LUTCE

IM YOUR BIGGEST FAN!

could you please give us every nitty gritty detail in making your cards??? i know when i asked you before about which card you'd like to add to the banner you picked the colors but has your favorite changed??? what was the hardest part in creating the cards??? did you have fun????

Lol you nerd! Thank you for all your kind words, and yes! I had a lot of fun with the LU trading event!😊

When it comes to the cards, I started with poses -- what would each character do if someone pointed a phone camera at them? A few sketches, a few reference shots of K-pop stars posing, some testing of colors, and over the course of about a month, I laid out the pencil sketches, inking, then colors during TV time at night after work.

(I'm still not too confident in my color pencil work, but I enjoy it too much to not do it.)

Each of the cards are 2in × 3in in real life, as I tend to draw small. It's an old habit from when I was in school and had to conserve paper because we couldn't afford too much of it.

idk if i already sent you an ask but thank you for participating in the first LUTCE!!!

can you tell us everything about your photographs! did you take pictures specifically for the wip snippets you chose??? or were they pictures you already had??? which card is your favorite??

your stickers too! i remember seeing that you were proud of your sky one and that the poses were something you enjoyed figuring out! tell us about how you picked the three boys and the process behind them too!!!

Thank you!!

About the photographs, I took the one with the fish some days before lutce began. It was sheer luck because at the moment I was not planning on making back cards and I just wanted to photograph some pretty fish. Here is the original.

Then I learned some basic editing in GIMP to make the text a little more visible :)

I had some other landscape photos in case I needed more, but I didn't have any wips that would fit. I'm keeping those for next year maybe.

I DID make the one with the socks specially for lutse. I asked my partner for his socks and took dozens of shots (he raised an eyebrow and immediately knew it had to do with linked universe xD).

About the stickers, I had already doodled Sky many months ago in my sketch notebook just because, so I reused it. I made Four and Warriors specially for this. In fact, I originally wanted it to be Time, Four and Warriors because I have drawn those three very little, and that's a crime. Sadly, my Time doodle was not that good, so I had to improvise.

And yes!! I think the poses are one of my favorite things to do! Most of the time, I have a clear idea of what I want, and then I have to look for references or take photos of myself to get the pose right. It's actually a really fun process.

if you could, I'd love it if you could share with us your process of making your sailor links! it looks like you used color pencil! is that your go to art medium?? what made you pair each sailor scout with each link??? tell us everything!

an ask? To talk about my Sailor Links and my art process? Ofc I'll share! 🧡 I’ve put orange headings for anybody who only cares about how I chose which sailor scout for which Link, or or only cares about the art process bit.

Matching up Links with the Sailor Scouts bit

Okay so I’ll preface this with I saw the english dubbed original sailor moons back in like, the early noughties I think? and not even all of them because I was beholden to whatever was shown on the TV channels etc. So I only know who the core five are and had the google for the outer scouts and went purely off vibes for those!

So first up I drew Wild. Who became Sailor Mars because A) long hair and sassy pose and B) he can use fire in so many creative ways in his games it felt right. Next up was Hyrule, again a super easy choice. His lightning spell meant he HAD to be Sailor Jupiter (also - he is the one who embodies the green colour palette the most I think!). I then drew Wars, who simply must be Venus with her long swishy hair, diva posing and the swirling star ribbons during her transformation animation, and the pose lets the scarf shine! By this point I’d decided that Time was going to be Sailor Moon because first, hilarious, second the leader, and third it felt fitting with his silver colour scheme. And Wild would be Mercury, with her fun pose and I felt like bubbles and water were a fair power for him to have as the sailor.

So then we get to the rest of the chain and I’m like huh whats happening here. Sky I knew from the very beginning wasn’t getting tied to a OG Sailor Scout, but I was going to base him off the teaser art for Skyward Sword - you remember this one before the title announcement, with his back to us, no sword, and a mysterious figure (Fi)?

It just screamed Sailor pose to me, and an opportunity to show off his Sailcloth as part of his uniform!

