fanart and fangifts

[marycrawford]

I painted this for mumblemumble's fandomtrees post at the very last minute - the deadline for this gifting challenge always gets extended and it was helpful for me this time.

"fanart of beach concert fun times" was a great prompt and I love Zhu Yilong's whole look during this event. Though I did make up most of the blue in his hair, to reference his role in the Land of Broken Hearts movie.

Side note: taking pictures of fanart in a sketchbook and then trying to get the colors in the photo to match what you're actually seeing is quite a ride. I did already know that the camera is never as good as the human eye (especially not a smartphone camera) but it's weird. I would welcome tips on how to photograph art stuff on your phone.



(fountain pen, brush pen, watercolor)

Earlier, for guardian_wishlist, I asked for Zhu Yilong pics and moodboards and all that, as well as Guardian fanfic, and I got many fabulous things that you should check out:

- beautiful pictures and a few clips/gifs from the Land of Broken Hearts premiere in Beijing, the beach concert, and the roadshows, carefully curated by mumblemumble. And I used one of those photographs as reference for this fanart, so it's a full circle of fannish joy.

- a fabulous Zhu Yilong slideshow (and download link) created by sakana17. I keep this slideshow open in a tab in my browser, for fannish joy and inspiration.

- a lovely evocative short fic by nnozomi about Shen Wei riding the trams in Dragon City, which is so relevant to my interests as I take trams every day and adore them very nearly as much as I adore Shen Wei. (I'm going to a sketch outing in a dutch train museum next weekend and I can't wait.)

- a Zhu Yilong/Ocean moodboard by yue_ix that is pure art. He really is a sea creature, and the fic inspiration is lying in wait for me every time I look at this. It's so gorgeous and brings so many ideas into life.

Comments

[trobadora]

SO GORGEOUS!!!!

(Zhu Yilong or your art? YES. Both. So much. ♥ ♥ ♥ )

[marycrawford]

awwww the best compliment, thank you <3

[nnozomi]

oh, that painting really feels _like_ him! Lovely.
(and thank you for the kind rec, I love it that I wrote about trams inspired by the ones in my city and they worked with the ones in yours) <3

[marycrawford]

that painting really feels _like_ him!

Aw that's so nice to hear - that feels more important than the likeness, which is very hit or miss anyway (I blame his face, personally, for everything)

I bet I would love the trams where you are, too - I think Japan is at the very top of public transport delights, at least from my limited experience.

[nnozomi]

(I blame his face, personally, for everything)
Goes without saying ;)

I would love the trams where you are, too
Come and find out any time! I think the eighty-year-old ones have finally been retired, but there's still a lot of public transport pleasure to be had :)

a sketch outing in a dutch train museum next weekend
oh, and I forgot to say this sounds amazing! Keep us posted.

[marycrawford]

Come and find out any time!
Aw, one day! I loved visiting Japan before.

The sketch day is tomorrow and I hope I get to see some cool trains :D

[kat_lair]

Gorgeous painting, the hair in particular.

[marycrawford]

Aw thank you! I do really dig the hair <3

[clevermanka]

Oh that is GORGEOUS. Gosh I loved that look on him. An era too short, by far.

Thank you for the link to nnozomi's fic. I'd missed it.

[marycrawford]

Glad to share fic - I miss rec posts and the like, but don't usually have the energy to do them.

And thank you! I also love this long haired hippie look, as well as the blue hair one. I wish he'd had Meng Yinan follow him around to document the Hair Era.

[tinny]

Gorgeous art! <3

I have a similar problem with photographing art, and the only thing I know is to make sure the lighting is good - i.e. take the picture during daylight hours, but not with the sun directly shining onto it. I still have to color-correct afterwards but at least this way the colors come out the best way possible and the picture is crisp and not blurry.

Also thank you for the links, I didn't have time to look at the trees yet!

[marycrawford]

Aw thank you, both for the compliment and the tips! It helps to know that I'm on the right track - I have a north facing window and I try to take photos using that light when I can (tho it doesn't help that the light is so fleeting in these months), but as you said, I still need to color correct and figure out what looks most natural.

And yay, glad you're looking at the fandomtrees, all these gorgeous things should be seen <3

[grayswandir]

This is lovely! <3 I love how you did the black ink shading on his hair, and the watercolor is so pretty. I do know what you mean about phone cameras not getting the colors exactly as in real life -- I think you can probably get a closer match by putting your phone camera into manual mode and adjusting the white balance (I haven't tried it with a phone camera, but it's how you'd get more accurate colors with a digital camera). But the muted colors in the version you posted look really nice!

[marycrawford]

Aw, thanks for the kind words! I have no idea how to put the phone camera into manual mode, but I'll look into it. Adjusting the white balance is definitely what I struggle with - if the paper itself doesn't look as white as it does in real life, that is a big clue that I haven't done it correctly, and the paper in this pic is more yellow than it should be. Though the colors are still fairly cool and muted in real life, so I'm glad that worked out :D