here's an old wip that's been sitting in my folder for like 8 months because i couldn't decide if i wanted to commit to the painterly style i originally planned which i then ultimately scrapped after realizing i absolutely hate rendering:
i still really like this wip for its composition but i'm never gonna finish it so i'm posting it here to memorialize it!!!!!
Hi hi I'm back with that Genshin x ORV AU I've been working on on-and-off, and I spent an entire night plotting out the Mondstadt arc??? I need help LMAO
Overall premise - An apocalyptic modern AU that borrows the mechanics of the Star Stream from ORV (so like scenarios and constellations, none of the novel-come-to-life stuff). Aether and Paimon are siblings looking for their sister Lumine, who has gone missing since the scenarios began. What they don’t realize is that Lumine has already gone through the scenarios and is now constellation.
CONTEXT (link to the original post with the initial concept)
Anyways, a lot of it still needs to be fleshed out but Mondstadt arc details are below the cut!
Start of the scenarios:
Star siblings are not Mondstadt locals (only recently moved there)
Aether is picking up Paimon from school, they’re heading home via public transit
For whatever reason, Lumine is in another part of town or in a completely different city running some errands
Amber is the first to make small talk with Aether and Paimon on the bus/subway <3
SCENARIOS BEGIN
Main Scenario #1 - Kill one or more living beings to survive
Aether, Paimon, and starter characters (Amber, Kaeya, Lisa) survive bc of Paimon’s ant farm from her school’s show-and-tell
Cell service isn’t working, Aether can’t reach Lumine
Middle scenarios, meeting other parties:
Aether’s party meets up with Jean’s party at the station
Jean’s party consists of Barbara, Eula, Mika, Noelle, Klee
Jean is the incarnation of Lady Vennessa (historical-grade), JHW vibes
Aether’s party encounters Diluc who has taken in Diona after her dad died
Aether’s party encounters Rosaria and her party of teens that she took in (Razor, Bennett, Fischl, Mona)
Decarabian is a constellation that wishes for Mondstadt’s destruction and incarnations’ failure
(Idk what scenarios they should go through here, but they just need to somehow meet all the characters before the disaster scenario)
MAIN SCENARIO: DEFEAT THE DISASTERS TERRORIZING THE CITY
The disasters are Dvalin, Durin, Andrius
Dvalin and Andrius are former constellations in Barbatos’ nebula that have “fallen”
Split into smaller parties to fight them
Fight through sub-scenarios on the way to the bosses
During this time, Barbara gains Nameless Bard’s sponsorship (historical-grade) after encountering his statue, obtains his lyre
Dvalin - Aether, Paimon, Jean, Diluc
Durin - Kaeya, Amber, Eula, Mika
Andrius - Rosaria, Lisa, Razor, Bennett, Fischl
On standby taking refuge under Nameless Bard’s statue, holding down the fort - Barbara, Noelle, Klee, Diona, Mona
DVALIN:
Located in Decarabian’s tower
BOUNTY SCENARIO - Barbatos wants Aether to save Dvalin instead of slaying him
Decarabian is goading other incarnations into slaying Dvalin by bribing with coins
Barbatos attempts to help by descending but gets stopped by probability
Aether succeeds in freeing Dvalin, obtains Barbatos’ stigma as a reward, Dvalin becomes an ally
Party returns to standby team to wait for others to return
Barbatos blesses/upgrades Barbara’s lyre, can now be used to communicate with him or summon Dvalin
Aether tells Barbatos about his journey to find Lumine, Barbatos will try to locate her whereabouts
ANDRIUS:
Located in the forests of Wolvendom
Andrius doesn’t actually want to fight, tries to resist the Star Stream and the Abyss Order but fails
Razor MVP saves Andrius from the Abyss’ control, nullifying the scenario
As thanks, Andrius becomes an ally and Razor’s sponsor
OR Andrius does get killed but gets reborn as a wolf pup under Razor’s care
Party returns to standby team to wait for others to return (they are the first to return, before Aether’s party)
DURIN:
Located in the mountains of Dragonspine
Kaeya’s party finds Albedo’s party (Sucrose, Timaeus) already there trying to fight Durin, both parties join forces
Durin takes over Albedo's body which makes the situation much much worse (inspired by 4dango’s “Voices in Ice and Snow” series)
Aether and others are concerned about Kaeya’s party for taking a worryingly long time, fly over on Dvalin’s back to help
Klee reunites with corrupted Albedo
After new forces join and the wounded evacuate (via Dvalin), remaining party to fight Durin consists of Aether, Paimon, Kaeya, Jean, Diluc, Klee
Everyone wants to save Albedo/Durin like they did with Dvalin and Andrius, but Durin is far too corrupted by the Abyss
Durin is purged along with Albedo’s consciousness, his body is cursed and turns into chalk (maybe he does this to himself sacrifice to save everyone else?)
