(Super tired = Super early post... enjoy!)
An entry for a re-design challenge at the He-Man.org fan-art forum. The thread is here, my post is here. Voting was split up into two threads, here and here, and a final poll between the finalists was conducted here. Err... basically I came no where close to even making the first cut, but I encourage everyone to check out the other entries--there's some great stuff there!
The subject of the redesign is Shokoti, an obscure but somewhat popular villainess who appeared only once in the cartoon. This time around, there were a lot of entries, and I had a hard time figuring out how to redesign the character while trying not to make changes for change's sake. All in all, I thought a different approach might be necessary:
I changed her name to "Shokutie" for two reasons, 1) to play up the cartoony aspect of this drawing and 2) because I cannot resist a terrible pun. Sorry. I settled on "Wicked Mistress of Hubba Hubba" as her title after rejecting "Villainous Mistress of Va Va Voom" and "Evil Mistress of Honk Honk Awooga."
I'm basically satisfied with the drawing and color choices on this one (i punched up all her colors so they were more saturated and vibrant than the original). The actual rendering however is pretty "meh" (don't even bother trying to identify consistent light sources!) and I wish I had pushed the hair color more towards black rather than blue.
This sketch, obviously, does not fall in my normal series of Masters of the Universe drawings. Although, because of the modified name, I guess she could conceivably be some kind of a slightly super deformed avatar that manifested sentience and became an independent entity, similar but not exactly like the background I came up with for Horduck. Wow, that was a nerdy sentence. Aww, what the heck, here's a profile for the little hottie:
An entry for a re-design challenge at the He-Man.org fan-art forum. The thread is here, my post is here. Voting was split up into two threads, here and here, and a final poll between the finalists was conducted here. Err... basically I came no where close to even making the first cut, but I encourage everyone to check out the other entries--there's some great stuff there!
The subject of the redesign is Shokoti, an obscure but somewhat popular villainess who appeared only once in the cartoon. This time around, there were a lot of entries, and I had a hard time figuring out how to redesign the character while trying not to make changes for change's sake. All in all, I thought a different approach might be necessary:
I changed her name to "Shokutie" for two reasons, 1) to play up the cartoony aspect of this drawing and 2) because I cannot resist a terrible pun. Sorry. I settled on "Wicked Mistress of Hubba Hubba" as her title after rejecting "Villainous Mistress of Va Va Voom" and "Evil Mistress of Honk Honk Awooga."
I'm basically satisfied with the drawing and color choices on this one (i punched up all her colors so they were more saturated and vibrant than the original). The actual rendering however is pretty "meh" (don't even bother trying to identify consistent light sources!) and I wish I had pushed the hair color more towards black rather than blue.
This sketch, obviously, does not fall in my normal series of Masters of the Universe drawings. Although, because of the modified name, I guess she could conceivably be some kind of a slightly super deformed avatar that manifested sentience and became an independent entity, similar but not exactly like the background I came up with for Horduck. Wow, that was a nerdy sentence. Aww, what the heck, here's a profile for the little hottie:
* * *
PROFILE: SHOKUTIE (so named by Orko) has the basic abilities and personality of Shokoti, however her power levels are diminished, and her demeanor has an added impish aspect to it. She's still something of a bully, but it appears that Shokutie may be a more innocent version of Shokoti, as she lacks some of the original's more cruel tendencies.
HISTORY: After her defeat at the hands of He-Man, Shokoti attempted to rematerialize herself on the material plane by creating an avatar that contained a fraction of her power. The avatar was able to bring about Shokoti's return, but in the process, apparently became autonomous. When Shokoti tried reabsorbing Shokutie against her will, Orko (who had somewhat befriended her), casted a mirror spell, attempting to deflect Shokoti's magic. As could be expected, Orko botched the spell, but it had an unexpected affect--Shokoti was able to reabsorb an equivalent amount of magic so that her soul and magic ability were rendered whole once more, and yet Shokutie was able to continue existing, free from the power of her originator. Still somewhat weakened, Shokoti retreated, vowing vengeance on He-Man and his allies, as well as her diminuitive doppleganger. Orko attempted to convince Shokutie to join the side of good, but she was still struggling with her newfound freedom and possibly evil nature. She was allowed to go free, and was last seen on Etheria, playing pranks on Horduck.
