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Description
For Top 6 Round: Princess/Formal Dress

I finished it! Here's the full one:

"Official" Writeup

Long ago, the planetoids beyond Neptune held a secret that many did not want to acknowledge: human and human-like creatures were not the only sentient life in the universe, and the exceptions are not all cute cats and crows. Partly through their own development of life, and partly because of the banishment of the more monstrous species, very few humanoids actually lived there. The senshi of those planets, tasked with keeping the more malevolent under control, were the exception, their sailor crystals allowing them easy changes between their natural form and their human senshi form (similar to Luna and Artemis, Phobos and Deimos having human forms). Haumea, with her support abilities and unity-focused mothering nature (as well being from a very prolific species of shapeshifters) found her place among her team members acting as a secretary of state between the senshi and the inhabitants of the planets. She was not a ruler, as much as she was a head ambassador, keeping the numerous races from annihilating each other and from turning on the senshi, who were often seen as prison guards. She often took the form of those she talked to in order to generate more good will.

Due to the lack of humans on said planetoids, Haumea had little reason to take what would be considered a human princess form until later in that life (her human-like senshi form was quite enough). Thanks to the Chaos-assisted meddling of former teammate and Senshi of Discord, Sailor Eris, many of the inhabitants of the dwarf planets ultimately did turn on the other senshi. Her teammates were killed, and a very weak (and heavily pregnant) Haumea did the only thing she could think of - abandoned her planet with her family and fled into the Sol system. She fled to Earth, thinking that its political isolation from the Silver Millennium would protect her, and, knowing it as a human-inhabited planet, took a permanent human form and helping her children to mimick their own.

She came to Earth in the middle of the Pacific, in the midst of a newly arrived group of Polynesians who took her and her children for gods and goddesses. Haumea did not object to this, seeing it as a far more peaceful existence than to what she was accustomed, and she would use her healing abilities to help the Islands' new inhabitants survive.

She continued this way until she was found and killed by Chaos, whom the natives called Kaulu, recently come to Earth as Metallia.

End Writeup

ART NOTES
And there are a lot of them.

Okay, this is actually an intermediate upload because I couldn't finish the thing. In the three weeks between now and the last round, I got a job, got a nasty stomach bug that took me out before I started work, went out of town two weekends in a row, and suddenly had to adjust to a full-time job in my schedule. I actually have a bit more to the background than what you see - specifically that of the south shore of O'ahu and Haumea getting spotted by some folks on catamarans, sailing to the island. I decided that in order to get this done on time, I had to leave it out and just finish the rest, since I could crop that part out. I'll finish it and upload it when judging for this round is over.

Art wise? Hoo-boy. The idea - I always had been a little dissatisfied with my composition of my previous princess form Haumea pic, not to mention that her past life developed a lot more, so I wanted to redo it.

Let's start with the stylistic influences. Decided to go more realistic in my drawing style, taking a lot of notes from classic fine-art (specifically Rubens). I wanted to have something very goddess like that allowed me to play the big and beautiful side of Haumea that also looked very fantasy and shoujo. The coloring is intended to be evocative of the sunset, and if I had the footer, you could see my insanity, as I actually made the lighting coming more from the southwest as it would be in the winter (and the waves on the south shore of O'ahu are pretty flat then). You can also see evidence that I went to the SFMOMA recently: they have an exhibit with a lot of Matisse work there currently, and I was inspired by the use of soooo many different colors in shading that I decided to try something similar. The style also gave me a reason to use a looser style, which I really needed given my time constraints.

Design-wise? Haumea's dress was intended to be something very flowy (it IS a Sailor Moon princess dress after all), almost ethereal, that allowed for pregnant belly focus and still very womanly (the cleavage exposure, all the fabric gathered on the hips).

The shapeshifting species thing came pretty much entirely from myth. Just about all of them have very explicit shapeshifting abilities in mythology, and I wanted to have a way to keep that.

The whole Hawaii aspect was tied in with the leis and color choices. I have always envisioned Haumea and her kids as associated with 7 of the 8 major islands (Kaho'olawe's the only remaining, and it's the smallest of the 8 and uninhabited), and they have been given leis and colors to reflect that. Where possible, I chose islands that were specifically associated with the god/goddess in myth in what I've been able to find, and the others were picked because of color and lei appropriateness to their character. It also worked out that, with exception of Haumea in the middle, the islands from east to west more or less correspond with ages, which also corresponds with ages of the islands. Hi'iaka, who's Maui, is younger than Pele, Hawai'i/Big Island, but other than that, it's a good match.

--------

Island order, east to west.

The eldest, Namaka - Ni'ihau - island color of blue, pupu shell lei. The blue color and pupu shell lei works well with her ocean association.