Aether obtains Durin’s blood, uses it to forge Festering Desire sword (dw he’ll still keep his dull blade as a backup)
Aftermath:
Barbatos informs Aether that he can’t find Lumine in Mondstadt, even among the deceased
Barbatos has exhausted all his probability during disaster scenario, all he can do now is open a portal to Liyue dome for Aether and Paimon, maybe his old friend the geo archon can help
Everyone else stays behind to defend Mondstadt from future threats, also to search for a way to cure Albedo (using the power of constellation Rhinedottir)
This is was originally supposed to be Aether and Paimon -centric but omg I'm so proud I managed to somehow include all the playable Mondstadt characters in this arc?? (Don’t expect this to happen in future arcs tho lmao)
Links:
CONTEXT (link to the original post with the initial concept)
Okay I can’t draw fast enough to catch up with my brain so I’m just gonna blabber out what I have so far via text
Here’s the TL;DR - An apocalyptic modern AU that borrows the mechanics of the Star Stream from ORV (so like scenarios and constellations, none of the novel-come-to-life stuff). Aether and Paimon are siblings looking for their sister Lumine, who has gone missing since the scenarios began. What they don’t realize is that Lumine has already gone through the scenarios and is now constellation.
More details below the cut!
Setup + Main Scenario #1:
Aether is picking up Paimon from school, they’re heading home via public transit
For whatever reason, Lumine is in another part of town or in a completely different city running some errands
Scenarios begin
Main Scenario #1 - Kill one or more living beings to survive
Aether, Paimon, and the starter characters (Amber, Kaeya, Lisa) survive because Paimon conveniently had an ant farm
Cell service isn’t working, Aether can’t reach Lumine and doesn’t know where she is or if she’s still alive
Main goal is to reunite with Lumine
Character mechanics:
Weapon classes and attributes are based on their in-game characteristics
Stigmas are their elemental bursts/skills
Sponsors are their in-game constellations, with some exceptions (i.e. Amber’s constellation would be Lepus, but characters like Xiangling who have a connection to another god like Guoba/Marchosius will have them as their sponsor instead)
Archons are archon-grade or celestial-grade (idk which name to go with yet) constellations, which are the highest known grade of constellations, and they generally don’t have incarnations
Scenario mechanics:
Each region has its own dome
Main scenarios of each dome are based on in-game archon quests
Archons may request bounty quests that deviate from the main scenario (e.g. Barbatos wants Aether to save Dvalin instead of slaying him)
Scenarios are being streamed by Abyss Mages? Their higher-ups are Abyss Heralds and Lectors? (idk what to replace the Dokkaebi and the Bureau yet lmao)
And moving onto specific character stuff!
Aether:
Unable to receive a constellation sponsor for some reason (maybe Lumine’s interference?)
Instead he gains abilities and stigmas by receiving blessings from archons when he completes their bounty quests
(This part deviates a lot from ORV) Aether and Paimon travel to different domes after completing a dome’s main scenarios to continue looking for Lumine
They start in Mondstadt, but the Star Siblings aren’t actually Mondstadt locals (they recently moved there)
Eventually ascends to a constellation
Paimon:
Like Aether, unable to receive a constellation sponsor
GIVE HER YOO MIA’S INVENTORY SKILL ASKDHSLFJSKDNAKANA
Gets a cloak item that allows her to float! Maybe it also has a subspace storage function (for EVEN MORE INVENTORY SPACE)
Not a fighter but has high utility
Other character ideas:
Timmie - bird tamer LMAOOOO (pseudo LGY or SYS)
Dainsleif - returnee or guide from Khaenri’ah that was destroyed in the scenarios
Kazuha - killed his friend in the first scenario (pseudo LJH), but like, his friend stabbed himself while grabbing Kazuha’s hands around the sword to allow him to survive :(((((
Xingqiu is the incarnation of Guhua!
This is very Aether and Paimon -centric so I’m thinking a lot of the other playable characters are gonna have their own plotlines separate from the main story...
finally posting this - thank you to everyone for a wonderful anime north!! \o/ this con prep season was the longest ive ever prepped for a con, and i think it was the busiest con for me ever. it makes me so happy to see people taking my art home!! 😭
so thank you for coming by anime north and chatting and supporting me! and thank you esp to the people who came by gifting their own merch?!??? - either fanart or ocs?! and im honored to see your beautiful ocs?!?? what the hell you guys are the GOAT thank you all 🥹🥹
it was so busy that i wish i had time to walk around & talk to other artists! i really wanted to get dango and onigiri at the delta too.. didnt really get time to eat so im sorry if you saw me shove 10 timbits in my mouth at the end of the con. yes i really did that .
throughout the con i kept saying "he just like me.. HE JUST LIKE ME FR!!!!!!!" every 5 seconds like an NPC. im sorry if you had to hear that more than once.
