Project CBRunway 4: Challenge 2 Voting Thread

[mattbib]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v467/mattbib/Hosted_Images/projectcbrunway4Med.png
Welcome to the runway!

All fifteen finalists submitted designs in this round.

PLEASE VOTE for the entry you feel best completes the challenge. Voting should not be based solely on art ability. Ultimately, however, voting is completely subjective. The designer(s) with the least amount of votes may be eliminated.

NOTE: Only registered CBR members with a posting history may vote. Participants may vote for themselves. However any votes from posters sharing any IP addresses will be discounted, no exceptions. Any fraudulent voting will result in disqualification and a possible permanent forum ban.

CHALLENGE 2: CONCEPTS

For your next challenge you must design the character from the winning entry in the recent CBR Write Off: CONCEPTS (http://forums.comicbookresources.com/showthread.php?t=259308):
Memory is the most fluid of all things, some events imprint themselves upon us and some disappear without a trace while others still are created, constructed, conceived from a blend of what we hear from others and what we want to believe. Rosalie was very aware of this fact, painfully so, and took advantage of it every day. You see, Rosalie had a rare disorder where her brain was unable to store memories for very long so that every time she went to sleep, she woke up without any notion as to who she might be. To counter this, she kept a diary on her bedside table explaining who she was for her to read each morning but eventually Rosalie became tired of this continual rewind with nothing of value that she could remember for herself so she started altering her diary each night before she went to bed. At first, Rosalie only changed little things, add a flirtation with a nice girl for instance or maybe having someone give her a wonderful complement but eventually things got bigger and bigger until one day she decided to write herself as a superhero, even though there is no such thing. She sews together a costum that she hangs in the closet, chooses a set of criminals as her rogues gallery and gives herself the name of 'Wonder Beaver' knowing that in the next day she'll wake up and assume life has always been this way, so she will follow up on it without any internal struggle and fight (or fail in) the good fight.
Your outfit may consist of natural or synthetic materials.

As you are using someone else's concept you may only include the write-up required by the Submission Requirements. You may not add any additional biographical information.

Please vote using the poll, then feel free to make comments or ask questions about this challenge or these designs within this thread. Now let's start the show...

[mattbib]

http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa53/spaghettikiss/CBR-02-CONCEPT.gif

For this one I wanted to do something unexpected and out of the box that also followed the rules and flaneur's write-up to a tee. I wanted to infer aspects of the character that fit into the description seemlessly while not even being HINTED at in the write-up. What would the motives be for Rosalie writing herself as a superhero? What else is she compensating for?

What if Rosalie was grossly overweight? what if her self esteem was in the can? What if she could feel daring and sexy and dangerous? Well now she can without going on a pesky diet or joining a grueling gym

Wonder Beaver's outfit is made from spandex, she wears boots and fur lined gloves. Her cape and cowl were created by augmenting (and adding to) her favorite and most familiar item (only because it sleeps with her every night), her stuffed beaver.

[mattbib]

http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/3312/wonderbeaver.jpg

Rosalie woke up in her white cotton tank top and flannel pajama pants with "Beavers Rule" pattern.

The costume she found in her closet has a fushia silk cape with yellow trim, tied with a satin ribbon. There is a brass "WB" ornament hanging from a brass beaded belt. The main body of the costume is made from faux fur, which Rosalie treated with essential oils, which give the fur a slicked down look. The claws on the feet are made of hard plastic and the webbing is made from pleather.

[mattbib]

http://www.50footrobot.com/ComicProjectRunway/WonderBeaver_MtheMordant.jpg

I imagined this outfit to reflect Rosalie's state of mind as well as the sources she would have on hand to create her super hero costume. As Rosalie has to piece together her identity everyday, so too is her costumed pieced together from her surrounding.

A pair of jeans that fit perfectly (Could they her favorite? She wonders), with some armor added from the padding of a bicycle helmet. A cape made from a fur-trimmed, satin shrug (Was this her grandmothers? Her mothers?) cropped short to stay out of the way during fights. A shirt and corset she sewed together from fabric she had on had (She knows how to sew? And she seems to be good at it!), with more padding armor underneath. A pair of super-hero looking boots, satin glove, and a tazer at her side complete the outfit (Were they her boots? Did she borrow them from her sister and never return them? Did she have a sister??)

To top it off is the most important piece of any superhero costume, the mask to protect one's secret identity. As she sews the mask from vinyl & some of the satin-like fabric she used for the shirt, she marvels at the irony of this. For she has no identity to protect.

[mattbib]

http://i175.photobucket.com/albums/w159/psiwar/CBR02_jpegXXX.jpg

a beaver skull cap made of metal strips and metal wires covered in papier-mâché and faux fur. faur fur mini-cape. muted blue catsuit with sleeves cut and made into opera gloves. a red leather belt with small bags for stuff. the Wonder Beaver logo done in felt with black embroidery stitches, stuck on leather. red pleather rope (i have no idea why i put this in the first place - but im thinking she could actually use this a small whip-like weapon) brown leather straps. brown leather boots.

watched Batman Returns (saw Catwoman turn a coat into a catsuit) and thought, since Rosalie made her own superhero costume, these should be stuff she could find at home or readily buy or made in a mall or some store. I'm guessin, the hardest thing to make will be the beaver skull cap...

had a bit of an issue with the catsuit's color, since my first thought went to making it yellow ochre or camel or something warm (duh! Vixen)- but chose some grayish blue instead in the color picker.

I originally envisioned her as a bit on the chubby-side but the girls on our floor preferred to flirt with this one.

[mattbib]

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t182/CaironIX/wonderbeaver2.jpg

Keeping in line with the fact that she made it herself, this is the result of having cut up perfectly fine clothes and making them into a snazzy little costume.

It's basically a jacket, altered, and at the back, a flap attached resembling the tail of a beaver. She's wearing not-so-fashionable undergarments... this is a woman lost, so I take it she stumbled across the image of someone like Wonder Woman and decided that running around in your underwear is perfectly fine for a superheroine.

Beavers have nasty little claws, so she fashioned one glove to serve as a weapon.

From the leftover material she made a haphazard little mask, and two beaver-ears to wear. A pair of boots that match the colour of the outfit, and she's set.

Everything is brown, because beavers are brown. A star to express the wonder-part.

A pink-streak because Dazzler taught us, in New Excalibur, that only lesbians can pull off short, pink hair.

I tried a humorous approach, without going over the top or too cartoony. I wanted to at least try to give this a streak of seriousness, however difficult that turned out to be in the process.

[mattbib]

http://img519.imageshack.us/img519/6756/cbrbeaver.jpg

I have conceived of Rosalie/Wonder Beaver as young, about 14. Her choice of “Wonder Beaver” as a superhero name and the playful nature of the changes she chooses to make in her life suggests a youthful mindset. Her costume has been put together quickly, to beat the deadline of her nightly amnesia. It comprises of an altered sequined figure skating dress, leggings and red high-tops, and a homemade cape. The dress is adorned with an image of the Wonder Beaver – possibly a favorite childhood cartoon character. Rosalie’s costume is not practical, it is merely meant to convey the fun and adventure she wants to inject into her life.

[mattbib]

http://ozbot.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341c4e3753ef011168fa49e4970c-800wi
I couldn't help but see a mixture of tragedy and comedy in this tale, so I tried to draw something that would be at first funny, but if you took some time to think about it, you'd start to see the tragedy. So I skewed her a little young and slightly anime-ish, but kept some solid-ness to her form, too, without overdoing it. (My first design sketch had her really plump indeed.) Notice that her outfit is created from things she already had in her closet-- this was something she decided to do before going to bed that evening. It's her pink cotton/lyra sports bra and shorts, a metal-studded black belt, white leather suspenders, and heavy boots. She cut her faux-beaver fur coat to make the collar, fringe her gloves and boots, and create a cape-like skirt with a deliberate wing to one side, to be reminiscent of a tail- cape combination. A mask of spare black material to top it off. Something super-heroish but grounded in reality. Is she ready for this?

[mattbib]

http://troop70peacemakers.com/images/lewmoxinsghost_wonderbeaver.png

With this costume, our adventurer has the ability to cut down trees with her pink chainsaw and thwack villains with her beaver tail, which is fashioned out of spray-painted tough nylon fishing nets on a single long rubber hose with powerful springs inside which she can use for various sorts of acrobatic locomotion. This is attached to her waist by a harness she wears below her costume, the thigh straps of which are visible. She also has her fingerprints hidden well by the sharp claws she's fashioned. In this design, Rosalie has added stars and her (bullet resistant) logo to an old brown wetsuit she had lying around the house. Add some monogrammed earrings, swim goggles to complete the disguise and some Nike inspired running shoes (when she isn't swimming- then she simply dons some swim fins) and she is ready to spring into action!

[mattbib]

http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g55/mrcassandranova/beavcopy-2.jpg

[mattbib]

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j263/eg_marsh/comic%20art/challenge2final.jpg

For this design, I wanted to create something that looked like what most people would think of when they hear the word “superhero.” This meant a tight fitting outfit with high contrast, bright color and a recognizable emblem on the chest. It was also important to make something that could be put together in one day due to Rosalie’s condition.

I started with a simple black spandex body suit, similar to what a dancer might wear. It gives Rosalie the skin tight look that someone in the “real world” associates with superheroes, and the black color provides a strong contrast with the yellow skirt that lies directly on top of it.

The yellow skirt is inspired by the countless number of superheroine costumes that employed a similar look in place of the underwear on the outside look. As mentioned before, the yellow pops when placed in contrast with the black bodysuit underneath. The red belt cinches in the waist of the dress and helps maintain the tight look of the outfit.

A cape was also important as it’s probably the most iconic element of the superhero costume. It’s a simple cloth cape held together at the neck with a button. I went with a slightly faded blue. This completed the primary color scheme and the less intense blue doesn’t distract from the more intense colors of the main outfit.

The yellow sneakers and high socks are meant to mimic the standard superhero boot while looking more “real world” than the usual “molded out of plastic” look of the usual hero footwear. The yellow in the shoes helps to unify the lower legs with the more dominant parts of the outfit.

The mask is a simple black cloth mask, similar to what Robin wore in the1960’s Batman show. On her head is a fuzzy hat with beaver ears. I’ve always loved the hats that Molly wears in Runaways, and a character with an animal inspired name gave me an excuse to do a little tribute to that. It also allowed me to add a “beaver” element without going too over the top.

On her chest is her logo. The “WB” obviously refers to “Wonder Beaver” and the letters and the shapes framing them are based on a beaver’s face.

[mattbib]

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg116/Dukkus/CBRunway2.jpg

For "Wonder Beaver" I decided to take a different approach and make awkward, and corky design for an equally awkward and corky name. When I heard the name Wonder Beaver I couldn't take the character seriously, so I displayed that in the design with wacky prints and vibrant colors. And seeing as though the costume was made from things the character already possessed, I figured a high tech look wouldn't be a realistic approach unless the character were another Bruce Wayne type.

[mattbib]

http://www.rearaccount.com/crap/cbrunway/wonderbeaver13.gif

I thought to myself, "out of all the things this girl could trick herself into becoming, why choose a superhero?" I assume that on the day she made the change to hero, she had watched something that glorified the role, something like the old Adam West Batman show. Therefore, I chose to have her outfit share similar campy, sexy attributes with those female designs.

However, I wanted her outfit to look like something she could have modified from what would more-or-less have already been in her closet. Therefore, her top and skirt are cut from a short, blue-and-white, vinyl dress (with excellent bust support), leaving the mid-riff exposed in a "W" for "Wonder" shape. The mask is made from the material removed from the dress, and also mimics the "W" shape. The gloves are brown vinyl, and the beaver-head and teeth are cut from a brown, orange, and white vinyl dress that matched the gloves. As short as this dress is, the teeth provide minimum coverage for what would be the otherwise-exposed bottom of her panties. The cape and tail are made from a men's brown leather trench coat. (Not pictured, the tail is attached to the bottom of the top portion of her dress.) The tail is padded and weighted so that it hangs and swings as she moves. The boots are American military-issue leather combat boots.

