wicked witch hat (try saying that three times fast) a faded yellow, to both represent her sinister nature and the cap that she original possessed.

Speaking of the flying monkeys, since it was mentioned in :icontohokari-steel:'s bio for her that she had the power to control animals, I decided that her "prettys" not only needed to make an appearance, but an upgrade to befit the rather darker and sinister nature of their "Grimmwoods" series. Thus, I decide to take a flying monkey and make it a flying gorilla. Don't ask me how it flies, just hope that it doesn't come flying after you or decides to poop on your car. Something tells me that's going to take more than a trip through the car wash to get off.

And now, last but not least, onto Glinda. Honestly, she was perhaps the most surprising to me and hardest to work with. Her original artwork featured her with her hair tied into a bun, but the vast majority of her other appearances in other media featured her with incredibly long, wild hair - so I decided to compromise. I also gave her wand a slight redesign/interpretation, since the original design rather strange to me. There was also (likely) a minor misunderstanding on my part as I added what I believed to be a shoulder plate of some kind on her right shoulder that her cape was attached to, but now I'm not so sure about it; personally though, I think it gives her a more authoritative look, showing that she's capable of battle and getting her hands dirty.

As with her sister (at least, I think that's what the musical was trying to tell me; I haven't had the pleasure of seeing it yet), I did research on Glinda as well and found out some rather startling facts. For instance, did you know that in the original book, she never traveled around using her signature, pink bubbles? Instead, she rode a golden chariot that was pulled by the Cowardly Lion and the Hungry Tiger (a friend of the Lion's) - and she was a hell of a lot more powerful than depicted in the movies. Imagine just about any magical power you can, and she likely would've had it in some capacity - hydrokinesis, weather manipulation, chlorokinesis, immortality, animation, control over animals, the power to negate spells, you name it.

For those that are curious or interested, you can read more about Elfeba, Glinda, and Grimwoods here and here.

Disclaimer: I do not own the Wicked Witch of the West (Elfeba), Glinda, or the flying monkeys.
The Wicked Witch of the West (Elfeba), Glinda, and the flying monkeys are part of the public domain and are thus of fair use.
I do not own these interpretation of the Wicked Witch of the West (Elfeba), Glinda, or the flying monkeys.
Do not use without :iconshadow-dj:, :icontohokari-steel:, :iconbrave-king-shishio:or :iconphantos18: permission. Expect flying monkeys to come after you if you do.
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Shadow-DJ's avatar
This loks AWESOME my dude :D Really like how you made the two look :) And really liking the flying gorilla. As my friend :iconbrave-king-shishio: said, a big idea I had with the Flying Monkeys were that they were actually a LOT bigger and scarier than we got in the books and closer to scary like in the movie. Basically making them a major threat when they come in.

And yeah, Glinda is pretty powerful in the Grimmwoods end of things. Unlike in the classic film where at most she can steal magic shows and make bubbles, this one is equal in power to Elfeba and a fairy born from a star who can animate the inanimate (Giselle the Blue Fairy) and a ascended woman who can manipulate mass and creatures (Victoria Ella the Fairy Godmother)