Overzealous Conceptualization (Patreon)

Note: I have conveyed this message to many commissioners and winners of the mOnthly contests over the past year. I feel that I've done this enough to warrant explaining to everyone about this concern with some of the expansion concepts being submitted/winning.

When people write their concept for commissions or mOnthly cOntests, not everyone can “see” how there might be problems with what they have written. Sometimes, too many huge sizes results in (no offense) what I call "overzealous conceptualization.” This means going really big and having specific poses and concepts, but not realizing that drawing your words as written would be very difficult (if not impossible) because the sizes that you chose cause other parts of your idea to be covered up.

     In our minds, we can conceive of a person being like this (huge boobs, large butts, crazy tall, thick thighs, huge vag). However, if you have to take just ONE PHOTO of them, you will not be able to see all that you describe, since body parts this big, on a normal body, are going to cover other body parts. Imagine gluing 2 basketballs, a football, 2 softballs to a normal cucumber (the body). It would be very difficult to discern and get a view of everything at once (in a single image without rotating the figure).

     Don’t worry, this happens often enough. In one of my grOw/stOries, I had to go back to the original author to have a part of the story rewritten. While it had sounded great in text, it couldn’t be drawn from “one camera view”. In text, when describing something like these concepts, there is almost no “ONE camera view” that can show it all; but, you can describe a character in full 360° “view” in text (and then, subsequently, in your mind). In my cOmics and cinema, we can see bodies like this because of the multiple frames from different angles gives us a "full view" in our minds — which a single image will not.

Example:

Say the concept was “the woman had size 14 breasts, 12 ass, and a huge, swollen vag!” Well, size 14 breasts almost reach her ankles and are very wide. This alone would block 90% of her body from the front (and totally covering her ass and p*ssy).     

      So, we turn the character to a three-quarter view (halfway between front and side). We now see part of her butt sticking out, but only a bit, and still no kitty.

    So, now we turn the character so you see her from the rear. We can bend her over slightly so that we can view both her ass and crotch. But now we can’t see her face or nipples! (We can see the huge curves of breast, however.)

    Back to the drawing board… her head is turned around to “look at the camera”, but it’s a strain, and over her shoulder. Maybe we turn a breast, since it’s so big, just a bit so we see a bit of nipple poking out from the massive curve.

We are now “forcing” the image to fit the narrative (that may never be attainable as described). The image becomes awkward and not natural (well, as natural as these sizes can be).

“But, BA,” you might say, “you draw bodies like this all the time in your cOmics and cinema!” Yes, I do! As mentioned above, I have MANY frames to cover all views of these pneumatic characters. You rarely see the entire character (their parts usually sticking out of frame). And when you do see the whole character, it’s one of those “demonstrative” shot that is not very dynamic, but gives the audience a quick feel for their entire body before going back into action.

As a side note: having body parts going off-screen is actually a GREAT technique to convey size. Visually, it says, “this is too big to fit in the camera,” which activates the mind of the viewer to fill in the missing pieces. It engages them to use their imagination and visualize the image beyond what the canvas delivers.

So, when you think of an idea for the monthly contests, try NOT to make everything as big as possible to gain votes. It’s just going to make the image less interesting. You can do this to one particular body part, or, add a second expansion part if you visualize that it could be seen.

   Previous winning images have had their concepts (sizes/poses) downplayed a bit here and there in order to get it to work. I’ve also started some mOnthly grOw illustrations only to stop and drop the idea because it was not feasible (or, it just wound up as a pair of boobs with a head and no real concept). I dropped one idea that I had chosen a few months ago, and one today for February's MGI.

This is why I use a 3D modeling program to pose some figures, all with their body parts as big as described, because it’s a lot quicker and easier to figure out if any camera angle will work or not.

I hope this post will help you create more interesting concepts for me to draw! I’m not saying you cannot have a concept with multiple expanded body parts. Just keep their sizes in mind and how much the body parts cover the rest of the character when describing your story. AND, if you know your character is huge, but have a specific pose or camera angle that you are willing to use in order to convey your idea, let me know. (Example: if you know she has boobs-20 and ass-14, then you can write, "We see her from behind, as she looks over her shoulder and smiles at the camera," or something similar.) Thanks!

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