Since this character had no previous experience hero-ing around, I wasn't too concerned with practicality, as I doubt the character would have been when constructing it (She seems to want fun, not functional). Also, since she is very much an every-day person that decides to become a hero, I gave her an everyday build, short (maybe 5'3"), and a little chunky.

From the write-up and her condition, I imagine that this character would want to be very outgoing and adventurous, so in her design I really wanted to portray campy, cute, sexy, and a little tough.

[mattbib]

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y93/Spyderizzle/cbr4-r2.jpg

I didn't really want to mess around with the apparent lesbian connotation so I stayed away from that. I instead made her a teenager that still felt adventurous, because I just couldn't see a middle aged woman donning home-made superhero duds for lack of interest in life. I tried to make the costume kinda, punk/sexy and look really thrown together. You could tell she's an amateur, but at the same time you don't really want to mess with her.

[mattbib]

http://i386.photobucket.com/albums/oo309/mohofrappe/Rosalie.png

Oh, my! This was a challenge in the fullest sense of the word in that I really had to sit down and think about it. Since our creative leashes were tightened this round, I wanted to bring something fresh to Rosalie's design beyond the basic concept that we were all starting from.

To bring that extra kick to my design, I chose to work in an entirely different style than what you'd normally see me do. I thought about the concept's surreal qualities, and how it invoked a sort of indie, self-published book that wouldn't create A-Listers for a huge publishing house. Rosalie's story is a bit bizarre, in a quirky sense, and so I wanted to really bring that out with scratchy lineart over a polished, smooth, and delicate one.

Since she isn't working with a lot of things, the costume needed to be homely and down to earth and I really played off the concept's use of the word "sews". I can do a basic stitch myself, and I imagine Rosalie doesn't retain extensive knowledge and techniques. I tried to really work with basic patterns and obvious stitches that don't show supreme talent and ability. Subtle but crisp layers, as seen on her tailored brassiere, lack the flawless nature of common superhero design tropes but offer natural character to the world of Rosalie. Other, fabric based garments (American Apparel briefs, comfortable three-quartered sleeves, decorative stitching) provide a grounded approach to the superhero form.

At the end of the day, I really wanted the costume to look as if Rosalie could hang up Wonder Beaver in the closet and wake up the next morning to her awesome beaver hat and bucktoothed goggles beside her.

[mattbib]

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s201/tylerragan/WonderBeaver.jpg

This was a tricky challenge for me. I did not make any lesbian connection to the character, because the whole “flirtation with a nice girl” just read as experimentation thing to me. The fact that Rosalie picked a beaver to represent her heroic avatar gave me a sense of someone trying to be a little bit absurd in her experimental role as a crime-fighter. I got a feeling of Dan Clowes, with a dash of Chris Ware meets Paul Pope’s Batman Year One Hundred. Wonder Beaver came across very tragic feeling to me, but dangerous at the same time, because Rosalie’s condition makes her buy into this absurd role of a very unusual crime-fighter. I chose to enhance this sense of danger with a baseball bat that she refers to as “Timber”. She also has a chainsaw that doesn’t work (To prevent herself from seriously hurting someone in her one-day role as a crime-fighter) that she carries on her fur-covered moped that she refers to as “The Fur Peddler” (Because a hero needs to get around somehow, and I would imagine her memory condition would restrict her from obtaining a driver’s license).

To me, Rosalie doesn’t have the resources or the time to put together an effective costume for her Wonder Beaver persona. She pretty much only has the night before to pull everything together in the creation of this character and outfit. All the main aspects of the costume are things that she could get her hands on fairly quickly with little modifications. The shirt and pants are you typical cotton long-sleeve shirt and leggings, along with a pair of durable steel-toed work boots. I placed athletic shorts on top of the leggings to reflect the absurd idea of superheroes wearing their underwear over the rest of their outfit. The cape is something pulled together from a fake fur rug, shaped in a oval manner similar to a beaver’s tail. The only work that Rosalie really puts into the costume is found in the sewn-in beaver chest insignia to the shirt, and in the helmet. The helmet is her moped riding helmet, re-painted and designed to look like a beaver’s head. The visor has been cut to look like two large buckteeth, and small ears have been attached to complete the helmet’s design. Accessories include her cell phone and a fanny pack worn behind her to carry other useful crime-fighting knick-knacks.

[mthemordant]

Wow! I'm impressed with the variety and cleverness of all the solutions to this design problem. You guys did some really interesting stuff!

I have to say, I never really took the Lesbian or Bi-Curious or whatever aspect into consideration, and I was able to overlook the "Fantastic Vagina" name the character chose for herself... but I'm still wondering how someone with no memory got bored at all, let alone bored enough to invent a super hero alter ego :)
But I just tried to accept the concept, and make it seem as cool and real-world plausible as I could. And that was the most exciting part about this challenge - trying to put the same effort and care into designing for the Wonder Beaver as I would for one of my own creations. Not so say mine are better, but they're MINE, you know?
Anyway, this was a lot of fun, and I've been very excited to see everyone else's designs. You guys did not disappoint!!

M!

[Viktor Bogdanovic]

voted for manon. the skirt won me over. :smile:

[Affinity]

Bucktooth-ed beaver goggles are the best. I love that shared wavelength, goatie.

[End of Time]

My hopefully constructive critcism...

Spaghettikiss
Plus: The suit looks amazing. You’ve got an eye for detail, and the overall picture looks like you had fun with it. A bit on the morbid side…
Minus: I took it that even though she lied to herself when she made up the Wonder Beaver persona, she does act out on. Your hefty lady looks like she’d have a heart attack if she had to run across the street… flaps and folds aplenty… and those disturb me.

DeanLegion
Plus: A colourful entry and there’s no denying it says “Wonder Beaver” or at least “Beaver”.
Minus: Perhaps it’s a bit too easy? It’s a beaver-costume with a really pink cape. The costume however doesn’t look like she made it herself.

Mordant
Plus: It’s a cool costume. It’s chaotic but the various elements put together manage to give the impression that it was conceived as a whole. Take away the mask and you’ve got an outfit you can bump into while you’re out clubbing. It’s most definitely something she made herself.
Minus: Where’s Wonder Beaver?

Aljira
Plus: You nailed it.
Minus: The thing you struggled with… you pointed it out, the blue is indeed a bit on the chilly side.

CBrown:
Plus: Logo! It’s very much fitting the character you’ve drawn. She’s young, and the costume conveys that childlike innocence.
Minus: She’s 14… of all the things from the concept, I would have never pegged her as an underage girl. For me personally, I don’t think the concept would work for someone that young.

Danny Wall
Plus: Nailed it, without nails!
Minus: Tiny little thing… the tail, I think it would have been a stronger beaver visual if the tail had been slightly more stereotypically beaver-like (a flat, grey-brown waffle)

Kid Icarus
Plus: Fun, fitting, and definitely Beaver. Like Ajira and Danny, you got it.
Minus: Like Spaghettikiss, she’s a bit on the heavy side, but you’ve scaled it back to her being a big girl, instead of morbidly obese.

Gene M.
Plus: She reminds me a bit of Kitty Pryde, which means she looks like an accessible character. A character that, as a reader, I can approach and read about without being alienated.
Minus: Where’s Wonder Beaver? The only thing beaver like is the hat. Take away the hat, and you still have a costume for a hero.

[End of Time]

On a side note: am I the only one who can't see LewMoxinsghost's entry? I can see the write-up, just not the image that accompanies it...

[mattbib]

On a side note: am I the only one who can't see LewMoxinsghost's entry? I can see the write-up, just not the image that accompanies it...
Nope, I haven't been able to see it but posted it just in case it was a problem on my end. He said he'd e-mail me the file this morning so that I could host it but I haven't received it, and I couldn't hold off posting the voting thread any longer. I'll edit his entry as soon as I receive the image though.

[escapegoat]

Bucktooth-ed beaver goggles are the best. I love that shared wavelength, goatie.

Hear hear! :smile:

That and the shorts/underwear on the outside thing...total wavelength sharing.



Is anyone else having problems viewing LewMoxinsghost's image? It's not coming up for me.

EDIT: Ah good, it's not just me....

[LewMoxinsghost]

Nope, I haven't been able to see it but posted it just in case it was a problem on my end. He said he'd e-mail me the file this morning so that I could host it but I haven't received it, and I couldn't hold off posting the voting thread any longer. I'll edit his entry as soon as I receive the image though.

Sorry bout the delay... I just sent the file. The weird thing is that I can see the file as it is just fine on multiple computers.

[mattbib]

Sorry bout the delay... I just sent the file. The weird thing is that I can see the file as it is just fine on multiple computers.I saved your file and hosted it myself and it STILL wasn't working. It must've been something wrong with your original .jpg file. I copied/pasted the visible image in MS Paint and saved as a new .PNG file and it seems to be working fine now.

[mthemordant]

Mordant
Plus: It’s a cool costume. It’s chaotic but the various elements put together manage to give the impression that it was conceived as a whole. Take away the mask and you’ve got an outfit you can bump into while you’re out clubbing. It’s most definitely something she made herself.
Minus: Where’s Wonder Beaver?



Where's the Wonder Beaver? It's subtle... there are tiny beaver ears on the mask, and the shape was inspired by a medieval painting of an actual beaver I found during my research for this challenge. There is the "W" on her cap clasp - which turned sideways makes a "B" - and then there is the fur collar, which I didn't want to be brown because I figured everyone would be doing brown, but I still wanted the fur to sell the furry beaver aspect, but in a realistic sort of execution. :)
Thanks!
M!

[Dazzler]

Holee Crap. I am loving every, single solitary one of these!

AMAZING!

Right now, my vote's torn between Kid Icarus (absolutely hilarious and endearing), Spaghettikiss (just so wrong in all the right ways...), mthemordant (subtle, clever, and excellent potential for a more satirical humor book), and LewMoxingsGhost (I seriously would love to read about this character. Seriously. Love the, uh, logo and the pink chainsaw).

You guys REALLY outdid yourselves.

--Dazz

[End of Time]

Shade101
Plus: It’s vibrant and dynamic. You succeeded in what you set out to do. Your design matches your description.
Minus: Where’s Wonder Beaver? What connects her to her secret identity in this costume?

Manon
Plus: You win!
Minus: I smell like cabbage.

Spidey
Plus: LOGO! It’s a fun logo, you worked in a beaver in a very creative way there. It’s a home made costume, so you followed the concept.
Minus: Where’s Wonder Beaver? Take away the logo, and what’s there to link this girl to her secret identity?

Affinity
Plus: I’m not the only one with visible underpants! No more needs to be said. All hail those who acknowledge the underwear-heroes! But other than that, the hat/mask is all there is that needs to be said. It’s fun and wacky. You and Escapegoat made it work
Minus: The boots. I’m not a big fan of those, they look too bee-like when placed in the overall picture.

Escapegoat
Plus: It’s a beaver, and she’s got the hat/mask. It looks like fun. Wearing shorts over the rest of her costume needs to be mentioned as well
Minus: There isn’t anything about this costume that is a minus, but there’s something that doesn’t jive with me personally. I can’t put my finger on it, you’ve got all the elements there, and you’ve rendered it convincingly, but maybe it’s her expression and stance that take a bit away from the POW! Factor. She looks a bit… miserable.

On the whole…

I think it’s surprising to see the various entries together. We all got the same basic concept, but still, as individuals, managed to give a pretty wide and varied selection of characters.
The thing is, and it should be noted that what I’m about to say should not be taken as a personal attack, the group is split into two.
The first group, I feel, took the “amateur superhero” element from the concept and placed that above the “Wonder Beaver” element. Creating costumes and characters that are largely disconnected from the secret identity. I wouldn’t recognize them as inspired on or by a beaver, save perhaps for one rather small element.
The second group took the beaver element and pushed that to the forefront. The second group focussed more on the secret identity and worked into their designs a large element of recognisability. Something tying the character to her own concept of Wonder Beaver.

