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

[anna_luna]

Thanks a lot!

Actually I spent like a day on the eyes and still I think he looks kind of either sad or drugged. I tried putting them closer together, but then he looked really unattractive (closer together eyes, while acceptable on a man, are disastrous in a female face) so I compromised in order to make her look something like John but still beautiful. For the John features I used This picture from beaniesheppard the slant is there, if not really as pronounces as in other pictures, I kept the line of the upper eye, but couldn't get the wrinkles in without making her look like an alien monster. Same thing with the mouth, what actually happened is that John's mouth is not only fuller, but *bigger* so if I sized it to fit horizontally, it was actually less full that Jill's vertically, and if fit vertically she looked like the Joker.
I still have to keep working on my manipping technique, but it's encouraging that you noticed the same things I wasn't entirely satisfied with and where I compromised. Thanks a lot for taking the time.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

I think you can be subtle. Rather than map Sheppard's lips onto her (he has full lips, especially for a guy), which, yeah I pictured it yesterday and went, ouch -- I would just broaden the dent beneath her nose and upper lip. With pastels I would just use the tip of my pinky and widen it.

Then I would go back to the model's original lower lip (on the original which you provided above). Her lips actually look more like Sheppard's than the photo-manipped version. You've gone for too much beauty and have lost some of the toughness that made you look at her pic and think "hey, that's Sheppard."

The eyes, you don't need to move them closer. I'm recommending a line that slightly changes the shape of the upper eyelid, as well as shading on the inner eye corner. Can you print out your photomanip and do some hand work, then scan it back in? These kinds of changes would be easier to render convincingly by hand and then soften and smooth in Photoshop.

Icarus

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

*clicks that photo of Joe Flannigan*

God, he's beautiful, isn't he? It's that sleepy upper eyelid that does it, that gives him the bedroomy-puppydog look.

It starts just over the inside arch of his eye and almost drapes like fabric, the line extending well beyond the outer corner of his eye in a downward slope. But his eyes sparkle because of the color, the warm brown radiating in center of the green-blue.

Wow. He has exquisite skin, too. No way he's 38.

*hands up, takes off the art-beta cap* Personally, I'm trained to draw, but photomanips drive me batty. I wouldn't have the patience for this.

Icarus

[anna_luna]

:) Thanks a lot for the wonderful sugestions! Here's a new version:
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y113/Anna_Luna/ard22copy.jpg

I chaged both the mouth and the eye and hopefully she looks more like John now while remaining beautiful. I think this is as far as this manip will go for the time being (as I'm both satisfied and fed up with it).

Now if only I could do Ronon... now *that* is a challenge.

[anna_luna]

:) Thanks a lot for the wonderful suggestions! Here's a new version:
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y113/Anna_Luna/ard22copy.jpg

I changed both the mouth and the eye and hopefully she looks more like John now while remaining beautiful. I think this is as far as this manip will go for the time being (as I'm both satisfied and fed up with it).

Now if only I could do Ronon... now *that* is a challenge.

[anna_luna]

I also made a new version of the graphic using the new manip, unfortunately the modified slant is not apparent because of the mask I put on the picture to give it the yellowish look.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y113/Anna_Luna/Ardhanishvara02b.jpg

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

I'm glad I was more helpful than annoying.

Wow, she's really got the toughness in the new version.

You're right, it's less apparent in the graphic. But the eye-tilt shows, as well as changing the shape of her mouth is closer to Sheppard's. Some people might not notice the subtle shifts, but it's definitely more Sheppard.

And why isn't all of Atlantis falling over themselves to get closer to the femme Sheppard? o.O

Icarus

[anna_luna]

It's the challenge, I suppose, and the fanfic. Me personally I wanted to see if I *could* make John into a woman. Besides, that man is just too beautiful (I'm a McKay girl myself but I can appreciate the pretty).

You have a good eye for details, thanks for taking the time to help me out.