When the Tin Woodsman saved a little mouse from being eaten by the Wildcat, he didn't realize he was saving actual royalty. The Queen of the Field Mice repays the Woodsman's favour by rounding up all her little meesy subjects and helping them rescue Cowardly Lion, who has been trapped by the sleep-inducing poison of the magical poppy fields in Oz. Her kingdom is subterranean, and seems to actually cross a large territory, as despite being first encountered in the environs of the Emerald City, it takes her no time at all to present herself to Dorothy in Winkie Country when called. I wonder if she ever has been with the Nome King.

The Wildcat of Oz, an animal decapitated by the Tin Woodsman's axe when he sees it chasing after a mouse. Many more heads roll shortly thereafter.

Not that ol Nick Chopper has that much grievance with the Cowardly Lion following his natural instincts and hunting deer, but maybe the Lion got its meal from the dead deer tree I don't know.

it's nice to thumbnail, sketch, clean and colour something in two hours instead of agonizing and fussing over it for days

Cheesecake inspired by this photo of San San, a 1950s burlesque performer.

If anybody is at all curious about my sketches. Over the last couple of years I've taken to thumbnailing quite a bit on the computer. I just have these really big canvases where zoomed in I just doodledy-doodle, doing lots of different iterations of what I'm after. Once I have something I like I just copy paste it into a new canvas, scale up and re-sketch.

To create space I eventually start clustering stuff together, organizing them by general subject. Moving and moving again to create the most amount of empty space, until I end up with a canvas that's chock-full of all these tiny sketches. Once I can't create any more empty space, I move onto a new canvas.

I'm just showing Oz stuff here, but you can see how with some designs I really did a lot of different versions before I hit on something I liked. With Ozma you can see how many many many different outfits I gave her -- some of which I think I like more than what I ended up giving hero. You might even see some characters I've done some designs for but haven't worked up into final illustrations because I just don't jive with the way they feel yet.

Another Glinda design?

After Ozma rose to the throne, pretty much everyone except her closest allies were banned from using magic, but that doesn't mean there weren't still some rogue wizards out there. Dr Pipt, a.k.a. The Crooked Magician lives with his wife Margolotte on the mountains at the Munchkin-Gillikin border. His philosophy regarding magic is that sure it's outlawed, but only if you're using it for other people, it's not a big deal if you're just doing little things for yourself.

Dr Pipt's specialty seems to be alchemy, and his house is replete with distillations, powders and residues. His most precious creation is the Powder of Life, which takes him six years of continuous stirring in four pots (he straps tools to his feet to help) to make a small handful of powder. Among the beings animated by the Powder were Jack Pumpkinhead, Bungle the Glass Cat, Scraps the Patchwork Girl, the Sawhorse, a blue bear-skin rug, Vic the unappreciated phonograph, and the mournful Gump.

Despite looking a little weird and his liberal interpretation of anti-magic laws, Dr Pipt is generally a good guy. More of an absent-minded professor type than an evil wizard. Ozma eventually takes away his ability to do magic and straightens out his limbs --which I consider one of her greatest crimes, next to the lobotomization of the Glass Cat. But continuity in Oz is lax (somehow the cat gets her brains back), so maybe Dr Pipt got re-crooked and re-magicked.

(Side note: my partner and I watched Inu-Oh last night, and I must say my Crooked Magician isn't nearly Crooked enough).

Lurking in the dark forests of Oz are the Kalidahs, wild beasts with the heads of tigers and the bodies of bears. Like many creatures in Oz, they're both sentient and capable of speech, but their large size and general malevolence means they won't pay any heed to the begging of their prey. Their size, ferocity and lack of pity makes them among the most terrible creatures in Oz.

The Kalidahs the first real threat that Dorothy encounters in Oz. The Cowardly Lion was ready to fight to the death to protect her, though he knew that he was no match for them. Thankfully the Scarecrow and Tin Woodsman came up with a plan that prevented this hopeless sacrifice.

After the return of Ozma to the throne, a good amount of the Kalidahs were tamed, though there still remain some rebellious packs that stalk the more remote parts of Oz and surrounding fairylands.

Scraps the Patchwork Girl is one of Dr Pipt's "failed" creations with the Powder of Life, much like Bungle the Glass Cat. She would have been a servant/slave for his wife Margolotte but for Ojo's intervention.

