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Description

I’m on a roll with these uploads! I scanned a bunch of my drawings yesterday morning haha

Anyway, here’s my reference drawing for SS Normandie, featuring a closeup sketch of her eye and nose as well as a quick summary of what the back of her dress looks like. Please pretend her hands look normal. Thanks

Design Notes:

-Both the shape of her hair and the cut of her dress are meant to evoke the weird melty shape of her smokestacks. That’s one of her most notable features in my mind (and also like my least favorite tbh), so I represented it here. The cut of her dress also matches with that of Queen Mary 2, as QM2’s appearance is inspired by Normandie in some ways and there’s also a picture of Normandie before her launch where she looks strikingly similar to QM2, albeit with fewer upper decks.

-Her dress features a great deal of gold, as that’s the color I associate with Normandie and her art deco/moderne aesthetics. Originally it only had the solid flame pattern on the bottom with everything else in black, but I felt that wasn’t elaborate enough and added the additional patterns so as to make her outfit more over-the-top. Combined with the strings of pearls, the weird topgraphic line pattern really makes her dress look busy and loud, which is exactly what I was going for (Normandie’s interiors were so ornate that some passengers complained of migraines, hence her headache-inducing clothes as a human). I plan to revise the patterns in the future, though, as they look a bit sloppy at the moment.

-Her red-and-black hair and deep red eyes aren’t related to those of the Cunard and White Star ships; rather, they’re sort of a standalone thing, as the French Line ships don’t have counterparts from other lines the way others do. The red comes from their funnel livery rather than their hull colors the way many other ships’ color schemes do, further setting them apart. French liners have red and/or black hair - unlike others, they’re more likely to have one or the other rather than a combination, and their eyes come in varying shades of red and blue. In Normandie’s case, her eyes are a very dark red that becomes more vibrant and beautiful in the light. Originally I planned to make them a deep sapphire blue, but ultimately I went with red to tie in with her fire motif; Ile de France and France/Norway/Blue Lady will have blue eyes instead, while France (1910) will have red like Normandie.

-Her shoes are inspired by G1 Monster High shoe designs! I made the heels look like melting wax partially to evoke candles for her fire theme and partially as another reference to how I think her smokestacks look like they’re melting (hey, I may not like that look, but it sure lends itself well to character design!).

Personality:

Normandie’s personality is just as grand and high-class as her elaborate interiors and undying popularity would suggest. She’s a proud, confident ship, and if asked she won’t hesitate to identify herself as the greatest liner to ever sail, barring possibly Aquitania, who she genuinely admires. The only thing that can shake her confidence is the name Lafayette; her attempted conversion into a troopship made her question her own greatness, and although she’s largely recovered she still harbors a great deal of distress and heartbreak over that forced change of identity. It almost broke her, but now that she no longer has to be Lafayette her confidence and grand self-image have returned.

Her confidence, however, is also her greatest flaw: she’s haughty and snobbish, with a superiority complex to rival a Greek god, and this high-and-mighty attitude tends to drive others away. She’s especially obnoxious when it comes to the French language: her belief that all French things are innately superior does not extend to the language’s Canadian dialects, which she believes are little more than a crude mockery. Her rude, stuck-up behavior means she has few genuine friends, and although she herself doesn’t realize it she is in fact incredibly lonely. She takes her isolation as a sign that she’s simply too good for others to associate with her, but deep beneath all the glitter and attitude problems is a lonely young ship with a good heart.

As a human, Normandie has developed an interesting trait: pyromania. Her death as a result of an uncontrolled fire was brutal and agonizing, but she’s come to love fire, for as long as she can keep it under control she feels like she has conquered the source of her pain. It no longer has power over her, as she’s no longer afraid of it and is, in fact, the one in control. Besides, the flames are beautiful despite the danger they can pose, and they are of course warm as well, which is quite nice given that Normandie’s last memories as a ship were of capsizing and dying, painfully slowly, in the icy Hudson River.

Normandie may not be my favorite ship, but that doesn't make her any less valuable or interesting! Between her palatial interiors and fiery demise, it's no wonder she's captured so many hearts.

