Sketch 11: The Straw Hat Pirates

Okay. This is the second time of me drawing something I am not familiar with. (First was Natsu.)

Being a moderate manga reader (okay, perhaps less than moderate), the only manga I fervently read is Naruto. However, growing up in an environment where most people around me talk about One Piece really fuelled my curiosity. Why on earth is this manga/anime so popular?

I remember reading a One Piece manga back when I was staying in Shah Alam where the main language of communication was in Bahasa Malaysia. The title of the comic book was Budak Getah (i.e. Rubber Boy). I wasn't really used to the artwork as I was used to Kishimoto's more...lifelike drawings. And so I stopped after that one book.

And here I am, trying out a sketch on the Straw Hat Pirates.

So, here goes:

EQUIPMENT: Mechanical pencil 0.5mm, Eraser, Pilot G-3 pen 1.0mm, Pilot G-2 pen 0.38mm, Artline 0.05, Artline 200 Fine 0.4:

I noticed one thing since I bought the Artline 0.05: It works really well when drawing manga-like sketches. 

This was the initial sketch which took me about half an hour:

I am so clueless about this series that I started to question my rationality while I was drawing Sanji's ridiculously extravagant eyebrow. Though I have to admit that Zoro looks quite cool XD

Here is a sneak peak to the finished piece:

Say hi to Luffy :D 

Oh, and one more thing I found quite interesting was their flag. Talk about simplicity being the most sophisticated. 

Oh, and if you're wondering what does the Japanese words below the skull, it says (according to OnePieceWikia) mugiwara no ichimi which means Straw Hat Pirates. 

So...the moment of truth. To be honest I was quite disappointed with the piece because I had to exclude Franky and Robin due to poor space management. I promise I will improve on that aspect (I'll try). So, here it is:

Oh, and here's the picture I used as a reference (ignore the keyword I used to find this picture) :

Ta daaaa :D Hope you liked it. See you in the next one I make!