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i wasn't able to post my con catalogue for AN on tumblr and instagram... i was so busy.. dying... maybe if i do other cons this summer ill post something similar. i had a lot of new stuff this year so formatting it was rough haha. here it is! more thoughts under the cut (bc this report really is more for me, but maybe someone can find something useful)
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this is more for me honestly, so it will be really long. but i'm sharing it in case it may be helpful for others. i find that i'm always looking back at my old con reports, so typing out all of my thoughts are really useful to me. overall a great con, fellow artists and customers alike really inspire me to do better in my art.
comparisons to last year: (since i didn't end up making a con report last year!!!!!)
location: the artist alley layout was huge, and im really happy there are a lot more newcomers to the con scene. i know how much my first con experience meant to me, so i want others to join in on the fun! i don't know how the artist alley staff managed to fit so many artists in the building now! we got placed in a corner where there was a lot of breathing room, and a lot of traffic. i got lost a few times (didn't actually have time to walk around, but you know, it was to get in and out of the con centre and to the washroom/water station) because the amount of tables was overwhelming however, and the layout was super confusing. however i didn't feel as if there were any significant bottlenecks in traffic when i was taking some walk breaks.
commissions: last year it was still busy, but i still had some time to draw a handful of commissions. this year was a non stop barrage of customers! i think i may retire on the spot commissions at cons, just because ive always found it too stressful to draw right at the con, even if the traffic is slow. (and im lazy)
fandoms: last year i felt that it was... never so difficult to sell niche and old fandoms...? most people bought primarily 3 things from me at AN 2022, and not much else was touched. it was a struggle, and i even wondered if my art plateaued, if it wasn't good, if i should stop doing conventions altogether, at least for a little while. this year was so surprising with how much love there was for old and niche fandoms. two people from quebec came by and noticed the old fandoms and mentioned that if i was able to come to otakuthon, i should, people in mtl love nostalgia.. i'm gonna be honest otakuthon was pretty bad expenses-wise for me, but i heard it picked up since cons came back in 2022. it is a really beautiful city so mayhaps.. i will come for miss montreal.................
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and a separate section on the new merch i made:
the new sticker sheets i printed (one piece, baccano, breaking bad/better call saul) did so well! nts to add luffys scar bc apparently i forgot... ive seen this dumbass's face for hundreds of eps and yet i still forgot .
these are a far cry to the sticker sheets i designed in previous years. many sticker places restrict you on how many stickers you can place on a sheet due to spacing requirements... the more stickers you have + the closer they are, the higher the margin of error, which i understand is why many professional sticker printers have these restrictions in place.
the artists i worked with for my AN stickers are so genuinely nice and accommodating with my requests. I just went wild haha. the sheets with the most stickers are brba/bcs at 27 stickers and one piece at 32 stickers.
2021 (top) vs 2023 (bottom), the chara stickers on the new sheet are larger & 2x as many item stickers! the new design makes greater use of the space. my octopath 1 stickers are meant for planners but you could use it for anything!
in 2017 i could only realistically fit 6 ish stickers on a sheet (for vinyl, not cricut home printing) due to printing restrictions. these costed about $3.30 CAD per sheet from s/ticker/mule (not worth it for the price point AT ALL... but i wanted to try sheets for the first time)... and yes it's a tiny 4x7 as well. it was a hard sell for $7 in 2017. but im glad artists have been pricing them a bit higher + sheets have become much more customizable.
now on to charms:
i am so obsessed with this borderless charm look on the new charms... they look like candy... thank you guys for loving my new charms!! i tried out a new technique with designing charms. and im so happy with how they turned out. the charm manu was super accommodating and they are so much better than vograce who fucked up my order so bad in 2022 🤡👍
the soul eater charms from last year were kind of a precursor to this. last year i tried something a bit different than my usual with the transparent bgs, which require full bleed in the file setup, and that was already pretty new for me. i find that charm sales are usually pretty mid for me, so during the pandemic i took a soft break from making them, and i wanted to do research based on others' designs and really tried to improve my design sense. to me i want to design charms that aren't just a flat piece of artwork that gets printed, but something that utilizes the capabilities of the acrylic material it gets printed on 🤔
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fandoms/merch types i want to try next time i table:
more soul eater? it's one of my favourite animes and im very happy for the soul eater love this year. my partner kept selling out of her soul eater prints even though it was her first time tabling!
fma! ive been rereading AND rewatching it lately. it's one of my top 5 anime of all time so me drawing anything for it is a struggle, the bar is set so high. i never end up having the time or ideas to draw anything for it (and the aesthetics are very different from my usual taste)
shadows house has been one of my favorites recently!
dungeon meshi, the print i made was back in 2018 and i think it's time to retire it! it sold out at AN, thank you! with the way the story has developed in the last 5 years, i really want to draw something new for it if i can.
blue period needs more love!
golden kamuy.....
and many more.....
i also want to try mini prints maybe...
