Topic: 2021 Fan Art Calendar - Theme Chit Chat (Read 26986 times)

Wildfire · « **Reply #50 on:** May 03, 2020, 06:58:02 AM »

Lesser-Known is a great choice! It allows for a lot of creativity and mixing with the other themes.

The "what is a lesser-known character" is more tricky of course.
Background unnamed Sunvillagers and Go-Backs seem a given, but would someone like Vaya be too well-known? She's named and had lines, but was only part of the comic for idk one issue. Same with Ahdri, more prominent than someone like Minyah, Rayek's parents or Yurek, but far less so than Leetah or Savah.
The old Wolfrider chiefs (and a lot of their tribemates) are named and have personalities, but are still pretty obscure imo, except for Bearclaw. Same with most of the Gliders and Go-Backs

Would including well-known characters in combination with lesser-known characters be allright? Fx. lot's of people know Treestump and Dewshine of course, but Rillfisher is fairly obscure, so would an illustration of Rillfisher with one or both of them fly?
I'm not sure how one would ensure that 1) the illustration doesn't become primarily about the well-known characters and 2) that the lesser-known character will be recognizable enough on their own.
If artists are required to submit a description with character names the 2) might be a non-issue

Yavia · « **Reply #51 on:** May 03, 2020, 09:13:12 AM »

Hello Heidi!
a very warm welcome from me! I'm always happy to make new friends!

Lesser known character
Huff, the theme I don't know how to forfill at all.

I'm currently drawing on Villains and Heroes - maybe it fits here as well? If Kimo is allowed?

As I has mentioned before, some of that lesser known characters get a bigger space later on. As Ahdri for example. Vaya who died off course not, or Rillfisher, or Brownberry.
Choose who was not often in the calendar sounds like a interesting idea. That could not be Ahdri for she has entry's there. Or choose of less made Fanart? That could be Ahdri for there is not much art off her.
If there is only one panel ever drawn of that character it might be difficult to recognize them and to add a better known character would be okay for me.

So I do have no clue how to decide and will surely need help in picking a character in that.

AceQuester · « **Reply #52 on:** May 03, 2020, 02:13:45 PM »

First, welcome Heidi, nice to get a new tribemember over here.

Lesser known characters it is.
Hmm I think the definition will be difficult but I think named characters like Vok, Murda, Zey, Yurek (Savah's lifemate and great-, great-, great- greatgrandfather of Ahdri), Minyah, Vuurdah, Marleen, Thiro, Serrin, Bowki, the Rootless Ones, most Wavedancers, Harotim and other new High Ones, most preservers, most Trolls, most Wolves, chiefs and tribemates before Bearclaw etc. are no problem. In my opinion characters like Rillfisher, Bethia, Woodlock's family (but not Mender), Vaya, are also okay by me because their role was small in all the storylines.
The Rebels? They are maincharacters in that storyline but in the greater good of ElfQuest they are very small and lesser known (especially compared to Jink).

To solve the problem of main charaters combined with lesser known characters, maybe we can solve that by placing the maincharacters in their younger years. F.e. Thiro with a very young Leetah (f.e. in the background) in a scene that makes clear what there role/interaction is.

Hope my opinion helps settle the guidelines.

Heidi_Dayspring_Jones · « **Reply #53 on:** May 04, 2020, 12:09:23 AM »

Thank you for the warm greetings! I'm super excited about the theme. Since responding to the "Which character do you most identify with" post of FB, I'm dying to do a Rainsong image. I find her highly overlooked and since I've got a new baby, I'm feeling the motherly vibes.

Can't wait to start drawing!

Maggie · « **Reply #54 on:** May 04, 2020, 11:06:42 AM »

I'm thinking of leaning toward characters that we haven't overused in previous calendars as a jumping-off point (planners not included, since everyone was used in those). I also think we could consider popularity in general and try to avoid those characters which get a lot of fan art attention.

