Hannah of Hannah Banana Art Studio is a friend of mine. She loves drawing Pokemon characters and hybrid people, and she also is starting an art commissions business. So she reached out to me earlier this month and basically said, “Hey, we should do an art collab!”
We started brainstorming ideas for this artistic collaboration and decided that I should redraw one of her characters in my style, and she should redraw one of my characters in hers. It would be fun to see how much the drawings would change when they were taken on by a new artist.
And when we learned that we both had characters with the ability to shapeshift, the collab took on a fun theme.
Hannah’s Shapeshifter: Odessa
Hannah started by sending me an original character of hers named Odessa. Odessa can not only shapeshift, but also heal, make objects, and control water and fire. She is one of the last of her kind (and one of the most powerful creatures in her world); and she has several dragon-like features, such as her ears, wings, and a pointed tail.
I had fun recreating Odessa in my own art style. It was a challenge to capture her fierce dragon characteristics and balance it with the fun, casual personality I saw in her original picture.
My Shapeshifter: Ethel
After that, is was my turn to pass Hannah my own shapeshifter.
Ethel Fairweather comes from the world of my novel-in-progress, All These Voices Not My Own. In this world, everyone’s powers have to do with changing how they are perceived. Mimicry, body-swapping, color-changing, and the like. Shapeshifting is a more upperclass power, and Ethel ties her identity to her appearance and likability.
Ethel uses her abilities to make herself more beautiful to the point where she doesn’t know and doesn’t care what she actually looks like. She’s popular in her friend group. However, she can’t satisfy everyone’s taste, and this makes Ethel insecure. Since she is willing to go to great lengths to make herself better, she becomes an antagonist in my book. But don’t worry—she learns some lessons along the way. =)
Her dress was really fun to design! I got some inspiration from the recent Little Women movie and learned a lot about drawing realistic folds as I went.
I loved how Hannah’s version of my drawing came out after she made Ethel part-cat. The feline Ethel captured her personality perfectly. A little sneaky and self-centered, but graceful.
Get in Touch
I hope you enjoyed our little shapeshifter art collab! If you’re on Instagram, be sure to check out our accounts if you would like to see more of our artwork and keep up with any opportunities for art commissions.
Do you like fantasy? Do you like art? Do you want to see more of this kind of thing in the future? Let us know what you think in the comments!
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