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[Maggie]

The 2018 Fan Calendar is set to come out in a few months but let's get started on discussing the theme for next years calendar.

I would like to leave this thread open for the month of November and then have a poll for voting during the month of December which should give everyone time to think up ideas and then vote for their favourite.

I plan to announce the winning theme on January 1st, which will give everyone 10 months to submit an entry. Again I believe this is plenty of time to work with and if not, I say again that you aren't that in to EQ anymore or are just too busy to find the time for it. I can respect that but I would appreciate some consideration before you jump in and say you'd like to be a part of this. I consider committing to the EQ fan calendar to be just as important as anything else you might commit to throughout the year. I want submissions to reflect the love you have for EQ and the skillset you posses. I don't want rush jobs and I don't want dropouts. I want you to commit only if it will be enjoyable to you and only if you have the time.

Here are the themes that were on the last poll:

Chiefs - Past, Present and Future
Evolution - The Then and Now of EQ
Cubs
All Action
Comedy - The Merriment of EQ
Daily Life
The Homes of EQ

Any other ideas? If so post them below. I'll give everyone until November 30th to add their ideas and then I'll create a poll with the themes which will be open during the month of December. The winner will be announced on the Jan 1st along with the 2018 calendar.

[Maggie]

Berit said if the next calendar has nudity then people will eagerly join!......can I add that to the list? 

[Startear]

Omg! Please!

That being said, I really like cubs and daily life.

[Berit]

I'd like Chiefs, all action or homes... not sure what of those would interest me most!...

Well, pin-up we did already, but the truth is that people would be most interested in joining if there was something like that again, I don't find the subject that interesting but I'd bet my money on it that that is what people would like to do most...

[jaRf]

It's true that sex sells. Crime, too, probably.
The pinup weekly planner allowed a lot of freedom (character, artistic style, kind of topic choice) - maybe that is a reason why this went well. Oh, and sexyness, too.


> Evolution - The Then and Now of EQ
Could be interesting. Is it related to a specific evolution? Character wise? Art style wise? (though it would probably be hard to mimic art styles)

> Cubs
Uh-oh, even different proportions (esp. head-body). I'm struggling to get them right even with the adult elves.

> Comedy - The Merriment of EQ
I usually try to sneak in something like that. (I think I did not on the self contrast as an exception.)

> All Action /  Daily Life / the Homes of EQ
Probably offers a lot of room for everything.


Too busy with stuff to think more about it, my minds needs a free phase for fresh ideas. Maybe later. But in general I'm relatively open, as long as the topic offers a certain freedom.

On a different matter: I need to get my life into more calm waters. If I succeed at that - fine, all good. If not... (but then I somehow managed to get things done even in stressful times.)
Though, moreover, I had hoped I could somehow "develop" art-wise. But I also wanted to keep a certain level. So if I changed tech to analog, pencil, pen, water coulours, oil, cryons - or if I started
suddenly doing pixel art (via GIMP, krita,...) on the digital side (unlike the vectors)... this would require learning and practise. Not sure how much time that would require. Or if I even added a third
dimension to the vectors...
I guess I'll have to see?

[Maggie]

I appreciate all the love for the list of previous themes but those ones are in already and will be included in the poll. Looking for any new ideas you may have. 

[Wintergreen]

I'd be interested in 'Chiefs' or 'daily life' themes, but I'd love to participate this year anyway, whatever the theme is.

[Yavia]

I threw in some stupid ideas - they might be lame or sh*t, don't scream at me. Just refuse them - or make new ideas out of them. I'm totally fine with that!

Seasons: 3 Pictures of Spring, 3 summer, 3 fall and 3 winter. The only thing that must be forfilled is typical image of the season or time. Maybe you like drawing winter - so you do a winter Picture. There would be a lot room for everybody. It can be mixed with Daily Life - even All Action- if need.

A shared Moment with a bonded animal: Cutter with his wolffriend hunting, or cuddling or sleeping. Or a Glider with his bird, a Go Back with a Deer. I think that might be to difficult. I remember with horror at my Lord Voll Picture with all the feathers... 

