The Fawngod; Extended Family

The more I worked out the story, the more I realized Herz wouldn't actually be the main. He'd be kinda indisposed, what with being possessed by a god and all.

So I shifted focus and started figuring out the future, more importantly his brother's future. Which meant kids.

I've already posted one picture of Rav and Nanette's daughter in a previous post, but Aria is just one of four siblings

she just may be my favorite

Eventually she ends up with a poet from her grandmother's kingdom and they are insufferably in love and I apologize to no one.

Bonus; more Herz smoking

that's his resting face, I swear, guy's just hanging out, he's not angry to see you or nothing

Kylie vs Frozen; Delle and Bavlos

The first chunk of Let it Go reboards was finished in early December. It wasn't until mid January that I picked it up again.

In the meantime, I still had Plenty of Thoughts about the movie and changes that could be made within. One of my beefs was with the character Kristoff. He was supposed to be part of the Sami--indigenous people of Scandinavia and Norway that, up until they were forced to assimilate, were much closer physically to the Inuit of North American than the blond, blue-eyed character we were presented in Frozen. He also lacked any actual ties to the Sami culture outside his outfit and pet reindeer (by law, only Sami people can raise reindeer) and his heritage was never mentioned in the film.

Basically dude didn't need to look white and was hurting for some actual community.

So, I gave the guy a sister. And a different name. Because.

I was also inspired by the easter egg of Rapunzel and Eugene showing up at Elsa's coronation, an idea I took and ran with for these set of pseudo-boards

Kylie vs Frozen; the unused frames

You've gotta expect to toss a lot of pretty work when you're boarding; its not about what looks nice, its about what tells the story. Still, I held on to the most presentable scraps on the off chance they inspired something I could use. Also they're pretty.

Kylie vs Frozen; it begins

Ooooh man. Even before Frozen came out I knew it and I would have a Very Difficult Relationship. Once it did, I realized I hadn't known the half of it. I, overall, dislike Frozen. I'll leave my opinions to myself, they aren't relevant to this retelling of events, but needless to say you can dislike something and find it extremely, distractingly inspiring. The potential in Frozen gripped me by the shirt and demanded I pay attention. I fell in love with Elsa (as someone with anxiety and depression, her struggle left me personally invested) and couldn't help but feel she deserved to be in a better picture.

I especially took issue with how her song, 'Let it Go', was handled. The character animation lacked the passion in Idina's performance. The anger, the betrayal and vindication in lyrics was glossed over. At first, it was just three little sketches

Aaaand the next thing I knew

I was 45 seconds into reboarding the whole song. 

Whoops. 

The Fawngod; becoming a God

So this story is all about Herz giving up his life (or more importantly his body) so that the God next door can keep kicking, even once most of its forest has been razed by an invading army. The god needs a visage and I was leaning towards deer 

The Lady Amalthea

The Last Unicorn has been a huge influence my entire life; it's informed who I am as a storyteller in more ways I could count. I'm a big, big fan. So, on one day when all I wanted to do was paint, I took to rendering my favorite character from the tale, the ever tragic Lady Amalthea. It took some doing! Her expression had to be just right to truly be Amalthea

Don't smoke, kids

In several ideations, Herz has been a smoker. Around this time I was watching Twin Peaks for the first time and found a very striking scene where one of the characters lit a cigarette with the burner of a stove. I decided it was just trashy enough to be something Herz would pull.

for God's sakes, Herz, that's how people catch their hair on fire, y'know

Good Guy Ganon; Teen Link

Link was about ten years old when he first runs into Ganon

And then Ganon is flung into the future by mean old Queen Zelda, leaving Link to spend the next seven years trying to finish what Ganon started, and then following thirteen under Zelda's brainwashing, acting as the face of her Sheikah forces. I knew what he looked like while brainwashed, but not so much what he looked like as a teenager, hanging with the last dredges of the Gerudo, trying to stir up a rebellion.

He became primarily a bowman in this retelling, so I looked towards Japanese bowmen for inspiration.

Bonus; A teenaged Ganon showing Link some due affection

DWP; Revamping Keira

When last we left her, I was trying to create gauntlets for Keira to use as her core weapons. Pretty soon after that I was gearing up to give her an entirely new wardrobe.

Then I started realizing just how generic Keira's original design was, especially face-wise. Big round eyes, tiny perky nose, thin but defined lips, yeah no. If I was going out of my way to make her a hero, I wanted her to look like one, complete with a distinct design from her clothing to her features. 

 In the end, I settled on this design;