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administrative stuff:
next time before the con, i definitely need an organized chart i print out before the con so im not.. literally writing down each transaction... 🧍♀️
clamps...?
possibly new display? grids even with plastic panels are heavy... and they can be a pain to put up. this AN we had our neighbors and good friends @nappotuna & @stripeyworm helping us put the grids up, they did an absolute speedy banger job! but it might have taken way longer without 4 hands on the grid work.
if we had used tape to hold our prints up as well who knows how long it would have taken. we used magnets, apparently a lot of people were using them at TCAF. they were so easy to put up and adjustable. *jesse pinkman voice* MAGNETS, BITCH!!!!!!!
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merch i may shelve/do less of:
i really appreciate when artists talk about these kind of things behind the scenes... when products do well, when others dont, products w surprising responses, the factors that we think affect sales... the hard truth is that not everything sells, just bc the art is good =/= good sales, etc etc.
lately ive found it so fun to design sticker sheets over individual die cut stickers!! i understand now why some people only specialize in stickers!! it's also such a pain to stock individual characters and have greatly varying levels, bc of customer interest, and bc of how printing stickers works, you often get extras of random characters due to overflow 😭.. like at some point I had 7 jeannes and like only 1 of the other vnc charas bc the printer had so many extras and she's arguably less popular HDHFJSJHDJS anyways, i think i'll probably do less die cut individual stickers for my next con...
anything old that i only have 1 or a few copies left (meaning i won't reprint) i may not have for display anymore bc of space concerns... before my next con ill just post them on social media to have people claim them!
i may want to do less 3" charms in the future...? theyre a hard sell online prob bc i cant really do deals (i could but id have to be checking the stock every few hours which is not ideal), but they do a lot better in person due to deals.
it's been fun to try specialty products (I've tried scrunchies, stamps, pouches, microfiber cloths, coasters, enamel pins), but i... find they dont sell well for me... maybe my art doesnt have that wide mainstream nostalgic merch type appeal idk... maybe im just not good at designing or advertising them wahahaha. (specialty charms are still charms and i wouldn't necessary consider them a part of this)
my jojo buttons were really popular at anime north 2019 and fan expo 2019, but when the part 5 anime concluded, i noticed that interest for the interest completely moved on 😭 (or it's possible that everyone who was interested bought the buttons already?). part 6 anime didn't rejuvenate the same level of interest. it was a struggle to sell even more than a handful of these at each AN 2022 and 2023. right now they're taking up a lot of space in my con luggage that i'd prefer for newer, better art. i still love the art i did, but unfortunately, i think ill give them a go if i get into otakuthon (and maybe fanexpo too), then it'll be time to retire the jojo buttons. sometimes fandoms come and go so fast, and it's difficult to keep old merch around when they don't have any more interest and when they're occupying a lot of space.
my banana fish lollipop charms do not sell well, and i only sold 5 of them in a 3 year period, across cons and my shop. i created a bargain bin at AN, and it really helped me get rid of old things! unfortunately even in the bargain bin i could not sell a single one of the banana fish charms. maybe it's the art that's not appealing, the characters aren't recognizable, the price point for a lollipop charm was too high, i wasn't hitting the right audience, the market was slow around the time, even when it was included in my promo post... etc. these lollipops were my first time making specialty charms. unfortunately i think that's the last time making lollipop charms, and about time to recycle these charms, so that i have space for fresher and better art!
other thoughts moving on:
maybe go back to simplifying my art a lot more... if i keep making drawings like my great ace attorney tarot + zine, witch hat atelier print, and pandora hearts print, then id not only take 1 month per illustration, id also be destroying my arm 😭 i stopped stylizing my art in 2021 bc i found that my art was getting sloppy in 2020 + i was really struggling in life drawing in school. i needed to buckle down and be more conscientious when drawing poses, learning anatomy and structure... and bc getting back into anime in 2021 really helped me cope with the isolation of the lockdown, so that had a huge influence on my style. but bc of that i think it just took longer and longer to make illustrations and that's something i no longer really wish for.
i really like the period of my art in 2017 with a lot of my persona 4/5 art bc it still has structure even though it's simplified... and the style in my zelda icon... mayhaps experiment a bit more this summer if i can...
ellievsbear
dailybridgerton
discoholicmusic
theartofmadeline
izzy806
baratheonpilled
andulkaphoto
snowghoul