The second, Kapo - Kaua'i - island color purple, Mokihana lei, some small purple flowers to tie into the colors (can't remember the name of them), ti leaf tips tied in; the ti leafs reference Kapo's myth which will show up in a later round. Purple seemed a good tie in with shadow powers, and Kauai being "the garden isle" is pretty fitting for a fertility goddess.

Haumea - O'ahu - color of yellow and 'ilima flower lei. 'Ilima leis are the VIP leis, identifying her as the mother. Also, yellow is one of the colors of the ali'i. What I could find in myth, Haumea resided on O'ahu. Also, its title is "The Gathering Place" which is pretty much perfect for Haumea in all ways.

The eldest of the twins, Milohai - Moloka'i - island color of green, kukui lei. This was pretty much a color one; green works with his land association, and he's the calmer of the twins.

Shark boy (which I haven't drawn him as yet), Ka-Moho - Lana'i - island color of orange, kauna'oa lei. In a Ka-Moho-ali'i myth, he is said to swim in the waters near Maui, Lanai, and Kaho'olawe, directing lost sailors home. I picked him as Lana'i (as opposed to Maui or Kaho'olawe) because orange works with his outgoing personality, Maui's lei is *super* feminine (not to mention the color is PINK), and Kaho'olawe seemed the most obvious island choice to leave out.

The baby (unborn in this pic), Hi'iaka - Maui, color pink and island flower pink lokelani. I see Hi'iaka as the girliest of the bunch, partly being the baby, so pink works for her. Also, it's the closest island to the big island, Pele's realm, and the two are pretty closely associated.

The famous one, Pele - Hawai'i (aka the Big Island), color red and flower Lehua. She's a volcano goddess who's said to currently live in Kilauea. NOT making her the Big Island would be a travesty.

------

You know, I always found it funny that only 3 of the 8 islands (O'ahu, Maui, and the Big Island) have actual FLOWERS for their island flower. I guess Moloka'i kinda counts, since there are tiny kukui nut blossoms that leis can be made from. I do know that in our lei day programs in elementary, whoever was Moloka'i on the lei day court would just have a kukui nut lei.

Prismacolor and Verithin pencil on 24x36 Bristol board, some soft pastel, prismacolor and copic marker, photoshop touch-ups.

Hey, look, the old version:

Description
For Top 6 Round: Princess/Formal Dress

I finished it! Here's the full one:

"Official" Writeup

Long ago, the planetoids beyond Neptune held a secret that many did not want to acknowledge: human and human-like creatures were not the only sentient life in the universe, and the exceptions are not all cute cats and crows. Partly through their own development of life, and partly because of the banishment of the more monstrous species, very few humanoids actually lived there. The senshi of those planets, tasked with keeping the more malevolent under control, were the exception, their sailor crystals allowing them easy changes between their natural form and their human senshi form (similar to Luna and Artemis, Phobos and Deimos having human forms). Haumea, with her support abilities and unity-focused mothering nature (as well being from a very prolific species of shapeshifters) found her place among her team members acting as a secretary of state between the senshi and the inhabitants of the planets. She was not a ruler, as much as she was a head ambassador, keeping the numerous races from annihilating each other and from turning on the senshi, who were often seen as prison guards. She often took the form of those she talked to in order to generate more good will.

Due to the lack of humans on said planetoids, Haumea had little reason to take what would be considered a human princess form until later in that life (her human-like senshi form was quite enough). Thanks to the Chaos-assisted meddling of former teammate and Senshi of Discord, Sailor Eris, many of the inhabitants of the dwarf planets ultimately did turn on the other senshi. Her teammates were killed, and a very weak (and heavily pregnant) Haumea did the only thing she could think of - abandoned her planet with her family and fled into the Sol system. She fled to Earth, thinking that its political isolation from the Silver Millennium would protect her, and, knowing it as a human-inhabited planet, took a permanent human form and helping her children to mimick their own.

She came to Earth in the middle of the Pacific, in the midst of a newly arrived group of Polynesians who took her and her children for gods and goddesses. Haumea did not object to this, seeing it as a far more peaceful existence than to what she was accustomed, and she would use her healing abilities to help the Islands' new inhabitants survive.

She continued this way until she was found and killed by Chaos, whom the natives called Kaulu, recently come to Earth as Metallia.

End Writeup

ART NOTES
And there are a lot of them.

