AU Big Bang special feature: not-quite-audio commentary
Picture post proper is here
So... it's the big day (and, of course, photobucket is on strike, but that's what you have scrapbook for, right? photobucket is back and scrapbook claims my images don't exist) and I've got so much to say about these pictures I think I'll do the commentary in a separate entry from the main one.
First off, I have to thank elizabeth_hoot for letting me play with her character and supplying me with suggestions, reference photos and in general being very awesome to work with (not to mention creating this wonderful character that was a joy to draw).
The portrait: Ah, yes, the one that started it all.
Lucy's face is basically a portrait of Mark Hamill, hit with an image manipulation algorithm to feminize it; nose and forehead (because thanks to all these 70s haircuts you never actually see Luke's hairline) are inspired by Natalie Portman, and the eyebrows, while not exactly copied, borrow from Carrie Fisher ca. A New Hope and the hair is Leia as well, of course. Eyes, lips and jawline were pretty much taken from Luke, though especially the lips were somewhat tricky and seem to look different in each picture.
I started this one as a pencil drawing and coloured it in much later to see if I could actually work with watercolour well enough for the challenge. The colours were a pretty new experience for me, so that often enough I started with watercolour, added just a little bit of acrylic white to correct some small mistakes, and sooner or later half the picture had five layers of paint on it (problem also is, watercolour sometimes looked really weird in scans and didn't translate to the screen quite as well as acrylic.)
The Medal Ceremony: Now here's pretty much a direct adaptation from the movie scene (I left Chewie and the droids out. Sorry). Here I tried to stick to watercolour almost all the way through and only used some acrylic paint on the faces. What amuses me here is that all three of them seem to be under completely different lighting conditions, and I'm not sure what happened to Leia's jawline, either. Lucy's dress was fun to draw - I used both the paperdoll elizabeth_hoot had made and some pictures I found while looking for 70s evening gowns (I tried, as I think the fic does, as well, to see not so much what could have happened in the GFFA, had Luke Skywalker been a woman, as I tried to see how a 1970s movie would have been made with a female lead. Err. If that makes sense) and I think it's just the right shade of tasteless while reminding of Luke's ceremonial outfit. The hair was kinda tricky, too, because somehow there is no right colour for painting that sort of darkish-blond hair, but I think I more or less managed it - the way it falls is kind of reminiscent of Luke's hair, too, in general I found myself trying to incorporate the bangs into her long hair, just because that's such a typical thing about Luke. Also, yes, half the time I chickened out of drawing hands; I've done them before, but on that scale the two that are actually visible in the drawing were enough work. I'm very proud of Leia's dress, though; for the most part, that's still the original white of the paper, with only some very thinned grey and dark blue for shading, which, considering this was my first attempt at something like that, works very well.
The Wampa Cave: This was actually the last image I did. I'd actually planned to draw them as they were still talking, but somehow they fell asleep on me. The atmosphere may be a bit too peaceful for the danger they're in (btw, the other day I read this article that said Luke could never have survived inside a Tauntaun anyway, but that's another story. Damn you, science!) but I hope I managed to convey an atmosphere that shows closeness without being actually romantic. The ice here is a good example how sometimes the watercolour thing does not work out at all; the colours were a lot softer and, well, ice-like on paper. For their outfits, I looked at both film-stills and action figures and in the meantime found out that apparently there's a bit of a controversy about the colour of Han's jacket (oh Star Wars, never change!) which is either given as brown or blue. I went with something more brown/greyish, if just to have more contrast from the background. Also, on the matter of clothing, drawing those boots is a total pain, and that's a model that seems to be dragging itself through the whole movie, too! Lucy's vest is awesome, though, in a hilariously dated way - just imagine it in orange and you've got Marty McFly, right?
As for the pose, well... it ain't quite Escher Girls material but I can tell there's something wrong with their legs and feet (oh god I hate feet almost as much as hands. To draw, I mean.) So, yeah, I know there's definitely something wrong there, but I don't really know how to fix it. The faces are okay, though - maybe not Lucy, so much, but Han really looks kinda Han-ish here.
