Lori 2011 – Iconic pose/Ghost in the Kon

So after a long year hiatus, I’m posting again.

Lots of things have happened over the past year (moved in with my girl, grandmother having a stroke, etc.. ) but I think I’m getting back into a routine where I’m finding my marks. So I’ll try to keep the art and post count going.

Following the yearly tradition, and with EirtaKon gearing up for another outstanding opus, you’ll find below this year’s art for Lori, the convention’s mascot.

She underwent a design overhaul.

Some might think it’s a bit risky and they might be right. However, as the Kon evolves so must its mascot.

 

I initially explored the idea of an evil twin. Cliché and overdone but I wanted to give Lora a more gothic look.

But this just wasn’t going to fly. Yet.

Depending on how EirtaKon evolves, we might explore this avenue later.

This year, Mark explained to me that the committee was looking for something iconic. We settled on the cover from the Ghost In The Shell manga Volume 1.

Now I just had to figure out how to redesign Lori. I went through many different iteration of the character, exploring the idea of new haircuts, body proportions, etc… In the end I realised that I couldn’t completely change her. People identify Lori to EirtaKon because of 2 elements: the colour palette and her crazy puffy hair. This needed to be left untouched. So I tweaked the body proportion mostly and her look.

 

 

After doing this sketch I realised that this was the direction I wanted follow, in terms of proportion and look. It just felt right.

Eventually, combining everything, the final piece turned out pretty ok.

Looking back, I would want to make the EirtaKon logo better. Refine it to have it closer to Masamune Shirow’s style in the manga in terms of effects. But it’s done now and I’m quite happy with the result. I hope the Kon-goers will be too…