A True Monarch of the Seas
SS Normandie - The Greatest Ocean Liner?
SS Normandie Fire

Description

I’m on a roll with these uploads! I scanned a bunch of my drawings yesterday morning haha

Anyway, here’s my reference drawing for SS Normandie, featuring a closeup sketch of her eye and nose as well as a quick summary of what the back of her dress looks like. Please pretend her hands look normal. Thanks

Design Notes:

-Both the shape of her hair and the cut of her dress are meant to evoke the weird melty shape of her smokestacks. That’s one of her most notable features in my mind (and also like my least favorite tbh), so I represented it here. The cut of her dress also matches with that of Queen Mary 2, as QM2’s appearance is inspired by Normandie in some ways and there’s also a picture of Normandie before her launch where she looks strikingly similar to QM2, albeit with fewer upper decks.

-Her dress features a great deal of gold, as that’s the color I associate with Normandie and her art deco/moderne aesthetics. Originally it only had the solid flame pattern on the bottom with everything else in black, but I felt that wasn’t elaborate enough and added the additional patterns so as to make her outfit more over-the-top. Combined with the strings of pearls, the weird topgraphic line pattern really makes her dress look busy and loud, which is exactly what I was going for (Normandie’s interiors were so ornate that some passengers complained of migraines, hence her headache-inducing clothes as a human). I plan to revise the patterns in the future, though, as they look a bit sloppy at the moment.

-Her red-and-black hair and deep red eyes aren’t related to those of the Cunard and White Star ships; rather, they’re sort of a standalone thing, as the French Line ships don’t have counterparts from other lines the way others do. The red comes from their funnel livery rather than their hull colors the way many other ships’ color schemes do, further setting them apart. French liners have red and/or black hair - unlike others, they’re more likely to have one or the other rather than a combination, and their eyes come in varying shades of red and blue. In Normandie’s case, her eyes are a very dark red that becomes more vibrant and beautiful in the light. Originally I planned to make them a deep sapphire blue, but ultimately I went with red to tie in with her fire motif; Ile de France and France/Norway/Blue Lady will have blue eyes instead, while France (1910) will have red like Normandie.

-Her shoes are inspired by G1 Monster High shoe designs! I made the heels look like melting wax partially to evoke candles for her fire theme and partially as another reference to how I think her smokestacks look like they’re melting (hey, I may not like that look, but it sure lends itself well to character design!).

Personality:

Normandie’s personality is just as grand and high-class as her elaborate interiors and undying popularity would suggest. She’s a proud, confident ship, and if asked she won’t hesitate to identify herself as the greatest liner to ever sail, barring possibly Aquitania, who she genuinely admires. The only thing that can shake her confidence is the name Lafayette; her attempted conversion into a troopship made her question her own greatness, and although she’s largely recovered she still harbors a great deal of distress and heartbreak over that forced change of identity. It almost broke her, but now that she no longer has to be Lafayette her confidence and grand self-image have returned.

Her confidence, however, is also her greatest flaw: she’s haughty and snobbish, with a superiority complex to rival a Greek god, and this high-and-mighty attitude tends to drive others away. She’s especially obnoxious when it comes to the French language: her belief that all French things are innately superior does not extend to the language’s Canadian dialects, which she believes are little more than a crude mockery. Her rude, stuck-up behavior means she has few genuine friends, and although she herself doesn’t realize it she is in fact incredibly lonely. She takes her isolation as a sign that she’s simply too good for others to associate with her, but deep beneath all the glitter and attitude problems is a lonely young ship with a good heart.

As a human, Normandie has developed an interesting trait: pyromania. Her death as a result of an uncontrolled fire was brutal and agonizing, but she’s come to love fire, for as long as she can keep it under control she feels like she has conquered the source of her pain. It no longer has power over her, as she’s no longer afraid of it and is, in fact, the one in control. Besides, the flames are beautiful despite the danger they can pose, and they are of course warm as well, which is quite nice given that Normandie’s last memories as a ship were of capsizing and dying, painfully slowly, in the icy Hudson River.

Normandie may not be my favorite ship, but that doesn't make her any less valuable or interesting! Between her palatial interiors and fiery demise, it's no wonder she's captured so many hearts.

A True Monarch of the Seas
SS Normandie - The Greatest Ocean Liner?
SS Normandie Fire