On one hand I can see the appeal of playing the Wonder Beaver element down, and going for a more conventional costume, on the other hand it difficult to recognize a character without obvious points of reference. Especially when dealing with superheroes, the ones swinging from webs, flying around in underwear, or being dark and brooding orphans with too much money to waste on stuff. If you have a hero inspired on a visual icon, I feel it’s best to work that image into the outfit, up to the point where it’s made into more than one element, or that the character is naked without it.

The spider motif of spiderman’s costume is worked into his costume to such a degree that you can’t take it away. It’s an integral part of his costume. The same goes for Captain America, and Squirrel Girl.

On the other end of the spectrum there are heroes like the X-men, their basic yellow-blue costumes reveal absolutely nothing about them that would reveal anything about the nature of their powers.

[LewMoxinsghost]

I saved your file and hosted it myself and it STILL wasn't working. It must've been something wrong with your original .jpg file. I copied/pasted the visible image in MS Paint and saved as a new .PNG file and it seems to be working fine now.

Matt, you are absolutely the coolest. Thanks for doing that. I will re-examine what is going on with the file.. it might have something to do with the background being created in Mac and the rest of it done in Vista. Or maybe the image hosters just don't like my "Maximum" detail settings. Anyway, that won't happen again. (Hopefully not because I get eliminated either :rolleyes: )

With my design I really wanted to give her an excuse to thrust her, er, pelvis around so that is why I gave her the bouncy tail. I wanted to mention also that her hair is in a hair net to facilitate her bounciness. I saw her as naturally having buck teeth and that she must of thought upon waking that she looked like a beaver and the next thing you know she is spray painting a chainsaw.

[escapegoat]

My favorites for this round are SpagettiKiss, Kid Icarus, Manon, and Affinity.

Manon should win this round, just based on the sheer wrongness of the beaver head on the costume. :smile:

[End of Time]

Where's the Wonder Beaver? It's subtle... there are tiny beaver ears on the mask, and the shape was inspired by a medieval painting of an actual beaver I found during my research for this challenge. There is the "W" on her cap clasp - which turned sideways makes a "B" - and then there is the fur collar, which I didn't want to be brown because I figured everyone would be doing brown, but I still wanted the fur to sell the furry beaver aspect, but in a realistic sort of execution. :)
Thanks!
M!

Well, that's the thing... I noticed the same with Gene M, Spidey and Shade101's designs.

The elements that are there that are supposed to make her into a character named Wonder Beaver are almost hidden away. They're not obvious enough for me to connect them to the secret identity.

They're pushed so far into the background that they've become loose elements tagged into the costume seperately. As far as visual elements go, you've got two ears attached to the mask.

What makes it Beaver? Because visually beaver ears don't look all that different from a slew of other animal ears. If I changed the name of the character to Wonder Groundhog or Wonder Hamster, would that invalidate your entire design. For me the answer to that question is "no".

Beaver ears aren't instantly recognizable, a beaver is recognizable because of his tail. Like it or not, that's what sets a beaver apart visually. The ears look pretty much the same as those of a hamster or some other animal.

It would still work as Wonder Otter... and that's why I asked "Where's Wonder Beaver?"

Like I said, you've got a wonderful overall image, but I can't find the Beaver in your design.

[mthemordant]

I see what you're saying, End of Time.
It's just, In my interpretation, the name "Wonder Beaver" was very much secondary to the character. It was more about her state of mind, her origin - what sort of costume would a person who lives in a world with no superheroes make? When reading Flâneur's description, I took inspiration from Rosalie over the Beaver. And, though, you and the other competitors found very creative ways to use the Beaver theme, most of them come off as slightly comical, and I didn't want to go that way. I wanted it to be more of a Big Screen Movie Adaptation of the Wonder Beaver Comic Book, in some ways. I wanted to take away from the brashness of the name WONDER BEAVER, by making a subtle costume. I mean, if you look at Robin, he doesn't have a bird motiff; the modern Cat Woman has tiny little ears and a bunch of black leather, Power Girl has no power bars on her anywhere, etc.. :)

At least that was the angle I was coming at it from. :)

[Spidey]

You took the words right out of my mouth mthemordant. I was going to bring up Robin as well. He doest have a bird mask, feathers or a clawed feet, but we still recognize him.

I didn't want to go overboard with the beaver aspect of it. If you really think about it, nothing that a beaver posses would make for a specially good crimefighting costume. The buck teeth, what are you gonna chew on a criminal to death? And what about the tail? Smack them up a bit? It just looks like it would get in the way. What about all the fur? What if it's hot outside? The only comic character that comes to mind that has fur on is Kraven. In my mind this costume was done over night by somebody with a lousy memory. Of course it's going to look very thrown together. I think the name was just to stand out as a wacky ploy to get attention not something to be taken too literal.

Btw, I too was very impressed with all entries. It's the best I've seen from some of you guys.

[escapegoat]

I'm just happy to see a lot of variation on the designs. I woulda hated to have seen everyone approach it like I did! :tongue:

For me, I had to go with what felt right from the description that I read. I got a dark comedy feel from it. The delusion of one day believing you're this superhero that you're not can bring along some disturbing consequences. I had to go into the character and her situation and figure out how would she design this costume with the limited amount of time and resources?

[atoningunifex]

I've narrowed it down to Kid Icarus and escapegoat. I'm gonna ponder tonight and vote tomorrow.

There was a lot of reconceptualizing that went on this round. I was a little disappointed in that.

[spaghettikiss]

I am SO excited about how these all came out. I think for the most part, we all stayed within the write up and yet added something without straying from the idea. I can’t wait to hear flaneur’s take on them all and I hope he does a reaction post to all of them. Anyway, here were my favorites…

aljira I think that this one does the best job of having a home made costume that uses the visual of the beaver without making it too comical. I mean sure its bit funny but It looks like the character TOTALLY buys into it. I also want to say that so far, I can’t believe how much more thoughtful your solutions are this year (thy were great last year too) I am very impressed with your more thoughtful seeming approach, CHEERS!

Danny Wall I think you did a fantastic job of making this feel home made while also making it feel like a costume. LOVE the collar and the suspenders. Very believable as an outfit and as a character within this world.

LewMoxinsGhost This one is all about the little details for me. The beaver tail hair, the beaver silhouette grabbing her tata’s and the way you designed the tail to look like a functional weapon rule. However…hands down, the idea of the chainsaw rules! What a great way to give her a cool weapon that fits with her kind of non threatening namesake

KidIcarus This could be nothing more than a beaver costume but the slight design elements you’ve added are killer. The shoulders and belt are great but it’s the almost ceremonial mask that knocks it out of the park for me. Oh, and pure balls for absolutely no write up.

Manon Most memorable crotch ever. How you gave her nona teeth in a non threatening way is beyond me…I applaud you sir

Affinity Maybe not my favorite character concept all around but I have to say that it is absolutely my favorite costume design speaking strictly as a costume in or out of this challenge…sensational. LOVE the drawing too

escapegoatThis screams home made but it also screams that it was thoughtfully and intelligently crafted. The motorcycle helmet is a nice touch as is the cape and the baseball bat. It’s simple and seems like it would actually work as an outfit.

I think that I am stuck between two, Aljira's and EscapeGoat's. I think that they both achive the balance between the realism and comedy that would make this character something really worth reading about.

But really guys, great job all around, this is was a challenge for the ages and we all stepped up.

[deanlegion]

spaghettikiss - l like your approach of Rosalie the big girl. The spandex on that roley poley body is a brave move. The W logo is quite a definite statement. The beaver cowl/cape/tail is cute. I could definitely see her in a group of superheroes who are inspired by animals.

mthemordant - I don't see "beaver" when I look at her. She does look cool, though. I like that she could be the same person I designed.

aljira - it's half serious and half silly. This one actually speaks to her state of mind to me. It's like she started off making a serious superhero costume, but her diary told her to be "Wonder Beaver" so she tried to make that work. Poor, confused Rosalie.

End of Time - nice legs! Again, you and m the m and I designed the same girl, just different costumes! I like yours a lot. She's a pretty girl in a bizarre costume.

CBrown - like like that you ignored any reference to the sexual connotation. Your Rosalie doesn't know that ther word beaver has another meaning. Some day, someone's going to tease her about that. The good news is, she'll forget it.

Danny Wall - with yours, like spaghetti's, there's a reason she chose Wonder Beaver - because that's the material she had in her closet when she started this project!

LewMoxingsghost - Whoo Hoo!! Yours is SO much fun! She really embraces her name in every way! She's silly, over the top, and it comes across as fun.

Kid Icarus - Well, she looks like a beaver alright. I actually like the saggy legs and the way the zipper ends right at the crotch, which highlights the other meaning of the word.

Gene M - very much like CBrown's! My comment about her innocence can be echoed here.

Shade101 - another echo!

Manon - this design cracke me up! I think it's perfect for this challenge. It addresses both meanings of the word beaver, the word wonder and superhero.

Spidey - this is much like the others who had a kid use what was laying around to make this costume. I actually like each of them, and would need to really slow down and choose which of that point of view I like best.

Affinity - this one doesn't really say superhero to me. I looks like more of a Project Runway challenge instead of a Comic Book Runway challenge. It's really cool in that way.

escapegoat - a perfect homemade beaver superhero design, which ignores the body part reference

My top choices are spaghetti, Lew, Manon and escapegoat - I don't know who'll get my vote yet, though.

[mthemordant]

You don't see "Beaver"... do you see "Wonder"?
Maybe I should have given her a goatee in the shape of a "W" like Tony Wonder.
Or given her polka dots like Wonder Bread?
;)

I'm kidding.... mostly
:)

Oh, and you're right on: our drawings look like they could totally be the same girl. That's kinda cool!
Looking at all these posts I feel a bit like I'm watching a montage scene in the Wonder Beaver movie, where she tries on a bunch of different costumes, to the tune of "The Heat of the Moment" by Asia or something, until she finally settles on "the one"...

Which will it be?!!!

Speaking of... my favorites have to be Manon, Spaghettikiss, and Escapegoat.
Besides that wizard, M the Mordant.

Is my sense of humor coming across okay?
Hello? Is this thing on?
What's with airline seats?
Who. are. these People?

[deanlegion]

Her little "W" and the colorful cape give superhero, wonder, so you're covered. The mask and fur says animal. Maybe cat? Weasel?

[mthemordant]

I just wish I would have thought of Manon's buck-toothed beaver head over the crotch. That's priceless!

[spaghettikiss]

endoftime-thanks for the kind words. I it okay that I kinda ike that the jogging fatty frightens and disturbs you!?

deanlegion-Thanks! I am so glad you are into it man!

M -nobody beats the wiz!! thanks for the pos on my design

[Dazzler]

In the end, I went with Kid Icarus because I thought the design was super cute, charming, and very well designed and drawn. (I love the proportions of the feet and the red hair).

I also ended up going with it because I felt that with a name like "Wonder Beaver" taking it in a completely non-sexual direction was a really good decision.

But, the thing that sold it to me completely was that i could see this character in something animated and her costume's legs would make her have to waddle. And that would just kill me.

Great Job, Kid!

--Dazz

[CBrown]

CBrown - like like that you ignored any reference to the sexual connotation. Your Rosalie doesn't know that ther word beaver has another meaning. Some day, someone's going to tease her about that. The good news is, she'll forget it.


Thanks deanlegion. That was the main stumbling block for me, getting past that sexual connotation. Making her too young and innocent to even get the dirty joke implicit in her name was the only way I could get it to work.

After the voting's done, I hope Faneur will tell us where the name "Wonder Beaver" came from and what the character is supposed to be about in his mind. I was thinking about it today and wondered what Batman's origin story would be like if the bat didn't fly through the window. "My parents were murdered so I trained all my life to fight crime, then decided to dress up like a bat, just cuz . . ."