And Four too, I had decided to split into the Colours and use the classic Four Swords official art as inspiration, because otherwise trying to fit the four colours onto a single sailor uniform wasn’t going to lead to something particularly sophisticated, and it got to show off what is unique about him too! It meant I could play with the colours and give them each their own colour as the main colour but one of their counterparts colours for their bows, so I gave them their neighbours colour to tie the piece together visually. I think Vio turned out the best/is my fave which is a shame because he’s at the back, but the ripples and folds in the skirt are just lovely and unfortunately covered up by Green!

Also I headcanon that Four is one person until he becomes a Sailor Scout and his transformation is becoming Four scouts and the rest are like WTF YOU MULTIPLY?!. It’s mundane singular Four, or its magical sailor scouts plural. no other options. hehe

So that left Twilight, and Legend. Legend was easy, as soon as I saw a Outer Sailor Scout with a huge key/magic rod item, I was like yes thats the collector he will have a magic rod for that! Twilight was hardest but I ended up with a pose reference from Sailor Uranus which it wasn’t until I finished drawing and put him and Time’s cards side by side I realised ended up looking quite similar! But I decided I liked that with their blood relation and close relationship in the comic and how much Twilight looks up to Time etc.

Art process bit

first off - I'm glad to hear it looks like coloured pencil on paper cos I was trying to get the 'could imagine this as a real homemade paper trading card' style! I drew everything digitally in Procreate, using 3 brushes for the main card (2 that come with it and the free paper texture brush by Olguioo). I used the Florentine brush for the lining, shading and flat colouring (found under the charcoal menu) and the Stanley brush for the blocking.

Using the Florentine brush adds that pencil on paper texture by letting some of the canvas underneath peak through the texture of the lines, and allowing me to scribble shade or turn my pencil sideways to catch the broadside for a block of pencil. You might catch in the process video underneath that I blocked in a similar purple to my lines (and the same purple I actually used for the shading layer) but then put in my flat colours using the Florentine and didnt fully fill it, letting some of texture bring thought the speckling of the purple base, just like an under-colour in a traditional medium (you can particularly see it on Wilds hair, arms, bodice and legs, and Legends skin and white outfit parts!)

The other final thing I think that adds to the effect is actually an accident that I've only realised the cause of in the last two weeks - when I set up my canus templates I put in the inches dimensions and did not notice the DPI drop to like, 100 or less. So that's why they are actually smaller than 2.5 x 3.5 inches they should be and adds to the grainy look 😅

But yeah is this my go to medium? In traditional mediums I am a pencil lover. I'm a bit of a control freak and want to get in there with fine shading detail and contrast and using a full shading range from white to black. When I did my art GCSE back in the day my best pieces were ones in monochrome and often 2B pencil (I've since learnt about existence of 4B and 6B but the art department offered us 2B pencils at 20p each so that's what I used). I've also discovered charcoal pencils (not just charcoal sticks) which love (especially doing white charcoal on black paper) and chalk pastels/pencils which are my go-to if I want to add colour. Paint has always been a hit and miss relationship for me, I can either do it alright enough for a piece or I really really can't and there's no saving it. I think it's because I don't actually know what I'm doing or proper technique 😂 this has definitely bled over into my digital art but I am trying to explore using more painterly brushes and techniques.

Thanks for a fun ask 🧡 if there's something else you want to know or know more about please let me know I'm happy to yap

Time lapse video below (warning layers are toggled on and off creating something like a flash effect) - showing the Wild card (first one I did and setting the style), Legend (the one that came through easiest and was probably the middle) and Four (the most different and also the last one I did) and the inspiration / reference image for each

I'd love it if you would share with us your process of making your cards and stickers for LUTCE. What was your first step? How did you get the idea? What was the most difficult part??

Omg hiiii :D

Ok so uh... buckle up because this is gonna be long

The base idea was making an entire matching set of nine cards. So I went fishing on Pinterest for inspiration and came across this art nouveau artist, Alphonse Mucha, and his piece Primrose and Feather. It really gave me Sky and Twilight vibes, so I decided to pastiche the piece to make two matching cards of, well, Sky and Twilight. Then I went on to get more pieces of Mucha for inspiration to keep the theme, but I didn't find enough that suited what I was looking for (art nouveau lithograph of a character standing upright with a plausible pose to potentially be holding something), so I took some other similar art nouveau pieces.