Okay, this is actually an intermediate upload because I couldn't finish the thing. In the three weeks between now and the last round, I got a job, got a nasty stomach bug that took me out before I started work, went out of town two weekends in a row, and suddenly had to adjust to a full-time job in my schedule. I actually have a bit more to the background than what you see - specifically that of the south shore of O'ahu and Haumea getting spotted by some folks on catamarans, sailing to the island. I decided that in order to get this done on time, I had to leave it out and just finish the rest, since I could crop that part out. I'll finish it and upload it when judging for this round is over.

Art wise? Hoo-boy. The idea - I always had been a little dissatisfied with my composition of my previous princess form Haumea pic, not to mention that her past life developed a lot more, so I wanted to redo it.

Let's start with the stylistic influences. Decided to go more realistic in my drawing style, taking a lot of notes from classic fine-art (specifically Rubens). I wanted to have something very goddess like that allowed me to play the big and beautiful side of Haumea that also looked very fantasy and shoujo. The coloring is intended to be evocative of the sunset, and if I had the footer, you could see my insanity, as I actually made the lighting coming more from the southwest as it would be in the winter (and the waves on the south shore of O'ahu are pretty flat then). You can also see evidence that I went to the SFMOMA recently: they have an exhibit with a lot of Matisse work there currently, and I was inspired by the use of soooo many different colors in shading that I decided to try something similar. The style also gave me a reason to use a looser style, which I really needed given my time constraints.

Design-wise? Haumea's dress was intended to be something very flowy (it IS a Sailor Moon princess dress after all), almost ethereal, that allowed for pregnant belly focus and still very womanly (the cleavage exposure, all the fabric gathered on the hips).

The shapeshifting species thing came pretty much entirely from myth. Just about all of them have very explicit shapeshifting abilities in mythology, and I wanted to have a way to keep that.

The whole Hawaii aspect was tied in with the leis and color choices. I have always envisioned Haumea and her kids as associated with 7 of the 8 major islands (Kaho'olawe's the only remaining, and it's the smallest of the 8 and uninhabited), and they have been given leis and colors to reflect that. Where possible, I chose islands that were specifically associated with the god/goddess in myth in what I've been able to find, and the others were picked because of color and lei appropriateness to their character. It also worked out that, with exception of Haumea in the middle, the islands from east to west more or less correspond with ages, which also corresponds with ages of the islands. Hi'iaka, who's Maui, is younger than Pele, Hawai'i/Big Island, but other than that, it's a good match.

--------

Island order, east to west.

The eldest, Namaka - Ni'ihau - island color of blue, pupu shell lei. The blue color and pupu shell lei works well with her ocean association.

The second, Kapo - Kaua'i - island color purple, Mokihana lei, some small purple flowers to tie into the colors (can't remember the name of them), ti leaf tips tied in; the ti leafs reference Kapo's myth which will show up in a later round. Purple seemed a good tie in with shadow powers, and Kauai being "the garden isle" is pretty fitting for a fertility goddess.

Haumea - O'ahu - color of yellow and 'ilima flower lei. 'Ilima leis are the VIP leis, identifying her as the mother. Also, yellow is one of the colors of the ali'i. What I could find in myth, Haumea resided on O'ahu. Also, its title is "The Gathering Place" which is pretty much perfect for Haumea in all ways.

The eldest of the twins, Milohai - Moloka'i - island color of green, kukui lei. This was pretty much a color one; green works with his land association, and he's the calmer of the twins.

Shark boy (which I haven't drawn him as yet), Ka-Moho - Lana'i - island color of orange, kauna'oa lei. In a Ka-Moho-ali'i myth, he is said to swim in the waters near Maui, Lanai, and Kaho'olawe, directing lost sailors home. I picked him as Lana'i (as opposed to Maui or Kaho'olawe) because orange works with his outgoing personality, Maui's lei is *super* feminine (not to mention the color is PINK), and Kaho'olawe seemed the most obvious island choice to leave out.

The baby (unborn in this pic), Hi'iaka - Maui, color pink and island flower pink lokelani. I see Hi'iaka as the girliest of the bunch, partly being the baby, so pink works for her. Also, it's the closest island to the big island, Pele's realm, and the two are pretty closely associated.

The famous one, Pele - Hawai'i (aka the Big Island), color red and flower Lehua. She's a volcano goddess who's said to currently live in Kilauea. NOT making her the Big Island would be a travesty.

------

You know, I always found it funny that only 3 of the 8 islands (O'ahu, Maui, and the Big Island) have actual FLOWERS for their island flower. I guess Moloka'i kinda counts, since there are tiny kukui nut blossoms that leis can be made from. I do know that in our lei day programs in elementary, whoever was Moloka'i on the lei day court would just have a kukui nut lei.

Prismacolor and Verithin pencil on 24x36 Bristol board, some soft pastel, prismacolor and copic marker, photoshop touch-ups.

Hey, look, the old version: