Question!

[secondlina]

Good news, me and dqbunny  are currently planning our first convention as Namesake representatives... There's a lot to prepare...

I kinda want to have a couple of prints to sell. You know, because prints are cool. Do you guys have suggestions of what would be nice to have as a print? I don,t just want Namesake prints. I'd be ready to have a bit of fanart and some original stuff. Maybe some fairy-tale themed original stuff? Ideas? Suggestions? Images of mine you already love and think I should have finished like yesterday?

In other news, i'm totally working on some comic ideas. Still playing with the idea of the gender-reversed "Beauty and the Beast" idea. I'm trying to find ways to make the girl look more monstrous without killing all the cute. It's hard. This sketch is a bit too... flimsy. Link says that the "Beast" in all it's incarnations is badass. And so, even a girl version needs a certain amount of badassery. This sketch is not fierce enough. I need to work on her arms and legs more...




- Isa

Comments

[asatira.livejournal.com]

I would definitely suggest having some fanart prints to sell. Original pieces are great, but sometimes you need something people are already familiar with and want to buy. I'd probably go with classic anime titles and a few newer titles, but ones that you like too.

Girl Beast: maybe play with her posture and expressions. When she's in a more aggressive/angry mood, her pose should show it. Let her body lean forward more, get onto her toes. And do some expression practices. Can she show anger or sadness or extreme joy with that design?

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

I don't know many of the newer popular series (Except... My little pony and Avatar), so I think I might just go for classical stuff. Maybe some doctor who. :D

Oh, good tip! I,m gonna try those expressions, see what works.

[asatira.livejournal.com]

Yep, you want to be sure your character can emote. And I second ichiban's suggestion; get more animal into the design.

[ichiban-victory.livejournal.com]

I imagine you'd have a few upset fans if you didn't include fanart for series like the Slayers and Princess Tutu, heck, and Avatar as well.

As for the beast girl, I suggest looking at various animals, real or mythological. Also, does she have a tail? I might make the ears stand up higher on the head, too, as ears, a tail, etc. are very expressive, yet very inhuman. You can always take a page from Glen Keane's book and combine all sorts of real animals as he did to create his version of Beast. I think I'd change the feet as well, make them much more animalistic, not so much human that needs to trim her toenails. Maybe give her more of a muzzle as well...

Okay, I better stop. :D

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

Definitely Avatar. Slayers and Tutu... Maybe. In all honesty, I barely see any of these guys in cons anymore.... disappointing. I,ll probably still have a slayers one... just maybe less copies of it (5 instead of 10, or something)...

Anywho.

I think i'm having a bit of trouble drawing her because I don't usually draw animals, so your suggestions are really interesting (so please, feel free to make more!). I've actually looked a Keane's work a lot after I drew this one, mostly for Tarzan and the beast (since Tarzan's "gorilla walk" is something that could be pretty cool to reproduce...). I'm also debating if I want to go "fuzzy" or "lizard".... Mixing animals is a good idea too. The feet are way to frail and human... especially compared to the thicker arms.... Back to drawing board with this one! That's cool though, it's fun!

[ichiban-victory.livejournal.com]

Yeah, instead of shooting ideas at you forever, I'll just show you what I was thinking of. I left out all of the "mask" detail since...I'm terrible at drawing things like that. This is just to give an idea on what I was thinking:



I was trying to make the shape of her face more humanlike (the only thing that stayed was the human shape of the back of her head...which is covered in hair anyway), but I didn't want it to be too human. The tiny little sketch in the corner is just an idea for her posture. I really like the forearms you gave her, but I would make her shoulders and chest more animal-like as well. Cats, for instance, do not have collarbones, and their chests are deeper compared to ours (as are most animals, actually). No other animal can really stand exactly upright as a human, so it seems a good idea for her to slouch a bit.

I can throw more ideas at you later, but for now...work! But, I'll keep an eye on all of the animals that come in for possible inspiration.

(Oh, and her ears became deer/horse ears as I sketched them. For some reason, it just seemed right. It's very possible to make an inhuman but still cute/not super frightening beast. Plus, big ears = easy expression in drawings!) :)

[pharoah999.livejournal.com]

slayers and maybe fairies would be cool! the con would probably be on the east coast right??

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

In Toronto again. I keep going back there!