[Flâneur]

I am SO excited about how these all came out. I think for the most part, we all stayed within the write up and yet added something without straying from the idea. I can’t wait to hear flaneur’s take on them all and I hope he does a reaction post to all of them.
Ask and thou shalt receive!

http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa53/spaghettikiss/CBR-02-CONCEPT.gif

For this one I wanted to do something unexpected and out of the box that also followed the rules and flaneur's write-up to a tee. I wanted to infer aspects of the character that fit into the description seemlessly while not even being HINTED at in the write-up. What would the motives be for Rosalie writing herself as a superhero? What else is she compensating for?

What if Rosalie was grossly overweight? what if her self esteem was in the can? What if she could feel daring and sexy and dangerous? Well now she can without going on a pesky diet or joining a grueling gym

Wonder Beaver's outfit is made from spandex, she wears boots and fur lined gloves. Her cape and cowl were created by augmenting (and adding to) her favorite and most familiar item (only because it sleeps with her every night), her stuffed beaver.

I love your eye for detail, every roll of fat is very clear and represented, haha, and it's cool to see how you've chosen to represent the absurd parts of her hero name (this is the kind of the character I could see trying out for the GLA, if there were one). It's also very beaver. I must echo the others and say that this design disturbs me a little as well, haha. So while this is not how I'd thought of Rosalie, I have to say that I like it.

http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/3312/wonderbeaver.jpg

Rosalie woke up in her white cotton tank top and flannel pajama pants with "Beavers Rule" pattern.

The costume she found in her closet has a fushia silk cape with yellow trim, tied with a satin ribbon. There is a brass "WB" ornament hanging from a brass beaded belt. The main body of the costume is made from faux fur, which Rosalie treated with essential oils, which give the fur a slicked down look. The claws on the feet are made of hard plastic and the webbing is made from pleather.
I'm in love with the pajama pants, they're quite quirky. However, I'm not getting much of a vibe from the rest, it's certainly well drawn but it's feeling a little token. There's a woman and there's a beaver costume but I'm not feeling much of Wonder Beaver or Rosalie. I do like, however, her facial expression, it's a tad wtf, which fits into the whole rewriting of memory and the costume is definitely more along the lines of what an impractical person would wear that has no notion of crime fighting (even though I can't see her making it herself).
http://www.50footrobot.com/ComicProjectRunway/WonderBeaver_MtheMordant.jpg

I imagined this outfit to reflect Rosalie's state of mind as well as the sources she would have on hand to create her super hero costume. As Rosalie has to piece together her identity everyday, so too is her costumed pieced together from her surrounding.

A pair of jeans that fit perfectly (Could they her favorite? She wonders), with some armor added from the padding of a bicycle helmet. A cape made from a fur-trimmed, satin shrug (Was this her grandmothers? Her mothers?) cropped short to stay out of the way during fights. A shirt and corset she sewed together from fabric she had on had (She knows how to sew? And she seems to be good at it!), with more padding armor underneath. A pair of super-hero looking boots, satin glove, and a tazer at her side complete the outfit (Were they her boots? Did she borrow them from her sister and never return them? Did she have a sister??)

To top it off is the most important piece of any superhero costume, the mask to protect one's secret identity. As she sews the mask from vinyl & some of the satin-like fabric she used for the shirt, she marvels at the irony of this. For she has no identity to protect.
I love this design - it's very inventive and both plays up and uses elements from the concept. The notion of the home made costume, especially one by a character with such an impermanent memory, is very much one that ties into ideas of bricolage which is something you've represented perfectly (if not beyond that) by taking all these random every day elements and bringing them together. Excellent job.

I do question, a little bit, as to the presence of the beaver. I think you've represented Rosalie perfectly but I'm wondering where Wonder Beaver is? That quibble is rather outweighed by the other intense positives though.

http://i175.photobucket.com/albums/w159/psiwar/CBR02_jpegXXX.jpg

a beaver skull cap made of metal strips and metal wires covered in papier-mâché and faux fur. faur fur mini-cape. muted blue catsuit with sleeves cut and made into opera gloves. a red leather belt with small bags for stuff. the Wonder Beaver logo done in felt with black embroidery stitches, stuck on leather. red pleather rope (i have no idea why i put this in the first place - but im thinking she could actually use this a small whip-like weapon) brown leather straps. brown leather boots.

watched Batman Returns (saw Catwoman turn a coat into a catsuit) and thought, since Rosalie made her own superhero costume, these should be stuff she could find at home or readily buy or made in a mall or some store. I'm guessin, the hardest thing to make will be the beaver skull cap...

had a bit of an issue with the catsuit's color, since my first thought went to making it yellow ochre or camel or something warm (duh! Vixen)- but chose some grayish blue instead in the color picker.

I originally envisioned her as a bit on the chubby-side but the girls on our floor preferred to flirt with this one.

I think this is a really well thought out design. I like that there's an implicit reference in the costume itself of a major tv superheroine (or anti-heroine as the case may be) which would guide her notion of how a heroine should dress while still going with the easy to use and home made. It also has an element of introspection which works really well with the way I'd imagined Rosalie while still running with Wonder Beaver. You've done a good job representing both in this design.

It's also nice in that, while you've gone for a slight element of cheesecake, you've made it cheesecake for women and not men which is a million times more perceptive than some of the big name artists.

[Flâneur]

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t182/CaironIX/wonderbeaver2.jpg

Keeping in line with the fact that she made it herself, this is the result of having cut up perfectly fine clothes and making them into a snazzy little costume.

It's basically a jacket, altered, and at the back, a flap attached resembling the tail of a beaver. She's wearing not-so-fashionable undergarments... this is a woman lost, so I take it she stumbled across the image of someone like Wonder Woman and decided that running around in your underwear is perfectly fine for a superheroine.

Beavers have nasty little claws, so she fashioned one glove to serve as a weapon.

From the leftover material she made a haphazard little mask, and two beaver-ears to wear. A pair of boots that match the colour of the outfit, and she's set.

Everything is brown, because beavers are brown. A star to express the wonder-part.

A pink-streak because Dazzler taught us, in New Excalibur, that only lesbians can pull off short, pink hair.

I tried a humorous approach, without going over the top or too cartoony. I wanted to at least try to give this a streak of seriousness, however difficult that turned out to be in the process.
Like Aljira's, I think it's great that you've referenced a prominent heroine which Rosalie would have to base her design off of (if there are no superheros, what's on is the only thing you'd have to envision it). I also think you've done a great job of making it cartoony and camp and fun without it being incredibly absurd, so you've definitely done what you set out to do here. It's also very beaver.

I'm not sure otherwise what to think of it, I'm having a hard time forming an impression so I'll have to come back to this.



http://img519.imageshack.us/img519/6756/cbrbeaver.jpg

I have conceived of Rosalie/Wonder Beaver as young, about 14. Her choice of “Wonder Beaver” as a superhero name and the playful nature of the changes she chooses to make in her life suggests a youthful mindset. Her costume has been put together quickly, to beat the deadline of her nightly amnesia. It comprises of an altered sequined figure skating dress, leggings and red high-tops, and a homemade cape. The dress is adorned with an image of the Wonder Beaver – possibly a favorite childhood cartoon character. Rosalie’s costume is not practical, it is merely meant to convey the fun and adventure she wants to inject into her life.
I think this is very well represented, it's definitely a girl who said 'I'M GOING TO BE A SUPERHEROOO!!!' and just slapped something on which works with the humorous overtones present in the superhero name. It's also definitely home made. The fun and cartoony style also works - she wants to inject this into her life and the design has helped to show why.
http://troop70peacemakers.com/images/lewmoxinsghost_wonderbeaver.png

With this costume, our adventurer has the ability to cut down trees with her pink chainsaw and thwack villains with her beaver tail, which is fashioned out of spray-painted tough nylon fishing nets on a single long rubber hose with powerful springs inside which she can use for various sorts of acrobatic locomotion. This is attached to her waist by a harness she wears below her costume, the thigh straps of which are visible. She also has her fingerprints hidden well by the sharp claws she's fashioned. In this design, Rosalie has added stars and her (bullet resistant) logo to an old brown wetsuit she had lying around the house. Add some monogrammed earrings, swim goggles to complete the disguise and some Nike inspired running shoes (when she isn't swimming- then she simply dons some swim fins) and she is ready to spring into action!
I cannot see this one?????

[Kid Icarus]

In the end, I went with Kid Icarus because I thought the design was super cute, charming, and very well designed and drawn. (I love the proportions of the feet and the red hair).

I also ended up going with it because I felt that with a name like "Wonder Beaver" taking it in a completely non-sexual direction was a really good decision.

But, the thing that sold it to me completely was that i could see this character in something animated and her costume's legs would make her have to waddle. And that would just kill me.

Great Job, Kid!

--Dazz

Thank you thank you thank you
I wanted her to waddle when I designed the costume
That was one of my primary goals

[Flâneur]

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s201/tylerragan/WonderBeaver.jpg

This was a tricky challenge for me. I did not make any lesbian connection to the character, because the whole “flirtation with a nice girl” just read as experimentation thing to me. The fact that Rosalie picked a beaver to represent her heroic avatar gave me a sense of someone trying to be a little bit absurd in her experimental role as a crime-fighter. I got a feeling of Dan Clowes, with a dash of Chris Ware meets Paul Pope’s Batman Year One Hundred. Wonder Beaver came across very tragic feeling to me, but dangerous at the same time, because Rosalie’s condition makes her buy into this absurd role of a very unusual crime-fighter. I chose to enhance this sense of danger with a baseball bat that she refers to as “Timber”. She also has a chainsaw that doesn’t work (To prevent herself from seriously hurting someone in her one-day role as a crime-fighter) that she carries on her fur-covered moped that she refers to as “The Fur Peddler” (Because a hero needs to get around somehow, and I would imagine her memory condition would restrict her from obtaining a driver’s license).

To me, Rosalie doesn’t have the resources or the time to put together an effective costume for her Wonder Beaver persona. She pretty much only has the night before to pull everything together in the creation of this character and outfit. All the main aspects of the costume are things that she could get her hands on fairly quickly with little modifications. The shirt and pants are you typical cotton long-sleeve shirt and leggings, along with a pair of durable steel-toed work boots. I placed athletic shorts on top of the leggings to reflect the absurd idea of superheroes wearing their underwear over the rest of their outfit. The cape is something pulled together from a fake fur rug, shaped in a oval manner similar to a beaver’s tail. The only work that Rosalie really puts into the costume is found in the sewn-in beaver chest insignia to the shirt, and in the helmet. The helmet is her moped riding helmet, re-painted and designed to look like a beaver’s head. The visor has been cut to look like two large buckteeth, and small ears have been attached to complete the helmet’s design. Accessories include her cell phone and a fanny pack worn behind her to carry other useful crime-fighting knick-knacks.
One of the awesome things about your designs, in both this and the previous round, is that while at first I scroll past and think oh, ok, I then come back and find so many awesome things and I find more and more each time I look. Your stuff is awesome and this time is no exception.

There is a subtle blend of the comic and the tragic here and I feel that you've really blended the idea of Rosalie and that of Wonder Beaver really well - there's no contradiction in this design. Everything works well, the expression on her face, the ordinariness of her weapon, the ordinariness of her body ... this isn't Bruce Wayne with his expensive tech nor is she the muscular buxom beauties that can wade through enemies. She's a person and you've shown that here.
http://www.rearaccount.com/crap/cbrunway/wonderbeaver13.gif

I thought to myself, "out of all the things this girl could trick herself into becoming, why choose a superhero?" I assume that on the day she made the change to hero, she had watched something that glorified the role, something like the old Adam West Batman show. Therefore, I chose to have her outfit share similar campy, sexy attributes with those female designs.