Jedi Training: Another one directly adapted from a movie still, and probably the one I like least had the most problems with. Not 100% happy with the result, but at least it's better than before. Lucy's face here is probably the one thing I've reworked more than anything else and well... at one point she looked like a zombie, so I think it's an improvement from there, that's all I say. Okay, okay, the neck is a bit wrong, and her head is probably too big, too. But I like Yoda, and after some attempts the background looks properly Dagobah, too. What kept me busy here was Lucy's physique; okay, Luke is rather short (that line's over quoted anyway, let's not go there) and Lucy, I gather would be about Leia's height and quite slender, too - which I've mostly gathered from her description on Hoth. On the other hand, she's just gone through some serious Jedi training, so I don't think I've exaggerated too much with the muscles. She'd have to be somewhat athletic for that, right? And either way, anyone would look taller next to Yoda. Lucy's expression... yeah, I don't know.
Cloud City Duel I: It's "Lucy Skywalker and the mystery of the changing shoes"! That's what I get for using grey-ish movie stills for one picture, and action figure pictures as reference for the other. *hangs head*
Apart from that, I like this one, though. It's inspired by both the actual scene (of which I made a thousand screencaps for this purpose) and this gorgeous piece of concept art. I'm surprised how well the relatively geometric background works despite my uneven brush work, and the smoke and light... yeah ok, I'm a bit proud of that. Also, Lucy's body language and expression seem to be saying roughly the same thing, and she doesn't look like an anatomical disaster, either, so I'll count that as a win. Also, Lightsaber. Drawing lightsabers is fun!
Cloud City Duel II: And a close-up from the same scene, because I saw this screen cap and immediately thought I had to work with it. Also, it was a great chance to do another close-up look at Lucy's face, which I usually prefer to having to draw a face that's only 3cm high so the rest of the body has room on the paper.
In the beginning I loved doing that one, then there was a phase when I was close to scrapping it completely, but I think it's come around now (this one also probably has the most use of acrylic paint to even out a few mistakes with the watercolour) - I like the shading and the expression, and ahhh, the lighting in that scene is just pure art. Seriously, ESB has some of the best storytelling in Star Wars, but what I sometimes forget is just how visually gorgeous it is, too.
So... it's the big day (and, of course, photobucket is on strike, but that's what you have scrapbook for, right? photobucket is back and scrapbook claims my images don't exist) and I've got so much to say about these pictures I think I'll do the commentary in a separate entry from the main one.
First off, I have to thank elizabeth_hoot for letting me play with her character and supplying me with suggestions, reference photos and in general being very awesome to work with (not to mention creating this wonderful character that was a joy to draw).
The portrait: Ah, yes, the one that started it all.
Lucy's face is basically a portrait of Mark Hamill, hit with an image manipulation algorithm to feminize it; nose and forehead (because thanks to all these 70s haircuts you never actually see Luke's hairline) are inspired by Natalie Portman, and the eyebrows, while not exactly copied, borrow from Carrie Fisher ca. A New Hope and the hair is Leia as well, of course. Eyes, lips and jawline were pretty much taken from Luke, though especially the lips were somewhat tricky and seem to look different in each picture.
I started this one as a pencil drawing and coloured it in much later to see if I could actually work with watercolour well enough for the challenge. The colours were a pretty new experience for me, so that often enough I started with watercolour, added just a little bit of acrylic white to correct some small mistakes, and sooner or later half the picture had five layers of paint on it (problem also is, watercolour sometimes looked really weird in scans and didn't translate to the screen quite as well as acrylic.)
The Medal Ceremony: Now here's pretty much a direct adaptation from the movie scene (I left Chewie and the droids out. Sorry). Here I tried to stick to watercolour almost all the way through and only used some acrylic paint on the faces. What amuses me here is that all three of them seem to be under completely different lighting conditions, and I'm not sure what happened to Leia's jawline, either. Lucy's dress was fun to draw - I used both the paperdoll elizabeth_hoot had made and some pictures I found while looking for 70s evening gowns (I tried, as I think the fic does, as well, to see not so much what could have happened in the GFFA, had Luke Skywalker been a woman, as I tried to see how a 1970s movie would have been made with a female lead. Err. If that makes sense) and I think it's just the right shade of tasteless while reminding of Luke's ceremonial outfit. The hair was kinda tricky, too, because somehow there is no right colour for painting that sort of darkish-blond hair, but I think I more or less managed it - the way it falls is kind of reminiscent of Luke's hair, too, in general I found myself trying to incorporate the bangs into her long hair, just because that's such a typical thing about Luke. Also, yes, half the time I chickened out of drawing hands; I've done them before, but on that scale the two that are actually visible in the drawing were enough work. I'm very proud of Leia's dress, though; for the most part, that's still the original white of the paper, with only some very thinned grey and dark blue for shading, which, considering this was my first attempt at something like that, works very well.
The Wampa Cave: This was actually the last image I did. I'd actually planned to draw them as they were still talking, but somehow they fell asleep on me. The atmosphere may be a bit too peaceful for the danger they're in (btw, the other day I read this article that said Luke could never have survived inside a Tauntaun anyway, but that's another story. Damn you, science!) but I hope I managed to convey an atmosphere that shows closeness without being actually romantic. The ice here is a good example how sometimes the watercolour thing does not work out at all; the colours were a lot softer and, well, ice-like on paper. For their outfits, I looked at both film-stills and action figures and in the meantime found out that apparently there's a bit of a controversy about the colour of Han's jacket (oh Star Wars, never change!) which is either given as brown or blue. I went with something more brown/greyish, if just to have more contrast from the background. Also, on the matter of clothing, drawing those boots is a total pain, and that's a model that seems to be dragging itself through the whole movie, too! Lucy's vest is awesome, though, in a hilariously dated way - just imagine it in orange and you've got Marty McFly, right?
As for the pose, well... it ain't quite Escher Girls material but I can tell there's something wrong with their legs and feet (oh god I hate feet almost as much as hands. To draw, I mean.) So, yeah, I know there's definitely something wrong there, but I don't really know how to fix it. The faces are okay, though - maybe not Lucy, so much, but Han really looks kinda Han-ish here.
Jedi Training: Another one directly adapted from a movie still, and probably the one I like least had the most problems with. Not 100% happy with the result, but at least it's better than before. Lucy's face here is probably the one thing I've reworked more than anything else and well... at one point she looked like a zombie, so I think it's an improvement from there, that's all I say. Okay, okay, the neck is a bit wrong, and her head is probably too big, too. But I like Yoda, and after some attempts the background looks properly Dagobah, too. What kept me busy here was Lucy's physique; okay, Luke is rather short (that line's over quoted anyway, let's not go there) and Lucy, I gather would be about Leia's height and quite slender, too - which I've mostly gathered from her description on Hoth. On the other hand, she's just gone through some serious Jedi training, so I don't think I've exaggerated too much with the muscles. She'd have to be somewhat athletic for that, right? And either way, anyone would look taller next to Yoda. Lucy's expression... yeah, I don't know.
Cloud City Duel I: It's "Lucy Skywalker and the mystery of the changing shoes"! That's what I get for using grey-ish movie stills for one picture, and action figure pictures as reference for the other. *hangs head*
Apart from that, I like this one, though. It's inspired by both the actual scene (of which I made a thousand screencaps for this purpose) and this gorgeous piece of concept art. I'm surprised how well the relatively geometric background works despite my uneven brush work, and the smoke and light... yeah ok, I'm a bit proud of that. Also, Lucy's body language and expression seem to be saying roughly the same thing, and she doesn't look like an anatomical disaster, either, so I'll count that as a win. Also, Lightsaber. Drawing lightsabers is fun!
Cloud City Duel II: And a close-up from the same scene, because I saw this screen cap and immediately thought I had to work with it. Also, it was a great chance to do another close-up look at Lucy's face, which I usually prefer to having to draw a face that's only 3cm high so the rest of the body has room on the paper.
In the beginning I loved doing that one, then there was a phase when I was close to scrapping it completely, but I think it's come around now (this one also probably has the most use of acrylic paint to even out a few mistakes with the watercolour) - I like the shading and the expression, and ahhh, the lighting in that scene is just pure art. Seriously, ESB has some of the best storytelling in Star Wars, but what I sometimes forget is just how visually gorgeous it is, too.