* * *
So, I guess that means that this is part of my regular series of He-Man pics. I also have a "standard" version Shokoti that I drew up (that one sticks pretty close to the original costume), and will be posting sometime in the future.
5 comments:
Lookin' good comrade. Now, where's Iron Man? :)
Shokutie? SHO NUFF!
Haha
Anyways, kudos for a decent drawing. I dig on her fiery-like Viking horns. I'm not as keen on the colors as you seem to be, mainly because I'm repulsed by the contrasting-colors combination of blue and orange (need I remind you, old school chum, that these were our school colors?). Blue and orange, especially of brighter vibrancies, push themselves forward in the field of vision in the human eye. If you have them together they begin to 'battle' for dominance in attention from your eye. This happens whether the viewer is aware of it or not. It's a naturally occurring thing. So I have a personal aesthetic against blue-and-orange together. In my defense, however, since the good ole days of color theory AND Mr. Rousey's class (where first I learned of the blue's and orange's psycho-physical battle they are forever interlocked in) I have recognized and been naturally repulsed by blue and orange combos. I'm certain some of our readers may have noticed they spent little time looking at the overall affect and either concentrated on much smaller parts of the character or simply given her a quick glance as a result of this dire mortal combat these colors are in.
Of course, this is a gross generalization, but it happens.
I'd like to think, however, I can appreciate and understand your drawing despite this and my personal dislikes. So let's move on.
The hair is fairly flat, so much so that I didn't quite recognize it as hair until I read on in your blog. Then I had to look again to make sure it was hair. In all honesty I thought it was a smoke-like affect you added as background. Oh no, i said THAT word: BACKGROUND. Haha
So the flatness of the hair, the fact that I assumed her Viking-like helmet was completely closed off except about the face (not being open in the back for hair to hang out), and my personal bias for some sort of background or color made me assume it was other than hair. That's nothing bad you did on your part, and I'm certain some would brush me off as having been inattentive (which is fair enough, I AM only human... sadly... o wish that I were a cyborg), but it is a naturally occurring reaction from at least one member of your audience that you may wish to take note of and learn from for future projects.
I love the reds here. I think the blue-red combo works very well.
It comes off as very polished and as if it may have actually been a member of the He-Man Pantheon at some point, which is meant to be a big compliment to you.
Now for suggestions:
Draw Ariel.
That is all.
Overall good work, just be aware of your color choices (again, you made no wrong decision, especially if you're ultimately happy with them... I simply want to be honest and point out things) and keep at it.
OH! And the eyes are GREAT!
One last point! Since there is no reference point to suggest the hair is 'attached' anywhere onto her body, it appears to simply float behind her. That probably contributed to my assumptions. Perhaps if you had a few locks flowing over the helmet, this would have helped?
I voted for this over at the ORG man!! AMAZ-ING!!!
don:thanks man! i'm responding to this comment mega-ultra-late, so of course you have seen iron man by now... lol
lord shen: thanks for the in-depth crit man, i really appreciate you taking the time. i have been less happy with the colors after posting it (but not because of your crit necessarily)--i think the colors turned out better than the original direction i was going in, and so i was partially riding off of a false high. i think you're right about colors battling for dominance, but i don't think its a matter of the blue vs. orange that's inherently the cause--i'm convinced the blue/orange color scheme can work well, i just should have taken more time to tweak the colors... as for our old alma mater, i cannot in good conscience allow that substandard 'educational' facility to ruin a perfectly good color combo. in fact, after extensive years of re-educating my eyes and brain, i'm quite fond of blue and orange together (as long as it's not on a centurion ;) as for the hair, i think there are two things going on here--first, you'll notice that the light source on her hair is really inconsistent with the rest of the hair, so i take thet blame there. however, secondly, you're doing that thing that trained artists do, where your eye is so accustomed to taking an abstract approach and dissecting everything, that you're neglecting occum's razor. it's pretty obvious it's hair, even if badly rendered. this is not a slam on you btw, its something i notice in jacob too--you formally trained artists have a very particular way of looking at things which makes you capable in a lot of ways that i am not; untrained guys like me have an easier time reading visual shorthand (even when badly done) but we have a much harder time picking composition and color/light apart and understanding how it works on a conscious/technical level.
jafari stew: thanks dude!
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