Obviously each tribe has its leading characters and then its supporting cast. I'd like to focus on the supporting cast. For example, with the Sun Villagers I would say Leetah and Rayek are lead characters whereas Shenshen, Leetah's parents, and various other villagers are not. The Wolfriders, I would say that most of the characters from OQ are leads but there are some secondary players like Dewshine, Scouter, Rainsong, Woodlock, Wing, Newstar, and Pike. I know that some of these lesser characters get more attention in FQ but they still aren't as popular as the characters that have been the main focus of the story since the beginning. I don't think we have to go so far as to use nameless background characters just the ones that don't get as much attention as the rest.

It would probably be alright to use well-knowns in conjunction with our lesser-knowns but it would be the participant's job to make sure that the star of the submission was the lesser-known character. Kind of like Czarine's submission for the 2020 calendar. She had quite a few characters in her image but you could tell who the focus was on. Something like that would be fine but the focus has to be clear.

Maybe we can start compiling a list of each tribe's secondary players and see if we can agree on whether or not they're 2021 calendar material.

Wildfire · « **Reply #55 on:** May 05, 2020, 03:40:25 AM »

I like the idea of considering popularity more than actual "screentime", someone like Vaya (while I'd love to draw her) does tend to get a fair bit of attention and might not fit the "lesser-known" qualifier.

Also, I have no idea how useful this is, but I made a Google Sheet with a bunch of characters semi-sorted by tribe/family relations/species. It's by no means exhaustive, there's so many characters

A bunch of them have profiles on the official Elfquest site, but not all.
I've marked some of them with red (too well-known in my opinion) or yellow (might be too well-known), feel free to add characters, write notes or mark red/yellow as y'all like.

(There's some Final Quest names in there, just fyi for the folks who haven't read it) https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1oNf0k5yzkN_aQI5Wxqyer4wWoY8M3cuRhqhkm4WT3GA/edit?usp=sharing

Amberfox · « **Reply #56 on:** May 05, 2020, 06:04:26 AM »

Lesser known characters sounds great to me, and I have ideas already. In fact, some of the ones I'm considering were never given a name (as far as I know). When you're ready, Maggie, I can send my ideas/choices and get started. Things on my end will be getting messy in a very few short months, so the sooner I can get started, the greater the chance is I can participate.

And Ayoooooooah and Welcome, Heidi!

Maggie · « **Reply #57 on:** May 05, 2020, 12:07:58 PM »

@Amberfox Working on getting the guidelines up as well as the secret thread for participants and the AnonDraw for participants. It shouldn't take longer than a week (max). Plus the timelimit for submissions will be a lot less than usual, so you should probably be able to get something going/finished before your time gets taken up by other things.

Startear · « **Reply #58 on:** May 06, 2020, 08:54:59 AM »

Hmm, at first I was not thrilled with this idea as I always tend to go for characters that are lesser known in the first place? I prefer themes. I think I am starting to get some idea of what I want to paint/draw though?

Will we make a list of characters that are taken this year? I know some of y'all are going on anondraw and know what others are doing, but I use traditional art so that would be hard for me personally.

Maggie · « **Reply #59 on:** May 06, 2020, 12:02:35 PM »

@Startear I'm going to make a secret thread for calendar participants only. There we can chat about which characters we want to use etc. so we can do our best to keep the calendar varied but also get to work with the characters we'd prefer.

Afke · « **Reply #60 on:** May 11, 2020, 10:41:44 AM »

I'm the same as Startear, I don't think I ever went with the obvious characters either. I think I'll have to give myself some extra rules with this as well, like not using a character I've drawn before, even when it would technically count in this theme.
I don't want to go as far as unnamed either though. There's tons of characters that deserve some extra attention. I already have one character in mind that I was thinking about for another theme, that I think will fit this one as well!

Maggie · « **Reply #61 on:** May 12, 2020, 03:20:28 PM »

Just so everyone knows, I should have everything situated by the weekend so we can all get started on our submissions.

AceQuester · « **Reply #62 on:** October 06, 2020, 06:55:57 AM »

Hi everyone,

I was wondering how everything went with the new calendar. I don't see the threat we had before or I am mistaken and this was the only one. In that case nobody said anything since May :S
Are there any updates?

jaRf · « **Reply #63 on:** October 07, 2020, 02:07:09 PM »

I thought there was a "hidden thread" supposed to be for the official participants.
The topic is interesting, but I was uncertain if I could join, nah, better to say I was certain I'd be very stressed this year due to my job. And yes...
But maybe otheres are just working silently and possibly exchanging in the hidden thread that was iirc meant to discuss character choices, overlaps and what makes a rare character.

Czarine · « **Reply #64 on:** October 08, 2020, 01:50:59 AM »

It is as jaRf said; we have a hidden thread for the participants, where we discuss our calendar entries. It has been great to have the opportunity to ask for opinions on composition etc!

The deadline has been moved to the end of this month, so people are still working. I finished my entry already.

Maggie · « **Reply #65 on:** October 11, 2020, 08:13:58 AM »

@AceQuester - There won't be anything news wise with regards to the calendar until December. I'll try and release the printed version sooner so people can have it before January starts but it isn't officially live until December 31st/January 1st...as always.

AceQuester · « **Reply #66 on:** December 18, 2020, 04:23:55 AM »

Hi Maggie,

I have read your message but I was wondering if there was news already. Is there a pre-order option?

I would like to order as soon as possible because it always takes a while before I receive the package (like f.e. now I am already waiting for 5 weeks for an E.Q.order from Redbubble and still haven't received anything) and because of COVID , the lockdown, Christmas etc. mail takes even longer. At this rate, the year is half over by the time I receive the calendar

$:-\$

BTW great news that everyone pitched in again and thanks to Maggie for the hard work

:D

Maggie · « **Reply #67 on:** December 28, 2020, 04:53:47 AM »

Hello!

No AceQuester, I'm sorry.

The calendar will most likely be late this year, as I haven't heard back from Mr. Pini about the printed version or judging the submissions and deciding who makes it into the calendar this year. The pandemic will likely affect things as well, which I have no control over. I know that some of the options on the Zazzle site with regards to the calendar aren't available at this time, so this year's printed version (if there is one) will most likely be more of a keepsake and less of a useful item.

Treefox · « **Reply #68 on:** December 28, 2020, 01:36:37 PM »

Aw, Maggie, thanks for keeping up the great work. I can imagine that things are still difficult for many involved parties.
I really appreciate the update.

AceQuester · « **Reply #69 on:** December 30, 2020, 01:54:50 PM »

Hi Maggie,

Thanks for the reply/update. I hope Mr. Pini will decide quickly so the next step can be taken in the proces. Fingers crossed

:D

And best wishes for all!

jaRf · « **Reply #70 on:** December 31, 2020, 04:51:47 PM »

Happy new year, everyone. Hopefully 2021 will be a better one. And a good one for creativity.

(Will we already see the entries, even the printed version still needs time?)

Maggie · « **Reply #71 on:** January 01, 2021, 10:30:01 AM »

Happy New Year!

No, the calendar (both the site version and printed) is behind schedule. There are more than 12 entries which means judging but the judge is busy and hasn't gotten back to me yet. We'll all just have to be patient for now.

Wildfire · « **Reply #72 on:** January 05, 2021, 11:26:18 PM »

Thanks for your work Maggie, I'm sure the end result is fabulous <3

Afke · « **Reply #73 on:** January 08, 2021, 05:26:21 AM »

I'm sure it will be, too! I'm getting really curious, and check back here every day.

Maggie · « **Reply #74 on:** January 08, 2021, 12:37:47 PM »

I'm going to have the site version up (hopefully) by next weekend (Jan 16 or 17), the printed one, I still haven't heard anything but I think I've found someone else to help judge so I can put the calender up here and we can all see it and ooh and ahh and comment.

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Author Topic: 2021 Fan Art Calendar - Theme Chit Chat (Read 26986 times)