I didn't want to draw complicated clothing so I just went with long, drapey, flowy dresses. I wanted each character to have a unique neckline though, to avoid making them all identical. Those necklines are all made of a thick golden strip, and on those strips are different patterns made with shapes that I thought corresponded well with each character to give them each a more personal touch.

OF COURSE, there's the earrings, which are the central idea for this. I wanted them to be the main focus of each card, so I made them absolutely HUGE. Also, I wanted them to have meaning and not just look pretty (though looking pretty was a given), so I chose objects characteristic to each character and made them into earrings.

Sky got a fancy version of the brooch that keeps his sailcloth around his neck, which is also a reference to Fi; Twilight of course got his infamous Shadow Crystal as an earring; Warriors got the brooch that keeps his scarf in place, which can be seen on Jojo's "Scarf Anatomy" reference drawing; Wind got a fancier and more butterfly-accurate version of his joy pendant; Legend got all three of his medallions as a treat, but I didn't want them to be all on the same earring because I'd have to make them so small that you couldn't see the details properly, so he actually has two earrings PLUS a necklace; Hyrule has the shield that is depicted on the official art for Zelda I, specifically the "North-American Classic Series Box Art", according to the Zelda Wiki (don't come at me for my poor reserach skills, I'm tired); Four has his Minish feather but way bigger, coupled with the four kinstones he's supposed to wear on his belt (though Jojo forgets they exist, I think); Time has a blinged-out version of the three magic spells that he got in Ocarina of Time (Nayru's Love, Din's Fire and Farore's Wind); Wild is wearing the same earring(s) Zelda wears in Tears of the Kingdom because I couldn't find an iconic object that I could turn into a good-looking earring (I considered the Sheikah slate, but it frankly would've looked eugh).

Then finally, the backgrounds of the cards. I drew the first one for Sky's card, then copied it onto every other card. I just changed the colour for each character. And each colour also has a signification.

Soft blue for Sky because, well, the sky, and it's a calming colour, good for sleeping; emerald green for Twilight because it looks like pine green and he's close to animals and nature and all that jazz (and his wolf form is slightly green-hued); purple for Warriors because he's the closest to nobility of all of them and purple is a colour associated to royalty; teal/turquoise for Wind because it's the colour of tropical lagoons and just– the vibe; pink for legend because he's a soft and androgynous guy (also because of the bunny thing); yellow-ish green for Hyrule because he's also close to nature, but he's also closer to magic and the unnatural, so the green is a little "off-center"; pale grey/white for Four because he can't pick only one colour, so he gets the white of light that can be refracted into endless colours; yellow for Time, because of the golden wolf thing and his gold armor as Twi's skeleton mentor in Twilight Princess; and orange for Wild, because he's an arsonist (and I needed someone for that colour). I planned to make a card of First, too, and his colour would've been red, but I lacked the motivation to draw him.

For other accessories, I wanted each character to have kind of a transparent "scarf"-looking thing hanging from their arms (or shoulder/neck, if you take Warriors and Legend). I also wanted them to be holding significant items from their games/reminiscent of their stories, but I couldn't find enough for everyone, so Wars isn't holding anything and instead has an additional necklace, and Lege has entirely different jewellery than the others (he even has rings).

Apart from these two, we have Sky holding a feather from his loftwing, Twi holding horse whistle grass from Twilight Princess, Wind holding the Wind Waker, Hyrule holding a four leafed clover (greenery, life, luck(I mean, he has the hardest games of the series, so he's a lucky guy to have come out of them as unscathed as he is)), Four holding a mirror (Hero of Light, has a "dark reflection" (Shadow Link), the dark mirror from one of his games (don't remember which one)), Time holding his most iconic mask, the Fierce Deity's mask, and I wanted to make Wild hold a bunch of Silent Princess flowers in his arms but decided not to do that because I was lazy. Also it would've made his card wayyyy too busy, with all the hair and fabric flowing across the canvas and scarfs and– it's already a lot of things at the same time.

