Something for Auburn and Mona's "Ardhanarishvara"

[anna_luna]

For those of you who haven't read "Ardhanarishvara", it is a wonderful fanfic by auburnnothenna and monanotlisa, where an advanced alien civilization, in order to further enlighten their new business partners, had several members of Sheppard's team genderswitched.

Now this inspired a whole lot of fanart by me and other assorted people.

And now, since Mona's in the hospital and I'd like to make her feel a tiny bit better (if you want to make something for her, there is a community called ficformona), I made these:

Preview:



ETA: I have added a second version of the manip and the graphic after I followed some of icarusancalion's suggestions.



Original version:



New version:



Just the Manip.

I figured, maybe I was going about this business of genderswitching the wrong way: Instead of trying to make John into a woman, maybe I should be trying to make a woman into John. So I used a picture from 'Resident Evil II' and proceeded to give her some of John's features. I felt like a bit of a Frankenstein, adding the nose and the eyes, the shape of the face, the ear and of course, the hair.







This is from the bar scene in Part Eleven.

Comments

[fatuorum.livejournal.com]

You used Valentine! Very nice choice (okay, now I want a full body shot, guns, boots and all ;)) and she looks great. Heck, the whole piece looks good. I'm hard pressed to see where changes start, but she still looks different enough to work. Was it easier to work backwards from a female's face?

[aurora]

Jill! /Resident Evil glee

I love John's drowsy expression in the second one. And Rodney being all concerned. :X

[dar-jeeling.livejournal.com]

Oh, you tried it the other way round! Looks nice! I'd love to see the original.

[monanotlisa.livejournal.com]

Oh my God, Anna Luna, how are you so awesome??

*SQUEE*

Seriously, that's just fantastic -- the first one does look amazingly natural; I read your explanations to Fatuorum and kept nodding: Very good idea, and a very cool result!

And aww, the second one, the drawing! Rodney coming to help a bewildered Sheppard, who by the way looks really lovely -- female and pretty and curvy in the right places despite the fact all the bits that would show gender are obscured. Then, RONON DISTRACTING THE GUY! I love how you gave Ronon the kind of forward grace that makes it clear she is just telling him she'll kill him if he does as much as move. *g*

Thank you so very much. I feel myself healing much faster already! (Seriously, I'm much better already, and will hopefully continue to get real well real soon.)

[poisonshock.livejournal.com]

lol love these, esp the last pic, though i haven't read that fic, mainly because the author doesn't specify what pairings there are and maybe it's my loss =( , but i'm a mcshep otp girl.

[springwoof.livejournal.com]

the manip is very sophisticated and cool-looking. i like the dna strands and the "ghost" image of John's male self. very nice. I also like your drawing very much. Girl!Shep still looks like Shep, and a girl. I adore Girl!Ronon, she looks both very cute & also deadly. :-)

wags, sw

[auburnnothenna.livejournal.com]

The manip is glorious. I love the overall color values, and think that - according to your comments above - you've found the right technique, with maniping a female to be John, rather than trying to feminize JF's features. The DNA strand, the ghost image, it's a really, really successful piece of artwork. And, unlike many manips, it doesn't make me have that weird uncomfortable, wrongwrongwrong feeling.

And the second one is just fun. Very nice the way it looks like Ronon is watching Rodney and Sheppard, even while she'd threatening to kill Gigolo Boy if he so much as squeaks.

I'm not even sick and you've made me feel better.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Good approach, going from female to male. I think it's gonna work.

I do art betas for some friends, so I've been eyeing the art. You've done a good job with the cheekbones, shape of the face, neck and ears. This kind of subtle shifting of faces is painstaking and difficult to do. I'm impressed.

I hope you don't mind some fine-tuning (and this is fine-tuning, not criticism and doesn't detract from my appreciation of your beautiful work).

It's the eyes and lips that don't quite work yet.

The upper lip dent needs to be a little broader, and her lower lip full, like Sheppard's. The upper lip has a little too much of a cupid's bow. The lips going from male to female wouldn't get less full (I know some transexuals and male lips tend to be thinner, not fuller).

The stoy mentions that Sheppard's eyes are the same, and if you look at the outer corners she doesn't have John's dramatic downward upper eyelid slant. I wish I had a pencil to draw it here. The line of his eyes dent a little closer to his/her nose, too, which gives Sheppard more of an intense (if tired) look.

Other than that, yeah. *nods* Very nice.

Icarus

[looking4tarzan.livejournal.com]

Woah...the manip-thing.....woaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahahhahahah


and love the drawing!