Need some advice on a character adaptation

[fesworks]

Now I have obtained permission from Mat to borrow Lucy Koneko (from Badly Drawn Kitties fame) as a special guest to my current arc in my comic. I know when people borrow each other's characters, they tend to draw them in their comic's unique style.

So I'm looking for some outside opinions. I need to make sure that I draw Lucy well enough that she will be recognizable in my style.

First I have His image of Lucy. Next is my rendition of Lucy mimicing his style (I did the same for my BDK wedding Fan Art), the next is my 2nd adaptation into PSI (my comic) format..... Below are my characters of PSI.



I added the © notices because this image could easily leak elsewhere, and I wanted to make sure Mat's creation is properly credited

If worse comes to worse, I can easily just draw the BDK style while surrounded by my style. I've always been bad with cat mouths and breasts. Other than that, I *think* that the style conversion looks decent, as I add "fuzziness" to several places (ala my style). Still have some work on the arms, but not much.... Its easier since Lucy is mostly black fur.

Note: Its hard to find an image of Lucy or Lydia where their feet are shown. I'm guessing they are shoeless (in most cases anthros are), but the shoes that Lucy is wearing is something I'm introducing into my comic world. The toes and claws portion is opened for better walking and climbing control natural to an anthro (rather than a human). I'm still working on her pair since its the least of my concerns.

any tips, comments, or suggestions would be helpful. I'm going to get some sleep to go to work tomorrow, Then I'll work on some more sketches after work.

[Xepher]

Me, I'd say draw his style for his character. For one, it makes it more recognizable, but it also shows you can do different styles, which tends to lend you a bit more respect as an artist. A lot of crossover strips I see, will draw a character in mostly the original style, but change one thing to the artist's personal style, usually the most obvious "style" thing they do. In your case, it'd be a tossup between the eyes and the "fuzzy." I'd say keep the original eyes and face (your pupils are two small, btw) but add fuzzy. Also, I'd say make sure you do true black. Your drawings are a bunch of scribbles to fill in sorta black, actually go use some black ink or something maybe. That way it makes an obviously different style, as a guest should be. There's a series of Lilo & Stitch cartoons where they do crossovers with the other disney afternoon shows. Kim Possible, Jake Long, The Proud Family, Recess, Etc... All those shows have radically different art styles than Lilo & Stitch, yet when they're put together, it works really well.

[fesworks]

Yea definetly gotta do that full black. These were moreso sketches as my ink pen is dying  

I guess I have not seen as much crossovers then, It just seemed to me to be more adapted to other people's styles (granted much more talented ) But I will definetly try that approach! sounds like it would work well!

The eyes was also the big thing... I never could decide how I should do eyes... so I ended up making pupil-less eyes... I wonder what my guys would look like if made them with different eyes

But certainly, thanks for the ideas on how to tackle this!

[fesworks]

I think I'm am on the right track now.... nevermind how her hand looks, mistrokes with the pen



I definetly want her to have fingers, though the digits don't really exist in BDK, and I think the bare feet are ok, but I'm going to try some toe-less shoe designs (since its taking place in a state park campsite).

But She is definetly looking a lot better from starting with her original design and then changing a bit here and there. Adding the fur fuz looks pretty good (not too much like Ernst's fur). I wanted wiskers, but I tried it and it really kinda messed the look up badly. so no wiskers for sure.

But I'm definetly liking this much better than what I originally was trying!


Other than fine-tuning, The only thing i'd really wanna do (unless i missed something) would be to just, ever-so-slightly, is give her dress a touch of grey... just enough to contrast it from the rest of the whiteness... seems too white, but then again may look just fine when actually in context.

[fesworks]

Finally! the first appearace of Lucy is up! Here is the comic:


I'm really happy with how it has turned out.

Still deciding on the feet though, but I might end up dodging that by not showing that much of her

I have another shot of her coming on Friday.