However, I wanted her outfit to look like something she could have modified from what would more-or-less have already been in her closet. Therefore, her top and skirt are cut from a short, blue-and-white, vinyl dress (with excellent bust support), leaving the mid-riff exposed in a "W" for "Wonder" shape. The mask is made from the material removed from the dress, and also mimics the "W" shape. The gloves are brown vinyl, and the beaver-head and teeth are cut from a brown, orange, and white vinyl dress that matched the gloves. As short as this dress is, the teeth provide minimum coverage for what would be the otherwise-exposed bottom of her panties. The cape and tail are made from a men's brown leather trench coat. (Not pictured, the tail is attached to the bottom of the top portion of her dress.) The tail is padded and weighted so that it hangs and swings as she moves. The boots are American military-issue leather combat boots.

Since this character had no previous experience hero-ing around, I wasn't too concerned with practicality, as I doubt the character would have been when constructing it (She seems to want fun, not functional). Also, since she is very much an every-day person that decides to become a hero, I gave her an everyday build, short (maybe 5'3"), and a little chunky.

From the write-up and her condition, I imagine that this character would want to be very outgoing and adventurous, so in her design I really wanted to portray campy, cute, sexy, and a little tough.

Again, this is another one that I'm really happy went with the whole glorification idea (Adam West Batman for the super lolz win) and I also see, perhaps unintended, echoes of Power Girl which is not a bad thing.

You've done a great job with the campness of the Wonder Beaver moniker and integrating it with the tv superhero while still working with Rosalie and the fact that she's an ordinary person (chunky dunky!) and not a battle god. This costume is also fun and it does a great job of showing why Rosalie would want to be a superhero so as to liven up her life. I also have to join the pack in saying that the bucktooth crotch is hilarious.

http://i386.photobucket.com/albums/oo309/mohofrappe/Rosalie.png

Oh, my! This was a challenge in the fullest sense of the word in that I really had to sit down and think about it. Since our creative leashes were tightened this round, I wanted to bring something fresh to Rosalie's design beyond the basic concept that we were all starting from.

To bring that extra kick to my design, I chose to work in an entirely different style than what you'd normally see me do. I thought about the concept's surreal qualities, and how it invoked a sort of indie, self-published book that wouldn't create A-Listers for a huge publishing house. Rosalie's story is a bit bizarre, in a quirky sense, and so I wanted to really bring that out with scratchy lineart over a polished, smooth, and delicate one.

Since she isn't working with a lot of things, the costume needed to be homely and down to earth and I really played off the concept's use of the word "sews". I can do a basic stitch myself, and I imagine Rosalie doesn't retain extensive knowledge and techniques. I tried to really work with basic patterns and obvious stitches that don't show supreme talent and ability. Subtle but crisp layers, as seen on her tailored brassiere, lack the flawless nature of common superhero design tropes but offer natural character to the world of Rosalie. Other, fabric based garments (American Apparel briefs, comfortable three-quartered sleeves, decorative stitching) provide a grounded approach to the superhero form.

At the end of the day, I really wanted the costume to look as if Rosalie could hang up Wonder Beaver in the closet and wake up the next morning to her awesome beaver hat and bucktoothed goggles beside her.

I've always loved your style, there's a smokey elegance about it and it's almost like the pipe dreams of the caterpillar from Alice in Wonderland. This is something that's played well with the idea of Rosalie and Wonder Beaver as it plays up the non-sensical nature of her identity while also bowing to some of the practicalities of the concept - no Ms. Marvel body and a very easy costume made from the items around her with some simplicity. It shows a nice awareness of who and what the character is.

[CBikle]

Wow, these are all really, really good. I'm very impressed.

It was a very tough call, but I voted for End Of Time's, because I liked the post-it idea.

Dean Legion's design was a very, very close second because I liked the disgusted look on the girl's face.

EscapeGoat's was my 3rd choice, just because I liked how the girl looked like a normal person in a stupid costume and I like the blank expression she has.

[Flâneur]

http://ozbot.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341c4e3753ef011168fa49e4970c-800wi
I couldn't help but see a mixture of tragedy and comedy in this tale, so I tried to draw something that would be at first funny, but if you took some time to think about it, you'd start to see the tragedy. So I skewed her a little young and slightly anime-ish, but kept some solid-ness to her form, too, without overdoing it. (My first design sketch had her really plump indeed.) Notice that her outfit is created from things she already had in her closet-- this was something she decided to do before going to bed that evening. It's her pink cotton/lyra sports bra and shorts, a metal-studded black belt, white leather suspenders, and heavy boots. She cut her faux-beaver fur coat to make the collar, fringe her gloves and boots, and create a cape-like skirt with a deliberate wing to one side, to be reminiscent of a tail- cape combination. A mask of spare black material to top it off. Something super-heroish but grounded in reality. Is she ready for this?

I like the expression you've given her, like deanlegion, you've given her a reaction to this notion that's a little bit wtf is this. It's also very much home made, suspenders, belt buckles and a simple facial mask. The anime style also works to portray the humour and campness of the Wonder Beaver name but still having the sad hints of Rosalie. I'm not sure as to whether her body really represents a person in an ordinary world though, as it leans toward the overtly muscular, which for me slightly goes against some of the concept.

http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g55/mrcassandranova/beavcopy-2.jpg
Oh dear lord, haha. Like escapegoat, I keep coming back to your art and finding more that I like and this is just hilarious. It's very much a beaver, it certainly portrays the humour and fun inherent in the name, it shows a person and I love it.
http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j263/eg_marsh/comic%20art/challenge2final.jpg

For this design, I wanted to create something that looked like what most people would think of when they hear the word “superhero.” This meant a tight fitting outfit with high contrast, bright color and a recognizable emblem on the chest. It was also important to make something that could be put together in one day due to Rosalie’s condition.

I started with a simple black spandex body suit, similar to what a dancer might wear. It gives Rosalie the skin tight look that someone in the “real world” associates with superheroes, and the black color provides a strong contrast with the yellow skirt that lies directly on top of it.

The yellow skirt is inspired by the countless number of superheroine costumes that employed a similar look in place of the underwear on the outside look. As mentioned before, the yellow pops when placed in contrast with the black bodysuit underneath. The red belt cinches in the waist of the dress and helps maintain the tight look of the outfit.

A cape was also important as it’s probably the most iconic element of the superhero costume. It’s a simple cloth cape held together at the neck with a button. I went with a slightly faded blue. This completed the primary color scheme and the less intense blue doesn’t distract from the more intense colors of the main outfit.

The yellow sneakers and high socks are meant to mimic the standard superhero boot while looking more “real world” than the usual “molded out of plastic” look of the usual hero footwear. The yellow in the shoes helps to unify the lower legs with the more dominant parts of the outfit.

The mask is a simple black cloth mask, similar to what Robin wore in the1960’s Batman show. On her head is a fuzzy hat with beaver ears. I’ve always loved the hats that Molly wears in Runaways, and a character with an animal inspired name gave me an excuse to do a little tribute to that. It also allowed me to add a “beaver” element without going too over the top.

On her chest is her logo. The “WB” obviously refers to “Wonder Beaver” and the letters and the shapes framing them are based on a beaver’s face.
At first I wanted to slam this because what I saw was Kitty Pryde and O5 Jean Grey but then I realised that you were right about how it connects to Robin and the stuff on television - there's a campness and simplicity here that work well, as well as the home made element.

[Flâneur]

I have to head off so I must finish commenting later but I must say that this is so brilliant, every one of you, and also I love how so many of these pictures aren't just static depictions but they also tell a story using the concept.

[snarkbunny]

First off, I have to say that I'm impressed by everyone's work. There were 6 designs that I kept going back to over and over.

spaghettikiss
It made me smile and it made me sad because I could see how this version of Rosalie could be. It's a really interesting take on the character.

deanlegion
I love the pajama pants and the WTF look on her face. I think I would have preferred seeing the costume on her, though. The cape throws it off for me though.

mthemordant
I really like the way this looks like a costume out of her closet and it's a more serious take on the costume. I do wish there was a stronger reference to the beaver aspect in the costume, though.

Aljira
This is a great design. I like the movie inspiration, and you've struck a really nice balance with the beaver without taking it into the comedy side. I rather like the choice of grey-blue because it's not the perfect colour. It works well with the single evening construction of the costume.


LewMoxinsghost
The starred beaver tail makes me laugh and cringe at the same time. Hilarious and disturbing at the same time.

Kid Icarus
This is another look that I really, really liked. It's simple and fun but looks like something Rosalie could have whipped up in a evening, and I can see.

I ended up voting for Aljira because I think his design is the most versatile and could work in pretty much any sort of story.

[bakla]

I voted for Manon because his outfit looks like something someone would dream up at home as a super-hero (even one named Wonder Beaver), and frankly, the whole ooutfit really looks rather lesbian. But if I could just vote for the one that was my fave, it would be Affinity's: I just LOOOOOoooooOOOoove the languid quality of this drawing! It's so pure, I may have to do a drawing based on it! And that HAT! I lerve me that hat!

[Dazzler]

Thank you thank you thank you
I wanted her to waddle when I designed the costume
That was one of my primary goals

You're welcome, of course! It's brilliant. :)

--Dazz

[Spidey]

I'm having a really hard time choosing one. I keep changing my mind.

[Pól Rua]

For me, it came down to a split decision between escapegoat's entry and Manon's entry.
And Manon's entry reminds me of a girl I used to have a massive crush on.
It ain't exactly scientific, but there you go.

[LewMoxinsghost]

I cannot see this one?????

*sigh*
I corrected the image and would still love to hear what you and everyone who hasn't yet seen it thinks about it,
[img=http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/7507/wonderbeaver.th.gif] (http://img17.imageshack.us/my.php?image=wonderbeaver.gif)
or try
http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/7507/wonderbeaver.gif

Everyone who has seen it and given me feedback- thanks! I hope to respond more in depth later today.

[Affinity]

I voted for Manon because his outfit looks like something someone would dream up at home as a super-hero (even one named Wonder Beaver), and frankly, the whole ooutfit really looks rather lesbian. But if I could just vote for the one that was my fave, it would be Affinity's: I just LOOOOOoooooOOOoove the languid quality of this drawing! It's so pure, I may have to do a drawing based on it! And that HAT! I lerve me that hat!

Lol -- I almost regretted the decision to render it like that, but this is more than enough for me to forget that. Thanks!

[Danny Wall]

Well, if I don't make it through this round, I'll understand. I'll be the first to admit to being a little uninspired, and the WTF expression I gave my character is mimicked by me.

That being said, I probably should have just embraced the concept and went for broke. We're already suspending disbelief enough to buy into the concept, so why not suspend disbelief that she has the sewing skills and materials to made a bona-fide full-blown superhero costume? After all, it worked for Spider-Man in Amazing Fantasy #15.

This makes it hard for me to vote on a design, since (as someone mentioned) it divides pretty easily between those who went all-out on making an actual spandex costume and those that raided Rosalie's closet. It's hard for me to wrap my head around it. It's like voting on a category of "healthy food" but not knowing if I should choose fruits (similar to what I brought to the table) or vegetables. In other words, while I could have a few key words in the challenge to focus on last round, the field is wide open in this one.

So what I will be looking for here is how well you were able to come up with something NEW/Unique to the cliché of superhero costume design in general.

Spaghettikiss:
NEW/Unique: The pelt-like wrap of the head, the "cape" trailing into the beaver tail, the claws on the tip of the W. You went with the overweight hero that I originally thought of, but also embraced the spandex-ness of it at the same time. Nice juxtaposition.
What's Not Working: Everything else seems uninspired, undermining the weight (ahem) of the rest of the design.

Deanlegion:
New/Unique: The well-placed logo/chain, the animal suit really IS an animal suit.
What's Not Working: The pieces are too separate-- it's either one (cape) or the other (animal) with little integration.

Mthem:
New/Unique: Not much, I'm afraid. Nice mixture of texture. Interesting touch on the mask nose.
What's Not Working: Pretty mainstream stuff that would be brilliant in a different context.

Aljira:
New/Unique: The beret/cap and collar funtion as touches of "beaver" but stand up to their own right. This could also have been something in the Detective round last challenge.
What's Not Working: The pouches, boots, and body suit... Nothing really says stand out and take notice.