[psychosongtress.livejournal.com]

HUZZAH for the convention! I hope you have lots of fun! (I myself have never attended a convention . . :-(

The reverse beauty and the beast sounds ah-mazing! I look forward to seeing it! When I have a moment to spare, I really want to read all of Namesake! (It looks so intresting and I love every thing you draw/sketch)

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

I think both this idea and Namesake are pretty much up your alley, considering you love Clamp and Disney (I grew up on Both... there's some influence :P)

[engelen.livejournal.com]

good luck with everything!

I'm terrible at designing anything that is not cute boys tho D:

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

Really? I suck at cute boys. Go figure.

[engelen.livejournal.com]

I mostly draw only cute boys so...
:P

[amelia-seyroon.livejournal.com]

Lucky. >.>;

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

Lucky?

[amelia-seyroon.livejournal.com]

That you've met dqbunny and a bunch of others in real life. 8D

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

Hahhaah! I guess I am! But I work hard to make it happen.

[earthstar-moon.livejournal.com]

I think the Labyrinth drawing you did would make a good print. Why not try some Friendship is Magic prints, or just a couple of them because they would sell. (I know you don't like drawing animals, but maybe you can draw human versions or use that centaur idea you had.)

I would also suggest Madoka because that's really popular right now, but I know you haven't seen the series yet and it's trickier to draw fanart for a series you're not familiar with yet. If you're going to that FanExpo Canada, you might want to draw a Bone print since that's the one where Jeff Smith is attending so Bone fans are likely to be on the lookout.

Maybe you should make the beast girl's legs larger and add more muscles to it.

EDIT: (Heh, don't suppose you guys consider going to Anime Maritime ? XD I'm joking, I know you guys want to aim for bigger cons. ^_~)

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah, I friendship is magic print would be good. Maybe as humans hugging plushie versions of themselves as ponies?

....Wait.... Jeff Smith?

JEFF SMITH?

JEEEEEEEFFFFFF SMMMMMIIIITH?

FER REAL?

Okay, now I really gotta go, and make a Bone print, if only to give to him.

Bigger cons for now, due to the costs... but smaller ones eventually, i'm hoping.

[earthstar-moon.livejournal.com]

That would be a cute pony drawing. ^_^

*grins* Yes! He's apparently the guest of honour: Guest List I noticed it when Megs was telling me about you guys going to cons. I would be tempted to go to, except I need to save money for Disney world and wedding next year. ^_^;; Oh well, maybe next time you guys go I'll be able to go too.

Yeah I figured that would be the case, oh well maybe sometime in the future you guys will go to Anime Maritime. ^_~

[spankingfemme.livejournal.com]

I think she's looking very bad ass if I do say so myself! =D Very awesome concept, and I'm really looking forward to what you do with it!

As for concepts, what about your older stuff like Rose? Mythical creatures like hippogriffs, mermaids, Pegasus, hydras, etc are always super cool!

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

Mythical creatures are quite cool....

[snapdragon76.livejournal.com]

Whoo hoo to cons!!! Good luck you guys!!

Oh, and I do want to get a copy of your 'Jabberwocky' graphic novel. Is there any way I can do that?

I like your female!Beast design. You make her beastly but not horrific. We do need to sympathize with her as well.

And I made a Namesake group on dA so we can share fanart and some official art too. Maybe we can use it to promote it a little more.

But naturally I was a total spaz and misspelled the name... it says namsake instead of namesake. I am still trying to find a way to fix it.

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

I want to sell a couple of Jabberwockies on LJ here, I just gotta go thru my pile, see how many I have left...

The beast girl has so much potential and everyone is giving me some great advice! I love it!

Oh gosh, last I heard, you can't change DA group names... O_O

[snapdragon76.livejournal.com]

*squee* Cool!

I saw that! I think, no matter what other physical changes you make to her, just be sure her eyes are still human. Ears may be the most expressive in animals, but eyes are the most expressive in humans... usually.

Well, shit. I dunno what to do now. I don't know if I should contact the site admin and try to get it fixed, or if I should just delete it and start over?

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

Starting over might be the best approach?

[snapdragon76.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I have a feeling I might have to do that...

[angelchan-2004.livejournal.com]

A few people at the last convention I went to sold a lot of fairy and angel prints. They were... actually, lemme see if I can find it.

http://zeiva.deviantart.com/gallery/?offset=96#/dux3tq

She sold a lot! She was really popular the day I went to the artist alley~

I think the oldschool anime would sell well. A lot of people look for them, and only find the newer stuff at times. It's a little sad, 'cause I would love things like Slayers! D:

Still liking the design<3 I love the idea of the face-mask-thing. It looks a little too human, and a little too cute. At least to me. xD