Left Behind: They travel a lot and leave often places with people behind. What could happen to them? I was thinking of a part that happend without us seeing it in the comics. Like a moment Pikenose leaves the shack or get captured by Guttlekraw - How did Adar and Nonna get along - oh, wait, didn't we have done this one?

Sorry, I'm no use in this.
I'm ending to saying that we need to do a very free theme now, cause the limeted Ekuar theme before was very exhausting. So Daily Life would be fine to do a relaxed drawing 
I personally like to do the All Action or, of curse, the Comedy one

[Startear]

Oh, I like the idea of the characters with their bonded animals!

[Yavia]

Be warned - It might be difficult to draw 

[Berit]

Yavia has some good ideas here! the animal thing would be interesting!...

I'll throw my idea here as well, a calendar where the theme is background characters, you could draw any of those presumably nameless characters from the background... they need some love too!...

[Maggie]

I like the idea of a seasonal calendar, that would be a lot of fun and give a lot of freedom.

[Treefox]

I also absolutely dig Yavias ideas!

I like the bond animal one a lot and also seasons! Combined with whatever topic.

Hmmm... slight idea: how about the world of Abode? More landscape oriented? Forbidden Grove, Blue Mountain, Sorrow's End...
But probably not many people would be interested in drawing that I guess.

Another idea to combine with background characters: the fashion of Elfquest.

[Startear]

Berit, I like your idea about the background and lesser known characters. I used the obscure ones in my submissions, failed or otherwise. However I feel like that theme could potenially just draw in the hardcore fans. Besides there is a lot of discussion on WHO is a background character.

[Afke]

I like the seasonal idea as well, and I also like Left behind. I like themes like that, because they are open to various forms of interpretation.

[Yavia]

I also been wondering how to define a backround character too. Some of them are only shown in one picture and don't have any names. So we can't make a list with them who is picked. The thinking about only hardcore fans are hooked fits for me too. I think the same way.

Only landscape is a wonderful idea for a change. No faces or proportions to draw.  In seasons it would look nice, like an odenary calendar with pictures of the world we love. Could be matched with homes I think. Are there enough locations to draw?

For the bonded animal to admit: the Sea Elfes and Sun Folk don't have bonded Animals. So they would be missed in the calendar. Is that okay? Or can someone draw them with his/her pet? IIRC Leetah has had a kind of cat.

[Berit]

You could use zwoot for the Sunfolk in the animal themed one, I'd actually like to draw those huge animals... also you could use humans with their animals, (like the rabid dog)... it doesn't have to be a magical bond...

and the background character one, I didn't mean it as a hardcore fan thing, heck! I'm not hardcore, as I have not read too many of the books yet, I practically know very little about wavedancers, only things Czarine has told me... what I meant was just the characters that have no known names or those who have no spoken lines... true, it would be hard to list them...  but there would ways to do so... but of well, let's forget about that then... I just thought it would have been interesting...

[jaRf]

Well, there are some nice ideas, indeed.

I like the season one, where we have 3 of each season set. Because you can combine that with virtually anything else.
We just had to check that people are not overlapping, so we won't end up with 10 x spring and 2 x autumn.

Bonded animal... yeah, maybe. Not everyone has one, though one could improvise something. (I already start having ideas...)
As a "hard topic" it might force boundaries upon art, but it's easy to add animals otherwise to scenes if you like.

Just landscapes is nice for itself (and I actually do landscape photography, so I do like it) - but then... it does not relate so much to EQ. I mean, it could then be any landscape, just that you maybe have two moons (but that could still also be from StarWars or anywhere else). Yes, no faces, but then, it still is an ElfQuest-related calendar. And main subject are: Elves. (and trolls and stuff)
One drawback might be that it might require a lot of detail work, too. (unless you do aquarel, which always naturally "flows")

Left behind: I guess we had beloved dead some year back in the tradition of the calendar?
FQ spoiler alert:
With FQ there are many possibilities for people left behind (palace leaving)
end of spoiler.


We had some rare characters in the pinup-planner. I think it is possible to add rare characters anywhere. I, um, nearly had some in my entry for this year. But well, then, time and space intervened.

Still haven't own ideas to contribute, not enough spare time in my mind.