EndofTime:
New/Unique: Lovely design, nice assymetry, nice two tone hair
What's Not Working: the white shorts look more like panties, making the whole think look unfinished. the boots are fairly standard, and I wish I could see the whole foot

CBrown:
New/Unique: One of the boldest directions here! Sparkly.
What's Not Working: The color combination doesn't work. Also, I'm not comfortable with the whole 14-year old thing.

LewMox:
New/Unique: So many things working here-- Chainsaw, fingerclaws, hair/tail combo, the beaver silhoutte ending with the strategically-placed tail/star.
What's Not Working: The brown/gray is too neutral, athough that can also be a fault of the shading. The tail is too long, but could be a factor of your presentation/design (which is also detracting from seeing the costume in total) Goggles/tennis shoes seem out of place-- for someone embracing the design as a bonafide costume these seem tacked on and detracting

KidIcarus:
New/Unique: This design fits the style to a tee. It would be hard to imagine the costume in any other style. Very stylized/Adult Swim. The curly red hair is great, as is the face mask (which incorporates the teeth well)
What's Not Working: The whole thing is a bit too top-heavy, with all the best design elements on the shoulders or above. Perhaps the same shoulder-elements could work somehow with knee pads or piping. The turntleneck looks unfinshed, like it was supposed to be a scarf but that would be distracting from the tail

GeneM:
New/Unique: nice bold layers, nifty logo. Best use of socks in a superhero costume :) The freckles are a nice touch.
What's Not Working: Again, I don't think skewing so young is a good idea-- whether that was an obvious intention or not, it comes thorugh. The beaver hat is nice but not sure if it's standing out well, makes it look like an afterthought.

Shade101:
New/Unique: The layers of color plus a mixture of lines and dots. Her teeth are actually spaced, solving the "teeth problem" using the person herself. Nice belt.
What's Not Working: This one doesn't read hero as much as sidekick-- so skewing young again. The elements are too mishmashed to have unity and therefore to have seriousness. The top and bottom designs seem almost from two different characters.

Manon:
(This is the body type I was going for but ended up over-rendering and making her look too muscular.)
New/Unique: Going for blue as a secondary color. Purple hair. Keeping both a cape and a tail but making them separate (I guess?) The truly unique placement of the animal's head
What's Not Working: Not sure about the cape/tail combination, so it's both a plus& minus. The boots are keeping things a bit unbalanced, but not terribly so.

Spidey:
New/Unique: Attitude. Piercings, collar. Logo (asymmetry/eyes) cut-off skirt/belt. Once again, socks.
What's Not Working: In this case, the blue is too overpowering. Little reason to choose "beaver," Too kit-bashed to be a costume, but too costumey to be kit-bashed. Sorry that's not too helpful.

Affinity:
New/Unique: The hat/glasses combo is great. Literally wearing underpants over her costume. The striped socks going all the way down to the tips of her toes.
What's Not Working: The style you chose to work in is distracting from the actual costume-- hard to tell if you are distinguishing a texture, form, or contour, especially in the upper torso area. Colors seem muted.Very little flair outside the silhoutte of the form (tails/capes/etc.)

Escapegoat:
New/Unique: The helmet is a great touch, making the baseball bat that much more a "fit," (and it's a nice touch as a natural "weapon" for the most lumberjack of animals.) For me, the way to incorporate "teeth" was a problem I couldn't solve, but you created a great solution.
What's Not Working: The nearly monochromatic color scheme holds you back. The logo is nice but ultimately uninspiring.

Personal Top 5: (in no particular order)
Lew
manon
spaghettikiss
kidicarus
endof time

[Danny Wall]

My hopefully constructive critcism...
Danny Wall
Plus: Nailed it, without nails!
Minus: Tiny little thing… the tail, I think it would have been a stronger beaver visual if the tail had been slightly more stereotypically beaver-like (a flat, grey-brown waffle)

Thanks! I didn't want to go with the stereotypical tail, since I was breaking some stereotypes already. :) Plus, I really didn't envision something like that in her closet.

Danny Wall I think you did a fantastic job of making this feel home made while also making it feel like a costume. LOVE the collar and the suspenders. Very believable as an outfit and as a character within this world.

My original sketches had her quite overweight like your own design, but then I switched to look at what people really wear in Japan. No, it's not the tail, and yes, they wouldn't show that much skin, but this wouldn't be surprising to see in Tokyo.

I like the expression you've given her, like deanlegion, you've given her a reaction to this notion that's a little bit wtf is this. It's also very much home made, suspenders, belt buckles and a simple facial mask. The anime style also works to portray the humour and campness of the Wonder Beaver name but still having the sad hints of Rosalie. I'm not sure as to whether her body really represents a person in an ordinary world though, as it leans toward the overtly muscular, which for me slightly goes against some of the concept.

Yeah, that was a fault of redrawing from memory and not having my initial sketches in front of me. That, and over-rendering during the coloring, too, so she ended up stacked and stocky. She just has a healthy metabolism, i guess!

[Gene M.]

Thanks for the critiques, guys. I really appreciate your feedback.

Escapegoat: Your design is hands down my favorite. I absolutely love it. You have no idea how badly I wanted to vote for it, but I'm kinda getting my ass handed to me this round. Had to go for the self preservation vote. :wink:

[escapegoat]

Escapegoat
Plus: It’s a beaver, and she’s got the hat/mask. It looks like fun. Wearing shorts over the rest of her costume needs to be mentioned as well
Minus: There isn’t anything about this costume that is a minus, but there’s something that doesn’t jive with me personally. I can’t put my finger on it, you’ve got all the elements there, and you’ve rendered it convincingly, but maybe it’s her expression and stance that take a bit away from the POW! Factor. She looks a bit… miserable.

I can understand your point bout the "POW! Factor". In a way, I think she would be misable because in a sense Rosalie doesn't know who she is because in reality she isn't really this crime-fighter, but at the same time is determined to play out the part because that's what her book tells her to do. I wanted the body language to express this dualism. It's kinda the same idea where a liar's body movements and expression will reveal that they're lying (Shaking their head while they're verbally saying "yes").



escapegoatThis screams home made but it also screams that it was thoughtfully and intelligently crafted. The motorcycle helmet is a nice touch as is the cape and the baseball bat. It’s simple and seems like it would actually work as an outfit.


Thanks! :smile:



escapegoat - a perfect homemade beaver superhero design, which ignores the body part reference


I felt it was important that the body part reference be ignored within my design, although some of the other contestants played it out very well in their designs.



One of the awesome things about your designs, in both this and the previous round, is that while at first I scroll past and think oh, ok, I then come back and find so many awesome things and I find more and more each time I look. Your stuff is awesome and this time is no exception.

There is a subtle blend of the comic and the tragic here and I feel that you've really blended the idea of Rosalie and that of Wonder Beaver really well - there's no contradiction in this design. Everything works well, the expression on her face, the ordinariness of her weapon, the ordinariness of her body ... this isn't Bruce Wayne with his expensive tech nor is she the muscular buxom beauties that can wade through enemies. She's a person and you've shown that here.

Many thanks Flâneur. You've put it down perfectly what I tried to achieve with the design. :smile:



Escapegoat:
New/Unique: The helmet is a great touch, making the baseball bat that much more a "fit," (and it's a nice touch as a natural "weapon" for the most lumberjack of animals.) For me, the way to incorporate "teeth" was a problem I couldn't solve, but you created a great solution.
What's Not Working: The nearly monochromatic color scheme holds you back. The logo is nice but ultimately uninspiring.

I understand where you're coming from.The monochromatic color/logo were an actual worrying point for me within the design, but I had to go with the essence of the concept and the inspiration I got from it. And I can understand if this design didn't grab everyone's attention because of these factors.

[escapegoat]

Thanks for the critiques, guys. I really appreciate your feedback.

Escapegoat: Your design is hands down my favorite. I absolutely love it. You have no idea how badly I wanted to vote for it, but I'm kinda getting my ass handed to me this round. Had to go for the self preservation vote. :wink:

Heh...I missed this cause you posted while I was trying to respond to the others.

That said....thanks! I totally understand the need for the self-preservation vote. I had to do that plenty a round in my first year competing here... :wink:

I'd hate to see anyone go this round. It was an interesting challenge. I like the whimsical style in your design. I almost put a Warner Brothers "WB" logo on my design, but wasn't sure if Warner Brothers actually produce shirts with their logos on it. A quick goggle image search brought up nothing on it.

[escapegoat]

A few quick shout-outs as I look at everyone's designs today...


Kid Icarus - Your design makes me smile each time I scroll past it. It's got a very huge wonderful animated feel to it, which is one of your strongest points within your designs.

Affinity - I actually love your hat design better than mine. Very Molly Hayes. I wanted to try that approach, but my inspiration steered me away from it and towards the moped helmet instead...darnit!!!
I would want to buy a hat like that for my daughters. :smile:

Aljira - Second favorite hat. And each time I look at your design, I can't help but admire the gracefulness of the woman in your design. Total opposite to what I did in to mine.

[spaghettikiss]

first off, thanks so much to flaneur to reacting in such detail to all of them like that!!!

Thanks all for all kind words and feedback on mine, I had SO much fun doing it. as for my vote, I was so torn between aljira and escape goat I ended up voting for the one with fewer votes. I know, thats the cheap way out but whatever!!!

[escapegoat]

first off, thanks so much to flaneur to reacting in such detail to all of them like that!!!

Thanks all for all kind words and feedback on mine, I had SO much fun doing it. as for my vote, I was so torn between aljira and escape goat I ended up voting for the one with fewer votes. I know, thats the cheap way out but whatever!!!

Another reason why you should not vote for yourself right away...... :tongue:

Street smarts wins again!!!

On that note, I'm still undecided on who I'll vote for. With 2 of my favorites fighting it out for the top spot, I'll probably wind up using my vote to save someone tomorrow....who you may ask???>>>>TUNE IN TOMORROW TO FIND OUT!!!

DA-DA-DAAAAAAAAAA!!!

*Unless of course everyone else gets more votes than me...then it's every man for himself*

Oh...and thank you very much-o for the vote-o Spagetti-o. Have I ever mentioned that my mom's Spagetti and Meatballs was my favorite meal growing up?

[Danny Wall]

Oh, and have I mentioned how *great* you look today, escapegoat? Have you been working out? Not to be over- flattering or anything.... :rolleyes:

[escapegoat]

Oh, and have I mentioned how *great* you look today, escapegoat? Have you been working out? Not to be over- flattering or anything.... :rolleyes:

No working out, but I have been watching what I eat....

:tongue:


Is it me, or is really quiet here today?

[mattbib]

17 hours of voting left!

[deanlegion]

Well, I voted for myself, hoping to not be cut yet. Best wishes to all!

[crazyredlady]

I can only say that there were some interesting choices...I was torn between Spidey's, and End of Times. I felt a lot of them were good, but it took me years to become the costumer that I am today. I needed to belive that a woman who loses her memory that often could have the mental skills to actually create a costume. In the end, I went with End's, because I saw the critter aspect but I could also tell that someone of low sewing ability could assemble it.

[deanlegion]

Plus: A colourful entry and there’s no denying it says “Wonder Beaver”
or at least “Beaver”.
Minus: Perhaps it’s a bit too easy? It’s a beaver-costume with a really
pink cape. The costume however doesn’t look like she made it herself.


I do tend to keep costume designs simple. I probably should have hung a
mask or helmet on the coathanger, too.



I'm in love with the pajama pants, they're quite quirky. However, I'm not
getting much of a vibe from the rest, it's certainly well drawn but it's
feeling a little token. There's a woman and there's a beaver costume but
I'm not feeling much of Wonder Beaver or Rosalie. I do like, however,
her facial expression, it's a tad wtf, which fits into the whole
rewriting of memory and the costume is definitely more along the lines of
what an impractical person would wear that has no notion of crime
fighting (even though I can't see her making it herself).

Glad you like the pjs. The costume is clearly not sleek, which caused her
facial reaction. Also, there was nothing in the description that indicated
that Rosalie was not an excellent seamstress.