I think that's about it!! That is one hell of a rant but I hope you liked reading it :))

Sailor Scout Links

I have been SO excited about these since i made them in March and have been unable to share them until now, but now the @lu-tradingcardevent is well underway I can finally put the Sailor Scout Links into the world!!

I was so stoked when @laugoscos shared their Sailor Scout Hyrule because yay! I wasn’t alone with this idea! Hehehe

I'd love it if you could give us all the details of how you created your four and hyrule cards! what made you think of putting the eye (i remember you saying it was actually shadow's eye?) behind four and what made you have hyrule in an action shot? give us a step by step of how you created your cards and everything you enjoyed or was challenging about the process!

Hi! :D

I'm not really good at explaining my art process, but here we go :)

First I drew a few sketches of what I might draw, because I'm better at making things up as I go if I have a basis to start from

For example, this was the last page of sketches:

Could you do us the pleasure of telling us how you went about making your hyrule and legend cards for LUTCE?? your favorite boyos! what inspired you to make the cards??? what part of the cards were your favorite? your special edition legend card is to die for! is it your favorite?

Hello Spooks! I wanted the cards to have a similar background, almost like playing cards. The Legend one I’d been pining for him with his hand on his hip and his other resting on his sword. The Hyrule one I’d been discussing the Zelda 1 canon pictures with Perry about how Link always puts his finger in his mouth when thinking.

your cards and stickers are lovely. dead Hyrule is the mvp. cheers!

Oo for sure, thanks for asking! I'd be happy to share the director's cut

@dragkbluire, ARTIST SET

@g0thicghost, ARTIST SET

@lemonade-loz, ARTIST SET

@livvylupus, ARTIST SET

@littlerit, ARTIST SET

@poposusz, ARTIST SET

@forestslocal, ARTIST SET

@sanzako, ARTIST SET

@zolanort, ARTIST FRONT SET, BACK SET

@laugoscos, ARTIST SET

@spheresr4cubes, ARTIST SET

@elle-rosewater, ARTIST SET

@oracle-of-secrets-lm, ARTIST SET

@lil-opossum-freak, ARTIST SET

The list will be constantly updating throughout the event! Let me know if I missed anyone!

I did a scrapbook page for every boy using all the cards and stickers I got for the @lu-tradingcardevent I also leave the background if someone wants to use it!! (is 1000 years late). Also ignore the fact that I don't know how to make scrapbooks xdxd

@lu-tradingcardevent here's what I did with the badge kaskjaskjaskjas The front cards BUT all the butterflies, flowers and stars are gone and only remains THE BADGE!!!

And these are my sketches and linearts!!! Just to share them jsjsjs

The burnout was starting to form when I started to do Wild and he gave me so much problems but I still like how the finished art looks, though you can see I had so many problems with the size of his head and eyes xD (because of the burnout there weren't other front cards, but hopefully I will keep working at least on the main 9 Links jsjsjs)

And this was my first idea for the front cards. I wanted Wars to be the first one to be drawn for the event. And this is the first try, this song gave me lots of inspiration to draw this, but the result didn't convince me so I tried again.

At first I though about drawing them in front of the sky of different colors and it's not a bad idea, but for some reason it didn't convince me. And finally this little doodle was the one that made me realize what I wanted to draw for the event and maybe I will work this one even more to make it the final one for Legend.

MY TWO FRONT CARDS FOR @lu-tradingcardevent !!!! This was so much fun to do!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR LETTING ME PARTICIPATE!!!!

And all my back cards!!! All phrases taken from the games and in First's case, from the comic!!!

Fi saying goodbye / Ezlo giving the Minish Cap to Zelda / The happy mask salesman saying goodbye / Ravio saying goodbye / The old man giving the sword to Link / The first encounter with Shade / Makar wishing luck to Link / One of Proxy's quotes / Zelda when fighting Calamity Ganon / The first time we saw First / What Navi says about Dark Link on OoT.

Wow so many goodbyes xD The most beautiful quotes seems to be almost at the end of the games jsjsjs