(I also posted the notice about the cal. topic in
http://fathertreeholt.forumotion.com/t849-elfquest-fanart-calendar-2019 )

[Yavia]

Ahhhhh! You spoiled me   

[Hyakurin]

I’m okay with whatever. Daily life would leave a lot open if people wanted to do something a little more sexy (which I’m okay with) or do something with animals or even the seasons. This could apply to any characters as well. As far as the landscape thing, without characters I don’t know how popular that would be and it might limit some artists on here? I don’t work in digital art but I would be okay with a landscape provided I could pick it. I’m not sure what all the past calendar themes have been. But so far everything suggested is good. Depending on what gets picked I can change my style of art if need be but I can still only work with traditional methods.
Maybe since we are at Quest’s end we could work with something like journey or travel. Wolves, Zwoots, Swimming, walking, the palace? Or hightlight really important moments in the story for Cutter since it’s technically his hero’s journey. Just throwing out random stuff.

[Amberfox]

Two ideas for me to throw in:

Elfquest and Nature: this would eliminate the term "bond" animal as well as open up the idea of landscapes. One would have to include at least one elf (or troll - hey, Afke! - human or preserver) interacting with the environment/nature, so a bond beast, animal friend, pet, etc or interacting with the environment such as water, snow, heat, etc. Interpretations are wide open for this category, should it be selected.

Darkness: one or more characters from the series in a moment that the artist perceived as quite dark. Again, this is open to interpretation. Death, fear, loss, anger/rage, realization and it wasn't pretty, something along those lines.

Apart from that, I really like all action.  Just throwing in on my end.

I had to bail for the last calendar; mundane life just got in the way and I just don't get notifications from the site at all anymore. I do try and visit as often as I can, but sometimes that's rare. For the moment, I actually have some free time, so hopefully we can decide on a calendar idea so I can get started NOW.

[jaRf]

I’m not sure what all the past calendar themes have been.

http://elfquest.com/fancals/
2002 - 2009
(some have separate pages like http://elfquest.com/images/fan/fancalendar2002.html )
and
http://www.elfquestfanart.com/index.php?action=fanartcalendar
upper right navigation for the years
lower right "view all entries" (for each year)
@Maggie: by the way the 2017 link (under "Monthly Calendars") is broken, it points to 2016


So let's see what we had in the past.
I don't know, maybe there were calendars before, maybe some fanzine projects? (There have been quite a few in the past, sadly this might have died in the modern world.)

2002      no specific topic ("the first year")
2003      25 Years of Celebrations            not on EQFA ?
2004      Then and Now                  not on EQFA ?
2005      The Beloved Dead
2006      ElfQuest Through the Ages
2007      Home and Family
2008      Favorite Moments / 30 Years of Favorite Moments
2009      The Magic of Elfquest
2010      Finding One's Place
2011      Hidden Moments
2012 - 2014    weekly planner (no regular 2012 calendar)
2013      Every Picture Tells a Story
2014      Dreamscapes
2015      Emotive Portraits
2016      Tribes
2017      Contrasts
2018      Entirely Ekuar

[jaRf]

Ahhhhh! You spoiled me   

Awww, no! I tried to make it as badly readable as I could and put the warnings. (That "toggle view" field didn't work and I found nothing else that resembled a "spoiler" field.)

On topic:
It's silly and not sure if it makes sense, but on the other hand it is quite "open" for everyone. It's also close to the "daily life" one. "Kitchen / Dishes of ElfQuest" (that would include Sunfolk bakery, wolfriders at hunt,...). But then, if one wanted cooking, it could be included in daily life as well.

[Yavia]

Sorry, the white font put all my attention there at once, before I read it's a spoiler. And I know the story, except for this info. But I absolutely don't blame you!

[Wildfire]

I absolutely love the "Seasons" idea! Joselle's Mucha imagining in 2006 was gorgeous, I'd love to see other people's take on the Seasons.

Lots of great suggestions here, I'd like to add "Movie-verse" to the mix. Dress the elves up as different movie characters/settings/tropes (Cutter as a Clint Eastwood styled cowboy in a standoff with Rayek?) or use a style particular to an era of movies (Winnowill in a film noir setting? ). This might be two different ideas or one, I'm not sure, but I'm thinking basically a remix of the Elfquest Through the Ages theme, just with movies or TV

I'm good with nudity as well.