FE4 Fanart: The Brady Bunch Effect
Jul. 19th, 2012 12:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mark_asphodelNo, this isn't about stepsiblings making out.
One thing I've found a LOT of in FE4's subfandom in particular is what I call "Brady Bunch" art-- all the playable cast, plus select enemies and NPC, tucked into little boxes. At first it struck me as some weird and vaguely boring exercise, until I realized it had to be a "thing." There's a pattern to it, as some blank templates attest. The order of the characters is always the same, and then at the end there's like, places to put the artist's favorite skill and favorite pairing, or something like that.
After I got that, I started to enjoy it. Some are indeed dull, but others are infused with a great deal of personality. Some are line-drawing cartoons or downright sketchtastic, while others are a tad more elaborate. Some are subdued in presentation, while others stray "outside the box" in a literal sense, as characters interact with one another. There's usually a degree of favoritism or apparent anti-favoritism displayed, or elements of WTF. Consequently, they end up being an insight into the artist and their biases, and become entertaining even when the artist has clear limitations at, say, doing character mouths.
Mind you, I think I like some formats for ensemble pieces better in concept (I think this sort is called "Trust Me"?), but these Brady Bunch things do have some charm. I seem to have lost the link to one of the cutest versions, a black-and-white line art one that had a pleasing cartoon style for most characters, but full-blown manga detail for Julia and the artist's other pets. It also had the Most Pathetic Tinny Ever, which is saying a lot!
And some of them are super fricking weird. This artist did both Gen1 and Gen2, and it's just... bizarre. I never thought of Scrabblebits as a Robert Smith-from-The-Cure kind of rock star before. Hannibal looks like Da Vinci's self portrait. Altenna looks like she's modeling perfume. I don't even know what to make of Aideen.
[Gen 2 artists get props for including the sub kiddies. Some do, some don't.]
Got more?
One thing I've found a LOT of in FE4's subfandom in particular is what I call "Brady Bunch" art-- all the playable cast, plus select enemies and NPC, tucked into little boxes. At first it struck me as some weird and vaguely boring exercise, until I realized it had to be a "thing." There's a pattern to it, as some blank templates attest. The order of the characters is always the same, and then at the end there's like, places to put the artist's favorite skill and favorite pairing, or something like that.
After I got that, I started to enjoy it. Some are indeed dull, but others are infused with a great deal of personality. Some are line-drawing cartoons or downright sketchtastic, while others are a tad more elaborate. Some are subdued in presentation, while others stray "outside the box" in a literal sense, as characters interact with one another. There's usually a degree of favoritism or apparent anti-favoritism displayed, or elements of WTF. Consequently, they end up being an insight into the artist and their biases, and become entertaining even when the artist has clear limitations at, say, doing character mouths.
Mind you, I think I like some formats for ensemble pieces better in concept (I think this sort is called "Trust Me"?), but these Brady Bunch things do have some charm. I seem to have lost the link to one of the cutest versions, a black-and-white line art one that had a pleasing cartoon style for most characters, but full-blown manga detail for Julia and the artist's other pets. It also had the Most Pathetic Tinny Ever, which is saying a lot!
And some of them are super fricking weird. This artist did both Gen1 and Gen2, and it's just... bizarre. I never thought of Scrabblebits as a Robert Smith-from-The-Cure kind of rock star before. Hannibal looks like Da Vinci's self portrait. Altenna looks like she's modeling perfume. I don't even know what to make of Aideen.
[Gen 2 artists get props for including the sub kiddies. Some do, some don't.]
Got more?
no subject
Date: 2012-07-19 08:18 pm (UTC)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBCDcswAK4g
The song is called "Trust Me".
Also it looks like the thing with boxes is essentially a meme for artists! We have them too.
no subject
Date: 2012-07-19 09:17 pm (UTC)Also it looks like the thing with boxes is essentially a meme for artists! We have them too.
I figured that after I found the blank template; I just wish I understood the "optional" boxes better.
no subject
Date: 2012-07-19 09:39 pm (UTC)Axefighter
"Charisma" skill icon
"Elite" skill icon
most liked coupling (transliterated as "OTP" perhaps!)
no subject
Date: 2012-07-19 09:43 pm (UTC)I admit that the renditions of the axefighter and the skill icons often came across to me as... creepy. And often jarringly out of sync with the rest of the panel.
no subject
Date: 2012-07-19 09:54 pm (UTC)There are a few interesting fields in the second to last row of the Second Gen layouts, too.
Left to right:
http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=big&illust_id=1947807
Palmark, Generic Enemy Graphic "Hair-Parted-to-One-Side"*, The Old Fortuneteller, Fenrir, Narga
I have no idea what's written for "Old Fortuneteller" on this one, by the way. Looks like a colloquialism. Considering what it gets from image search, I think it's some kind of emotional expression.
*I think this is the reference to that one portrait they keep using repeatedly for generals. You know the one?
no subject
Date: 2012-07-19 09:58 pm (UTC)Ah. They usually use the old dude, sometimes with Anna for lulz.
*I think this is the reference to that one portrait they keep using repeatedly for generals. You know the one?
Magorn-Zyne-Papilon-the other dude, yeah. I suspected that but I wasn't 100% sure. Those dudes appear to be memetastic on a small scale all by themselves. And Fenrir explains another repeated occurrence of creepy-as-fuck. -_-
no subject
Date: 2012-07-19 09:45 pm (UTC)Bottom row of this: (Most second gen renderings use this one?)
http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=big&illust_id=18345441
Axefighter, Charisma Skill Icon, The Continent of Jugdral, OTP
Bottom row of this: (Most first gen renderings use this one?)
http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=big&illust_id=1885613
Macbeth, Elliot, Elite Skill Icon, OTP
The last two you linked seem to be of a somewhat different nature, considering that the order is different and everything.
no subject
Date: 2012-07-19 09:50 pm (UTC)The last two you linked seem to be of a somewhat different nature, considering that the order is different and everything.
I only included them because they're actually in boxes. They're just weird. @_@
no subject
Date: 2012-07-19 09:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-20 09:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-20 01:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-06-06 09:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-06-07 03:48 pm (UTC)Y'know, roll with a Chrom/Maribell pairing plus Lissa/Someone Wacky and Emmeryn/Robin and I think you have a sitcom.