Before being animated, Ojo noticed some unattended mental faculties on a shelf, and he just threw a bit of everything into the mix that was going to be her brain. So instead of just having Obedience, Truth, Amiability and just a pinch of Cleverness, she ended up also having scads of Poesy, Ingenuity, Judgement, and Self Reliance (and an extra helping of Cleverness). And girl like that ain't gonna stick around to be anyone's dogsbody.

She has a near constant back-and-forth with Bungle, the cat considering Scraps a gaudy freak. Scraps agrees that she's not only a gaudy freak, but she's also a comical, absurd and amusing supreme freak.

The Wicked Witch of the West, ruler of the Winkies after wresting control from the Wizard by conjuring an army of flying monkeys from her Golden Cap. Most of her powers seem to come from objects she owns, and she desperately wanted to add Dorothy's teleporting Silver Shoes to her collection. She watched over her territory with her single magical eye, which allowed her to see great distances. Any intruders were met with swarms of vicious wolves, ravens and bees.

Though Dorothy ended up defeating the Witch, this was a complete accident, as she didn't realize that throwing a bucket of water at her would melt her. Sure, the Wizard Oz sent her to the Witch with the mission to destroy her, but that was just a bluff. He knew the kid would certainly be killed or enslaved, and he'd be able to keep masquerading as a powerful magician. (Oz was not a cool dude).

Eureka the Pink (sometimes purple) Kitten. Dorothy and her cousin Zeb fell through a crack in the Earth into the land of the Mangaboos, and the multiple coloured suns of that country permanently changed the kitten's white fur to its current colour. Like all animals entering fairylands, she gained the ability to talk, allowing Eureka to express her constant amused disdain of people, non-people and the concept of orderly law and justice. More than anything she wants to eat one of the Wizard of Oz's nine tiny piglets. There's nine of them, surely he can spare just one for a wittle hungwy baby.

Comparing her to the Bungle the Glass Cat, I think Baum held a very particular view of domestic felines. But where Bungle feels like this, Eureka very much has this energy.

Here is Oscar Zoroaster Phadrig Isaac Norman Henkle Emmannuel Ambroise Diggs, also known as the Wizard of Oz. A stage magician of the mortal world, who got to the magical country of Oz via a ballooning accident. He became the ruler of the place by kidnapping the infant Ozma and giving her to a witch filling in the power vacuum left in Oz when the wicked witches did away with the rightful royal family.

He is outed as a humbug by Dorothy and her crew, revealing that he has no magical powers, only sleight-of-hand and really really good prop-work. Later on, the Princess Ozma later grants him leave to stay in her country and become an apprentice to Glinda, the good Witch of the South.

A likeable and jolly enough person despite the whole false rule thing. He's especially fond of the magic trick with the seven tiny pigs. Will straight up bisect a person with a sword if threatened (that was a plant-person, do they count).

Ojo the Unlucky, a Munchkin boy off on a quest to gather up the ingredients to un-petrify his uncle. He’s a pessimistic child, bearing several un-auspicious signs. Sometimes he gives in to the cruel twists of life --what else could be expected to happen to someone who’s Unlucky--, other times he expresses frustration at people forcing their wills upon others.

He’s the main cause behind the Patchwork Girl’s extroverted personality. Originally intended to be a domestic servant by Dame Margolotte, Ojo interfered in her construction, filling her brains with extra Cleverness, Poesy, Self-Reliance... basically all the mental attributes that make for an extroverted, non-servile personality. Good for her.

The King of Bunnybury (not to be confused with Bunbury), a town created by Glinda to protect the albino rabbits in her lands. He was elected to kingship by the other rabbits, but spends most of his time crying about how difficult it is to rule. He’d really like to return to the wild, but only if he can keep his nicest clothes, his favourite chair, his acrobats...

Bungle the Glass Cat, built and animated by Dr Pipt. He was made to catch mice, but the the Glass Cat’s marvelous pink brains (you can see ‘em work) mean that it’s too proud to debase itself that way.

Princess Ozma, ruler of Oz, previously known as Tip, restored to her original form by Glinda the Good. Was kidnapped and given to the witch Mombi by the Wizard of Oz when he stole the kingdom from King Pastoria. Or maybe when the Wicked Witches took over Oz, before the Wizard showed up? Baum didn’t much care for continuity.

Jack Pumpkinhead, built by Tip and given life by the witch Mombi, who periodically has to carve himself a new head. Later lives on a farm in Winkie country, where he grows new heads and buries his old rotten ones in little graves.