Dean Legion's design was a very, very close second because I liked the
disgusted look on the girl's face.

I figured that this is character design as well as costume design. I felt
that showing her reaction to this weird costume was an important clue as to
who she is, what she's like.



I love the pajama pants and the WTF look on her face. I think I would have
preferred seeing the costume on her, though. The cape throws it off for me
though.

Ultimately, it seems this choice, which I made purposely, might be shooting
me in the foot. During the audition, one of the judges said I take risks
that might or might not pay off.


New/Unique: The well-placed logo/chain, the animal suit really IS an animal
suit.
What's Not Working: The pieces are too separate-- it's either one (cape)
or the other (animal) with little integration.

Can't argue with any of that. I was determined to have her not wear the
suit, so we'll never know how it would have looked on her.

[Flâneur]

Glad you like the pjs. The costume is clearly not sleek, which caused her
facial reaction. Also, there was nothing in the description that indicated
that Rosalie was not an excellent seamstress.
Acknowledged. She could be very good or very bad, depending on how you run with it.

My thought was based more on what she would make that out of within a day. I can see how a number of (but not all) the others would be made but I can't visualise how she'd make this. Perhaps this is because of my own limitations in visualising but I don't know how that's done.

[Manon]

Spaghetti
This is entertaining, I like the dirty looking, used, beaver suit used for the cape and cowl. It's a good illustration, but the real appeal here is the novelty of her obesity, not the design.

Dean
I like the idea that she's repulsed by the idea, and the absurdity of the outfit helps. However, the execution of that idea fell a little flat. (but the idea of a beaver in a shazam cape amuses me.)

M
Solid illustration and good use of her memory aspect in the write-up. However, the design reads as more bat to me than beaver, especially the mask, it reminds me of Wingnut from Ninja Turtles. I could see this being a character in a made-for-FX television show. I think one of your weaknesses is that you tend to approach things too seriously.

Aljira
The helmet turns me off in this one, but overall you have a sleek, unified look. I said it before that I'm a sucker for redheads, so I dig your design. However, I really don't like the Warner Brothers logo batarang-thing. You have one of the better entries here.

End
I like the double-breasted collar and emblems/buttons? a lot, but the rest of the look here just turns me off. Definitely not my cup of tea.

Brown
A fun take on the character, I dig the design, and could see it working on a Disney Toon, Kimpossible type level.

Danny
I really like the skirt/cape except the way it attaches in the back. Looking in the mirror, it shows it attaching to the bottom of her briefs and I think it'd work better as straight across. I really don't dig the anime-look, but I do like the boot design.

Lew
Humorous, but I really don't like the tail. I also think the logo could've been simplified to work better, the intricate beaver on top of the bold star is just too complex and doesn't read well..

Icarus
I like and see it as another that could work in a children's cartoon.

Gene
I don't really dig this one, which is disappointing because yours was my favorite last round. I can't see her believing her diary after seeing this design, it's just a little too pieced-together, and not memorable enough.

Shade
I think you pulled the pieced-together look off a little better. You and Gene were definitely working on the same wavelength on this design.

Spidey
Your design was one of the better ones last round, so I was surprised to dislike yours so much this time. I like the shoes, kneepads, and cut-collar overshirt, but as a whole this just really doesn't appeal to me.

Affinity
I love the design, and don't mind the loose render. However, I would have rather not seen it drawn digitally, the harsh edges on the single-pixel-thick line-art is working against you.

Goat
Absolutely love it, you got my vote. A successful generally monochromatic approach, not done well often, but when it is it shines (like Ted Kord's Blue Beetle outfit.) The small hits of yellow on the low-saturated design really brings everything together, and the helmet's a total win. It also doesn't hurt that I love the real-world look also seen in Pope's Batman.

[deanlegion]

Dean
I like the idea that she's repulsed by the idea, and the absurdity of the outfit helps. However, the execution of that idea fell a little flat. (but the idea of a beaver in a shazam cape amuses me.)

That seems to be the consensus.

[deanlegion]

Acknowledged. She could be very good or very bad, depending on how you run with it.

My thought was based more on what she would make that out of within a day. I can see how a number of (but not all) the others would be made but I can't visualise how she'd make this. Perhaps this is because of my own limitations in visualising but I don't know how that's done.


I figured she woke up and read that she's the Wonder Beaver, so she went to the fabric/craft store and got her supplies and made the animal suit for the Beaver part, then the "Shazam" cape for the Wonder part. I do wish I'd added a cool mask or hat/helmet, I admit. The brass belt could have been made from purchased pieces. I don't think this costume looks any more difficult to execute than anyone elses.

[x_goalkeeper]

I really liked deanlegion's work :cool:

[LewMoxinsghost]

I wanted to respond to the generous feedback I have recieved so here goes....

Lew
Humorous, but I really don't like the tail. I also think the logo could've been simplified to work better, the intricate beaver on top of the bold star is just too complex and doesn't read well..

I think the problem is the pose. It was a conscious decison on my part to put her in this bouncy pose because I wanted to show how the tail could be used to propel her willy nilly through the air. I wanted to include a standing full frontal (heh) pose just to the right of this one, but I just ran out of time. I opted for including the logo in the lettering instead just to make sure that base was covered. What is it exactly about the tail you do not like? I debated on whether to make the hose/frame brown and a little bit narrower, but just liked how this was reminicent of Dr. Octopus arms I guess.

LewMox:
New/Unique: So many things working here-- Chainsaw, fingerclaws, hair/tail combo, the beaver silhoutte ending with the strategically-placed tail/star.
What's Not Working: The brown/gray is too neutral, athough that can also be a fault of the shading. The tail is too long, but could be a factor of your presentation/design (which is also detracting from seeing the costume in total) Goggles/tennis shoes seem out of place-- for someone embracing the design as a bonafide costume these seem tacked on and detracting


Thank you for the vote! I am very honored to have made your top five and to also get the vote. As you can see by the score I needed it! But now the truth about the tail comes out- it is too long. I wanted to exagerrate its length a little bit to show movement, but guess I got carried away. The goggles where the end result of several mask designs that I just couldn't commit too because they seemed too forced. I figure she would have spent most of her time sewing the patches onto the wetsuit and making the tail, so that left just a little bit of time to grab some shoes (which happened to have a star design on the side, by the way) and some old swim goggles and go!

LewMoxinsghost
The starred beaver tail makes me laugh and cringe at the same time. Hilarious and disturbing at the same time.
Thank you! End of time also had the strategically placed star. I have seen that done before in the ads in the backs of Heavy Metal and thought it would be appropriate for this design.
I cannot see this one?????
I would especially love to hear your feedback if you can see it now.
LewMoxingsghost - Whoo Hoo!! Yours is SO much fun! She really embraces her name in every way! She's silly, over the top, and it comes across as fun.
My top choices are spaghetti, Lew, Manon and escapegoat - I don't know who'll get my vote yet, though.
Thanks alot Dean! Coming from you that is a huge compliment. I really see her as being mischievous and that was the inspiration for concentrating on the fun side. She's even mischievious with herself!

LewMoxinsGhost This one is all about the little details for me. The beaver tail hair, the beaver silhouette grabbing her tata’s and the way you designed the tail to look like a functional weapon rule. However…hands down, the idea of the chainsaw rules! What a great way to give her a cool weapon that fits with her kind of non threatening namesake

Michael, thank you very much for your feedback! This makes me feel really confident that I did well with the design, even if I get voted off the island.

Everyone did really well with their designs. I hope to give my feedback on them soon. Thanks again everyone!!

[Danny Wall]

Danny
I really like the skirt/cape except the way it attaches in the back. Looking in the mirror, it shows it attaching to the bottom of her briefs and I think it'd work better as straight across. I really don't dig the anime-look, but I do like the boot design.

Thanks for that. For some reason I killed myself doing the mirror image and now I regret since I think it actually ruins it. The skirt/cape is one of the things I was excited about, but it doesn't end up wrapping around the thighs like my sketches (due to the fur texture IMO) and the edge-the-briefs thing was a last minute addition-- in my mind it went around the back but then I thought I should show off a bit more "tail" in the "end" (ouch, double pun). I should just go with my first instincts.

Anyway, what I really want to say is THANK YOU to everyone who voted for me. I was really upset when I had only 0 votes for what felt like forever, and I really regretted voting for someone else. :) That said, it also sounds like you guys know how the voting is going before you vote. How do you do that? All I see are buttons for voting and after I choose one I can see the results. Am I missing something?

[Flâneur]

I would especially love to hear your feedback if you can see it now.
Oh! Yes!

I love the sense of whimsy in this design and it's something I totally never would have thought of, quite cool. Everything is very ah, strategically placed, haha, whether it be the pink beaver hands on the nipples, the crotch guard (is that a died tampon???) and the spread eagled jump. You definitely managed to capture a sense of Wonder and quite a bit of Beaver (haha!) in your design. I also love how it is, in essence, a very simple costume - I know how to make this - with tights and flats.

I also very much enjoy the fact that she isn't a stereotypical superhero woman either. You could've gone for the Ms. Marvel etc. type but you didn't, you threw a curve ball in the form of what looks to be a middle aged woman, which simply enhances the hilarity of the sexually silly design. You've made her a cougar and a beaver at the same time, lol.

The weapon is also similarly goofy, which fits well with the angle you've run with. I also think the way you've gone with it fits an angle of the amnesiac Rosalie as well - it's a silly name for a fun idea from someone whose life might not make sense.

I've also shown this thread to a couple of friends and I've gotten very positive comments on Affinity's ('a sense of dreamy femininity'), Lex' ('the most hilarious design possible') and Spidey's ('great colour combination and very fitting for the style of drawing')..

[End of Time]

Meanwhile... you still have to vote ;)

[snarkbunny]

Anyway, what I really want to say is THANK YOU to everyone who voted for me. I was really upset when I had only 0 votes for what felt like forever, and I really regretted voting for someone else. :) That said, it also sounds like you guys know how the voting is going before you vote. How do you do that? All I see are buttons for voting and after I choose one I can see the results. Am I missing something?

Before you vote, under the options to the right, you should see a link that says "View Poll Results" and that takes you to the page you see after you vote. It will be under all the voting options.

[Flâneur]

Meanwhile... you still have to vote ;)

Hah, I want to use my vote to save someone because I feel bad about how people found this challenge. I don't want all the people with one vote to be booted at once but I don't know how I could doom the others. :frown:

[red-handed]

oh nice...
there were some I liked and quite a few i didn't....
i wish i had something better to say but seeing as how I have to make a run
i'll just vote instead...

It was a toss up between
Shade101
Dannywall
mthemordant

oh i also like how some used the diary/journal ^_^

[Flâneur]

Hmm, if I bump Spidey up to 2 then I curse Lex (and the other 2s) and I really like his. I don't think I can cast a save vote. :frown:

[LewMoxinsghost]

Hmm, if I bump Spidey up to 2 then I curse Lex (and the other 2s) and I really like his. I don't think I can cast a save vote. :frown:

I gave myself the self preservation vote. (Again.) But even more votes sure would be nice!

I really wanted to help CBrown. I thought his idea of turning her into a 14 year old was brilliant and would make for tons of great awkward drama in her story.

[Flâneur]

I gave myself the self preservation vote. (Again.) But even more votes sure would be nice!

I really wanted to help CBrown. I thought his idea of turning her into a 14 year old was brilliant and would make for tons of great awkward drama in her story.

I feel bad for Spidey. Do we have to eliminate someone? :frown:

[mattbib]

Less than 20 minutes to vote!

[End of Time]

Hmm, if I bump Spidey up to 2 then I curse Lex (and the other 2s) and I really like his. I don't think I can cast a save vote. :frown:

You're not made for Evil.

[LewMoxinsghost]

Less than 20 minutes to vote!

Oh, the drama! :biggrin:

[atoningunifex]

Wow, that was an elimination I really didn't see coming.

[End of Time]

Oh, the drama! :biggrin:

There can never be enough drama!

