Trek Exchange Art

[tripperfunster]

This was drawn for hopesopalshard for the comm trek_exchange

They asked for AU, where some of the characters were melded with Alice in Wonderland.



There is a lot that I like about this pic. Chekov in a dress!! He seemed like the most innocent character, so he got to be Alice. Spock's ears made him a shoe-in for the Rabbit, Kirk's cheezoid smile gave him first dibs on the Cheshire(sp?) cat, and Bones picked the short straw to be the Mad Hatter. Oh, and a Klingon-ish queen of hearts type character.

If you look closely, there's a teeny Enterprise sillouetted in the moon, and a Damnit Jim! tucked into McCoy's hat. (along with a mini hypo-spray in his hand.)

What I DON'T like about this pic could fill an entire post. :( My utter fail at watercolours, for one. grrr I don't, for the life of me, know why I would pick a medium that I KNOW I fail at, for an exchange piece. I guess I just keep hoping that I will magically improve. And I HAVE improved, really, but not ... um ... magically. How can some things (pencil, pastel, crayon) come so easily, and some others (WATERCOLOURS) not?

Other things to not like: The fact that not one character is interacting with another. They're all kind of stuck together in a creepy cut and paste way. There was the potential for some really cool character reactions and I didn't get there. There also isn't enough contrast between the characters and the background/foreground. Probably because i just didn't plan this out very well. The Klingon/Queen was an afterthought, and I had already drawn the tree, so I sort of just bullied her in there.

sorry to go on, I really don't mean to belly ache, I guess I'm just trying to sort it all out in my head, so I can continue to improve. I tried to make the characters as CS Lewis as I could, and i think they really do have that flavour. Which, frankly, is just plain creepy. This entire book/movie really creeped me out as a kid.

bla bla bla tl;dr: I hope you like it, hopesopalshard!

Comments

[glockgal.livejournal.com]

OMG dude I really think it's awesome that you took the time to point out the things you liked and didn't like about the art. That's incredibly brave (especially because you aren't being self-deprecating, you're just -as you say - trying to see what exactly there is to improve. IT'S SO CONSTRUCTIVE, YOU'RE AWESOME!!) and I should take a page from your book more often.

I remember in one of the Fanart panels when reallycorking said to the audience that critique is generally good, but people need to understand that the artist has probably already spotted all the wrong things in their art, plus 1,000 more errors - we're our own biggest critic. What we do with that is key to our improvement.

THAT SAID - I think the things you accomplished in this piece really are worthy of pride. OMG LOOK IT'S POINTFORM:
1) The watercolours look like a watercolour wash, which in the case of such a heavily/detailed inked work, is entirely appropriate! I find a lot of old illos made from metal etching get this sort of watercolour wash. On top of that, the colours you chose are very muted and based in the natural colour palette, which adds to that whole Victorian look. YAY.
2) THE INKING. Well, I think you are never bad at inking, but this is surpassing because of the detailing. Cross hatching KDSJFHDSJKFHSDKJF
3) The bg looks like it's moving. I'm sure to you it just looks like mucky watercolours, but I find all the motions and strokes in your painting adds to the slightly sinister nature of Wonderland.
4) The chars may not be interacting, but I agree with the other commenter in that it only adds to that creepy vibe from the CS Lewis book illustrations. Everything in them are vaguely unnatural and bizarre - so the lack of interaction works, in my opinion!

And finally - I think you characterised them PERFECTLY, AHAHAHAH. Kirk as the Cheshire Cat pretty much takes the cake because it's so perfect. I love how you drew Bones' face, his likeness is great!

And uh yeah. Srsly dude, this is an AMAZING job all round, and thanks soooo much for sharing. I really appreciate that you did!

[tripperfunster.livejournal.com]

ahaha! I don't think we spoke this much for the entire con! :D

Thanks so much for the bionic comment!
I actually went out today and bought some REAL watercolours today, so I'm looking forward to playing with them!

Thanks for looking and taking the time to comment, bb. <3