crayons and bolts

♡ · • ——– ٠ ꕥ ٠ —–— • · ♡

☾✧ Carrd | DeviantArt | Tumblr | Toyhou.se | Instagram | VK | Commissions ✧☽

♡ · • ——– ٠ ꕥ ٠ —–— • · ♡

Oh these two... where do I even begin.

If any of ya'll older watchers remembers my obsession with these obscure guys, then congrats, feel old yet xx D it's really been a while since I've shared anything involving these characters (last time it was in 2020 i think??), but my love for them has never really wavered and recently I've got the urge to draw them again after literal years : ) it must be a sign of... something idk

Pencil and Screwbolt are characters created and written by a pleiades of different artists and writers: namely Yuri Druzhkov (who wrote first two novels about their adventures, the first one was translated to English), Ivan Semenov (who first designed Pencil), and Nina Benashvili (who first created Screwbolt) back in 1960s. They quickly became a staple of a children's magazine "Veselye Kartinki" ("Funny Pictures")'s monthly content and have had appearances in several animated shorts as well, gaining something of a cult status in children's media of the 20th century. The interesting thing is that their ooc history can get pretty convoluted and bc copyright in ussr was a WHACK, it is hard to pinpoint their exact origins/original creators (they are kind of like public domain?? but at the same time not really?? they ARE a collaborative effort nonetheless), but I usually base my "take" off the characterization in Druzhkov's novels bc that's what I grew up with. I'm kinda proud of preserving the copies of first two books since childhood lol, they are absolute dears and have grown on me over the years so much so that I find myself drawing the characters time to time.

Pencil is a bubbly, cheerful magical artist with a special ability to bring anything he draws to life - all the subsequental shenanigans included; Screwbolt is a hardworking, responsible mechanic and his talent, on the other hand, revolves around building, fixing, patching and crafting things. Although their personalities occasionally clash, their fondness and loyalty to each other keeps their friendship up and running.

This is my "redesign"/my take on the characters mostly for funsies (fun fact i have had so many of these redesigns since like 2017??). I tried to accentuate the differences in their abilities and personalities while emphasizing small similar details like shared colours, and I'm rlly happy with how they came out : )

♡ · • ——– ٠ ꕥ ٠ —–— • · ♡

art © me

characters © "The Adventures Of Pencil And Screwbolt"