I swear, we're comicbook fans... shouldn't we be falling over each other plotting and planning the downfall of our competitors? Sticking to the shadows and only, after three issues, reveal ourselves as diabolical masterminds, cackling that we've finally got all the pieces in place?

Or go for cheap Reality TV drama... forging mighty alliances, that are disbanded with the greatest ease and result in everybody accusing everybody else of being fake.

and then one of us, traditionally the biggest A-hole or Biatch, goes to the confession room and says to the camera: "I ain't here to make friends!"

Drama? Honey... drama is getting a bomb scare on ANTM. :biggrin:

[End of Time]

NOOOOOOOOOOO! Spidey!

:frown:

[spaghettikiss]

Oh my goodness!!! This was very unexpected. You were such a long standing contestant last year and for good reason. I am truly sorry to see you go spidey!!!

[escapegoat]

Hmm, if I bump Spidey up to 2 then I curse Lex (and the other 2s) and I really like his. I don't think I can cast a save vote. :frown:

I hear what you mean. I couldn't vote on him, simply cause it woulda created a 4 four tie for las place, and I didn't wanna place MattB in the position of sorting who to eliminate.

Plus, to me, Spidey is serious competition...so voting for him could spell trouble for me down the road depending on how far I make it (Sorry Spidey! :frown: )

Wow, that was an elimination I really didn't see coming.

Ditto. There was a low voter turn-out this round. I think that may have contributed to this.

[deanlegion]

Question - mthemordant has 6 names that voted for him, but only 4 show in the numbers. What does that mean?

As for drama, I thought I was going to be punished for basically telling the writer that I didn't like his concept. Not basically... blatantly.

So, I want to thank Flaneur for being really mature about all this.

I'll go ahead and vow to be a big boy about the upcoming challenges, and not whine about my perceptions.

Whew!

[escapegoat]

Question - mthemordant has 6 names that voted for him, but only 4 show in the numbers. What does that mean?


It means this factor came into play, from the first post by MattB.


NOTE: Only registered CBR members with a posting history may vote. Participants may vote for themselves. However any votes from posters sharing any IP addresses will be discounted, no exceptions. Any fraudulent voting will result in disqualification and a possible permanent forum ban.


Two of those voters had zero posts and had only signed on as a CBR member only a couple of days ago.

[mattbib]

Hello. Welcome to the Runway. As you know, in fashion and in comic books, one day you're in and the next you're out.

Affinity, voters loved your design, even if it wasn't the best fit for the challenge. And you had immunity this challenge. You are in.

Manon, you presented a memoral character that voters loved. You are in.


End of Time, your design was delightful but there were parts some voters just didn't like. You are in.


Aljira, voters thought you nailed it. You are in.

mthemordant, you delivered a very cool costume, but some thought it didn't scream "beaver" enough. You are in.


Gene M., voters thought your character was very accessible. You are in.


escapegoat, your design is thoughtful and intelligent. You are in.


spaghettikiss, your design was amazing, if not morbid. You are in.


deanlegion, your presentation was imaginative, but your design didn't really hit home. You are in.


LewMoxinsghost, voters loved your dynamic and humorous design. You are in.

Kid Icarus, your design looked homemade and voters loved it. It was fitting and fun. Congratulations, you are the winner of this challenge. This means you are immune and cannot be eliminated in the next challenge.


CBrown, voters thought your design was cute, but most thought the youthful character didn't quite fit the concept. You are in.


Danny Wall, voters thought you presented a fantastic homemade design, but it could have been stronger. You are in.


Shade101, your design was vibrant and dynamic, but some thought it lacked identity. You are in.


Spidey, you're one of the strongest illustrators in the competition but your design this challenge just didn't stand out. Voters thought the logo was fun and creative but just not strong enough.


Spidey...you are out. But be sure to submit an entry for the next challenge in the Play Along at Home thread in case one of the remaining finalists fails to submit theirs.


Auf wiedersehen.


See the rest of you on the runway for the second challenge.

[Pro]

Aaw Spidey, too bad, was hoping to see what you'd come up with in other challenges because as Matt said you're one of the strongest illustrators in the challenge. Hope you'll keep up with the Play Along thread.

[Shade101]

OMG...I can't believe I made it to the next round. It is however very unfortunate to see such an amazing talent such as Spidey be eliminated so early in the competition. Me making it to the next round is almost a bittersweet feeling because I'm happy that I made it to the next round, but I'm upset that Spidey had to leave so early. Spidey you are an amazing competitor, and I truly do believe you should have made it through to the end. I actually thought you could have won it this year.

And thank you red-handed for the vote. I'm very grateful!http://forums.comicbookresources.com/images/smilies/original/smile.gif

[Manon]

Manon
Plus: You win!
Minus: I smell like cabbage.

I'm glad you dig it. The cabbage thing is a minus, though. I eat Korean food every Sunday, and can't get rid of the kimchi burps for the entire rest of the day no matter what, so I too feel your cabbage pain.

voted for manon. the skirt won me over. :smile:
My favorites for this round are SpagettiKiss, Kid Icarus, Manon, and Affinity.
Manon should win this round, just based on the sheer wrongness of the beaver head on the costume. :smile:
I just wish I would have thought of Manon's buck-toothed beaver head over the crotch. That's priceless!
It's rad that this went over so well with you guys. Oddly enough, since it was the first thing to pop into my mind, I was concerned about other people thinking of it as well.


Manon Most memorable crotch ever. How you gave her nona teeth in a non threatening way is beyond me…I applaud you sir

Your euphemism humors me. This (http://www.queenofwands.net/d/20040121.html)is somewhat topical.


Manon - this design cracke me up! I think it's perfect for this challenge. It addresses both meanings of the word beaver, the word wonder and superhero.

My top choices are spaghetti, Lew, Manon and escapegoat
I'm surprised by how many people actively addressed the word wonder. I only consciously approached it with the "W" mid-riff.

I voted for Manon because his outfit looks like something someone would dream up at home as a super-hero (even one named Wonder Beaver), and frankly, the whole ooutfit really looks rather lesbian.
I was really surprised to get your vote. I thought that this challenge would bring a flurry of wacky designs, so I went for much more subdued. It looks like it paid off for me. As for the lesbian aspect, I liked how the write-up flirted with the idea but didn't dwell on it. I didn't want to rely on the aspect, but I did want to show her as a very sexually confident, fun person... and the play to the old insult "your mother wears combat boots" was my way of flirting with the idea.

For me, it came down to a split decision between escapegoat's entry and Manon's entry.
And Manon's entry reminds me of a girl I used to have a massive crush on.
It ain't exactly scientific, but there you go.
With thighs like that, who wouldn't crush on the girl?


Manon:
(This is the body type I was going for but ended up over-rendering and making her look too muscular.)
New/Unique: Going for blue as a secondary color. Purple hair. Keeping both a cape and a tail but making them separate (I guess?) The truly unique placement of the animal's head
What's Not Working: Not sure about the cape/tail combination, so it's both a plus& minus. The boots are keeping things a bit unbalanced, but not terribly so.

Yeah, the tail and cape are separate. The tail attaches to the base of her shirt. I wanted the cape to cover where the tail attaches, but I also kept the cape short to try to keep it from competing with the tail. Also, making them the same color I think helps in keeping them from competing with each other as well. As for the boots, they are more complicated than the rest, but I tried to keep the coloring low contrast to keep them from separating from the design. I also chose to give them a cool blue-violet hue so that the hair and the boots would play off each other.


I think the problem is the pose. It was a conscious decison on my part to put her in this bouncy pose because I wanted to show how the tail could be used to propel her willy nilly through the air. I wanted to include a standing full frontal (heh) pose just to the right of this one, but I just ran out of time. I opted for including the logo in the lettering instead just to make sure that base was covered. What is it exactly about the tail you do not like? I debated on whether to make the hose/frame brown and a little bit narrower, but just liked how this was reminicent of Dr. Octopus arms I guess.

The awkwardness of the tail kills it for me. I can't imagine it being functional in the way you described it, and the stiffness it would require for spring-thrusting would keep your character from being able to walk in it. If you illustrated the character in a more cartoon-y fashion, I could suspend disbelief easier, but your generally realistic rendering and the illogical tail mechanics just don't work for me.




Again, this is another one that I'm really happy went with the whole glorification idea (Adam West Batman for the super lolz win) and I also see, perhaps unintended, echoes of Power Girl which is not a bad thing.

You've done a great job with the campness of the Wonder Beaver moniker and integrating it with the tv superhero while still working with Rosalie and the fact that she's an ordinary person (chunky dunky!) and not a battle god. This costume is also fun and it does a great job of showing why Rosalie would want to be a superhero so as to liven up her life. I also have to join the pack in saying that the bucktooth crotch is hilarious.

Getting your vote was the most important to me. I'm glad that I came up with a design that you feel resonates with your write-up.

Flaneur,
I didn't want to post this during voting since we couldn't add to the biography of the character, but I to really get into the groove for designing, I imagined Rosalie throwing away her old diary and leaving a new one with only one entry:

"Rosalie,
This is going to sound strange, but you have to trust me, I'm you... from yesterday. You are a hero, a masked avenger, this town's only beacon... but Dr. Chaos (or other generic villain name) has stricken us with his memory gun, causing you to forget everything from the previous day as you sleep. You'll find our costume in the closet... in the back. Be careful, though Chaos has zapped the entire town, removing you from their memory. Chaos's reach is great and his minions have infiltrated every aspect of our society. Trust no one: senators, police officers, family members, retail clerks... no one.

You must find Chaos and reverse the effects of his ray."

The hijinks following would be priceless.

[Spidey]

Heh, I kinda seen the a tie coming. I didn't think it would have been 4 way though. Either way this is a bittersweet turn of events. I'm not sure I would have had time for future challenges as I've taken on on a few time consuming projects already.

Good luck to all ye contestants.

[Flâneur]

As for drama, I thought I was going to be punished for basically telling the writer that I didn't like his concept. Not basically... blatantly.

So, I want to thank Flaneur for being really mature about all this.

I'll go ahead and vow to be a big boy about the upcoming challenges, and not whine about my perceptions.

Whew!
You're welcome.

I do think you were a bit of a whinger but I very much believe in the Death of the Author (and Artist, for that matter) so I wasn't going to take it personally. We all react how we react and it's the work, not the person, that's being discussed.


Getting your vote was the most important to me. I'm glad that I came up with a design that you feel resonates with your write-up.

Flaneur,
I didn't want to post this during voting since we couldn't add to the biography of the character, but I to really get into the groove for designing, I imagined Rosalie throwing away her old diary and leaving a new one with only one entry:

"Rosalie,
This is going to sound strange, but you have to trust me, I'm you... from yesterday. You are a hero, a masked avenger, this town's only beacon... but Dr. Chaos (or other generic villain name) has stricken us with his memory gun, causing you to forget everything from the previous day as you sleep. You'll find our costume in the closet... in the back. Be careful, though Chaos has zapped the entire town, removing you from their memory. Chaos's reach is great and his minions have infiltrated every aspect of our society. Trust no one: senators, police officers, family members, retail clerks... no one.

You must find Chaos and reverse the effects of his ray."

The hijinks following would be priceless.

I felt your design worked really well - it covered a lot of the bases I was thinking of in ways that I didn't consider plus I just flat out liked it. The other ones that particularly stood out to me were mordant's, Lex', Affinity's, escapegoat's and KI's and all for very different reasons but in the end I felt like I had to go with you.

I also think it's really cool that you felt you could run with the concept like that and it pleases me that you've found a way to get into the groove of the idea, so to speak.

[deanlegion]

It means this factor came into play, from the first post by MattB.



Two of those voters had zero posts and had only signed on as a CBR member only a couple of days ago.

Thanks! I forgot about that.

[spaghettikiss]

Your euphemism humors me. This (http://www.queenofwands.net/d/20040121.html)is somewhat topical.


AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, I have to memorize that adn sing it in the streets of baltimore!!!!